As the nation's eleventh largest school district, Dallas Independent School District serves more than 160,000 students who come from homes where 58 different languages are spoken. Operating with a $1 billion dollar budget, DISD employs 18,613 employees including 10,000 teachers in 220 schools.
2 Apr 2001
Mairead Corrigan Maguire, 1976 Nobel Peace Laureate, will visit the students at Thomas Jefferson High School Friday, April 6, at 2:30 p.m. The visit is being coordinated in conjunction with the United Nations' Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence celebration and is sponsored by the Diversity for Peace Fund of the Dallas Foundation. The emphasis of the United Nations is to get peace and non-violence education into school curriculums. The school is located at 4001 Walnut Hill Ln.
A panel of educators and community leaders will lead the dialogue between high school students in an effort to address issues and concerns students have about violence in their schools and communities. The panel includes Nita Wiggings, Fox 4 sportscaster; Joyce Strickland, Mothers Against Teen Violence founder; Johnathan Frederiksen, counselor, New Beginnings Battered Women's Shelter. (He counsels men who batter); and Dr. Steven Poe, Professor of Peace Studies, University of North Texas.
Maguire, co-founder of the Peace People in Northern Ireland, will be the honored guest at the Dallas Cup XXII International Youth Soccer Tournament on the following Sunday. She will arrive to Dallas with the under 12 Northern Ireland youth team. The Dallas Cup works with Nobel Peace Laureates and major soccer institutions to integrate a quality youth soccer tournament with social purpose.