Alliance honors schools for unity

The efforts of local educators and students to achieve understanding and acceptance of diversity in schools were recognized by the Alliance for Unity Sunday with 12 cash prizes.

The Alliance, a group of community leaders desiring good relations between diverse communities, gave Butler Middle School in Cottonwood Heights $10,000 for fostering an environment in which students who are marginalized were sought out and included.

Center City School, a charter secondary school in Salt Lake City was also given $10,000 for preserving school cohesiveness despite cultural, religious and philosophical differences, said Alliance director Alexander Morrison in a written statement.

Individuals honored with $5,000 prizes include Deon Bettilyon, PTA president at Beacon Heights Elementary for resolving problems with a controversial busing program and Martha Ball for teaching about rights, responsibility and respect in public schools.

Teachers Maria Requena and Terra Barnes were honored with two of six $2,000 prizes for their work in bilingual classrooms. Requena helped her first graders develop mutual trust and respect despite language barriers. Barnes was a volunteer English teacher to Latino students.

Other recipients were Chris Mockli and Mary-Kaye Herbert for their after-school program "Circle of Friends" which seeks to prevent students at Kearns High School from failing. The club aims to narrow the achievement gap for low-income students.

Lilian Parashonts received an award for outreach programs with American Indians and for teaching about Indian culture in her second-grade classroom.

Dorothy Dobson was recognized for her unique teaching at Logan's Edith Bowen Laboratory School about the ramifications of discrimination, persecution and civil rights to fifth graders.

Students Carson Comeau and Neko Papez of Park City High School and Selina Gorst at Highland High School were given $500 each for community service performed for diverse communities.

Comeau's service required an immersion into another culture and Papez tutored Latino students and assisted disabled children and adults. Gorst worked with the YWCA, the Human Rights Resource Center and the Gay and Lesbian Community Center.

Members of the Alliance for Unity include Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of Seventy, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson and businessmen Spencer Eccles and Jon Huntsman.