Long Beach, California. In the beginning of the film, it showed violence between the law enforcement and protestors. A protestor was holding up a sign that said “No Justice. No Peace.” in Los Angeles, California in 1992. The film continued to show facts such as over 120 murders in Long Beach in the months following the Rodney King riots and gang violence and racial tension reach an all-time high. This story was from diaries of students of Room 203 at Woodrow
Wilson High School. The film starts off with a Hispanic student named, Eva. Eva’s father was forcefully taken …show more content…
However, Paco shot at the wrong person which was an Asian student and blamed that
Grant killed the Asian student. Eva became the witness of the scene. The next day at school, a
Hispanic student draws a racist drawing of an African American and everyone laughs at it.
Gruwell noticed and brought up the Holocaust which many did not have knowledge of. Gruwell asked the department head, Margaret, if her students can read upper level books. However,
Margaret said no because the students do not even care about learning and Gruwell would need to buy the books with her own money. Gruwell slowly progresses to gain trust with her students and she gave them a composition book to write about their experiences of being abused, being evicted, and seeing their friends die as a diary. Gruwell takes on two part-time jobs to pay for more books and focuses more on school despite her husband felt disappointed with her decisions.
Gruwell bought new books for her students and students were surprised that the books were new.
Eva visits her father in jail and shows him the new book she received at school. Furthermore,
Gruwell and her father takes the students on a field trip to learn more about the Holocaust …show more content…
Gruwell decided to have the students write a “letter” to Miep Gies
(the woman who helped shelter Anne Frank and her family during the Holocaust). The students wanted Miep Gies to actually read their letters and even invite her to come to the school. The students start having fundraisers to raise money for Miep Gies to attend. The department head,
Margaret, was mad that newsletters were saying things like “What are public school funds funding, if not our students?” or “…teacher inspires students to tell their own stories”. The students also held a dance concert to raise money for guest speakers. The students finally raised enough money and Miep Gies arrives and tells her story. A student calls Miep Gies a hero but she denies it and says that it was the right thing to do and that the students were all heroes. Eva finally goes to court and tells the truth that Paco was the murderer even if she disobeyed her father. Her people went against her by beating her and putting a gun to her head. Eva was scared and talks to Gruwell about the incident. Eva asked if she could stay late at school to do homework because she moved with her aunt but her aunt lived far away. Gruwell said that it