For five years now, Trimmier Elementary School students in Lela Butler's music classes have performed a series of skits in late January re-enacting one of the most pivotal moments in the civil rights movement.
The skits, which are based on the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and arrest of Rosa Parks, have been embraced by Butler as a chance to set the mood for February's Black History Month.
On Wednesday, classes of second- and third-graders had their chance to take part in the most recent versions of the skit.
As some students played the role of silent passengers on the bus Parks was riding, others took on the task of arresting the young version of the civil rights pioneer for not listening to commands to move to the back.
Afterward, 8-year-old Jameer Watson said he learned that Parks' actions and the response from Martin Luther King Jr. represented a major moment in history.
"We can sit next to each other now," Watson said, answering a question from his teacher on the importance of the boycott.
Looking around in her classroom, which seemed to be evenly mixed in race, Butler commented that teaching students to respect diversity is a big part of the skit each year.
"This is a diverse class and a diverse school," the music teacher said. "We try to pay tribute to culture and to diversity. That is one of the targets in the Killeen Independent School District."
In between classes filing in and out, Butler and her students sang choruses to various hymns. Teaching about African culture through singing, dancing and drums will play a big role during the upcoming Black History Month, Butler said.
Contact Andy Ross ator (254) 501-7468. Follow him on Twitter at KDHeducation.
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