Palm Desert High School students earned top honors in the No Tolerance for Intolerance poetry contest, hosted by the Jewish Federation of the Desert. The competition was open to high school students from all three Coachella Valley school districts, as well as private and parochial schools. Of all the submissions received, only three winners were selected for the high school division and all three winners were students from the same classroom. English teacher Gary Wise proudly announced that his students earned first, second, and third place, demonstrating exceptional writing skills and thoughtful insight into the contest’s theme.

The winning students are:

• Ruth M. (11th Grade, pictured) – First Place, $300 prize
• Micky T. (12th Grade) – Second Place, $200 prize
• Isabella G. (11th Grade) – Third Place, $100 prize

Mr. Wise says his students put a great deal of work into these, using a DSUSD-created visual resource as inspiration for their response to the prompt. Students reflected on which part of the visual they connected with most and wrote a poem identifying a specific group, the intolerance that group faces, and potential solutions to confront that intolerance. Mr Wise says, “It proved to be a very reflective and meaningful activity.”

Congratulations to these talented student writers and to Mr. Wise for guiding and supporting their work.