Original Freedom Writer to tell his story

Manuel Scott plans to share his message at a diversity summit at New Oxford High School.

Manuel Scott is never mentioned by name in the 2007 film Freedom Writers, but his story is deeply ingrained in it.

In the movie, a class at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, Calif., is divided by ethnic lines and torn apart by abuse, violence and crime. But the students are transformed by Erin Gruwell's teaching methods. The group of students called themselves the Freedom Writers.

Scott was in the first class Gruwell ever taught as a 23-year-old student teacher. She had Holocaust survivors speak to students and bought books with her own money, working several jobs to pay for them.

The students named themselves the Freedom Writers, after the Freedom Riders of the civil rights movement. Through the

Manuel Scott lived in 26 places by age 16, he missed 60-90 days of school annually, he dropped out of school at the age of 14 and his father was incarcerated, according to Scott s website. He s one of the original Freedom Writers and will tell his story to the students of New Oxford High school on Oct. 7. (SUBMITTED)

Scott has traveled around the country for more than a decade to speak to school groups, telling his story. He'll share his message of how he came to believe he had a story worth telling at a diversity summit at New Oxford High School on Oct. 7.

Scott lived in 26 places by age 16, he missed 60-90 days of school annually, he dropped out of school at the age of 14 and his father was incarcerated, according to Scott's website. After an inspiring encounter with a complete stranger in a park who encouraged him to make something more of his life Scott returned to school and his life was changed in Gruwell's English class.

The

After graduating from Woodrow Wilson High School, Gruwell inspired Scott to attend the University of California, Berkeley, and then went to graduate school and is currently working on his Ph.Ds in intercultural studies at Trinity International University north of Chicago.

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Original Freedom Writer to tell his story