Idaho Falls High School kicks of multi-cultural week

In honor of Martin Luther King Junior day, Idaho Falls High School kicked off its annual multi-cultural week.

For more than 20 years, Idaho Falls High School has dedicated a week to celebrate differences. The annual event was created by an English teacher who hoped to send a simple message to her students.

“Her dream was to make sure all students and all members of the Idaho Falls community got a little bit of an idea of acceptance and tolerance especially in memory of Doctor Martin Luther King,” said faculty coordinator Lise Pinkham.

This year’s multi-cultural week kicked off with an assembly of keynote speakers, ethnic musical numbers, and highlighted local awareness projects to expose students to the diversity of the world.

“The goal of this week is to remind people that we all have some type of struggle that were dealing with whether is small or something greater just trying to get students and adults to step back and realize that and have a little bit of compassion, empathy and understanding” said Pinkham.

This year’s theme “live and let live” is shown by the blue and white wristbands worn by students to remind them to be tolerant and nonjudgmental.

“The fact that I really don’t know anything about what’s going on in other people’s lives and not to make a judgment until you know what’s going on and be more tolerant and accepting of other people’s lives,” said senior Mary Stewart.

Idaho Falls High School will be hosting events all week to bring people young and old and from all walks of life together to celebrate differences and create a more accepting environment.

“After multi-cultural week people are a lot more open and tolerant, and the message just stays with the school,” said Stewart.