Stop the Hate 2021 High School Finalists Speak Out Against Bigotry

By Rachel Rood

Published May 13, 2021 at 4:06 PM EDT

High school students share their experiences combating bigotry in the annual Stop the Hate essay competition. [Maltz Museum]

The annual Stop the Hate Essay contest, established and continued by the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, invites Northeast Ohio high school students to write about fighting racism, bigotry, violence, discrimination, or injustice they've seen or experienced. Since the contest began, the museum has awarded 1.3 million dollars to students and schools across northeast Ohio.

Nearly 40,000 students have participated in the past 13 years, and the 20 young finalists this year beat out 1,500 submissions from Northeast Ohio. The winners, who were announced in a live virtual event on Tuesday, will take home scholarship money for college, while their schools will also receive money, to be used for anti-bias education.

We will start this hour meeting some of this year's finalists tackling tough topics. You can read all of the essays here.

Later in the show, we'll discuss the newest inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which includes artists Tina Turner, Jay-Z and Carole King among others.

-Thomas Smyers, 12th Grader, Shaker Heights High School
-Jessica Chang, 12th Grader, Hathaway Brown School
-AJ Shorts, 12th Grader, Brush High School
-Lillian Irizarry, 11th Grader, Beaumont School

-Carrie Wise, Manager of Arts and Culture, ideastream
-David C. Barnett, Senior Arts Reporter, ideastream
-Amanda Rabinowitz, Host of Morning Edition & 'Shuffle' Podcast
-Kabir Bhatia, Reporter, WKSU