Iowa City grade school kids create equality pins

IOWA CITY - The students at Willowwind School in Iowa City may not be able to vote or protest but they can make beaded safety pins to take a stand.

The 15 or so fifth- and sixth-graders were discussing last week the safety pin movement, in which some people place a safety pin on their shirts to show solidarity with traditionally marginalized groups. Their teacher, Rachel Demaris, said the safety pins reminded her of the friendship pins she wore on her shoes when she was in elementary school.

From there, the idea to decorate pins with colorful beads was sparked and the class debated over which issues should be represented by the different colors.

The class ultimately chose seven ideals, each to be represented by a different pin with its own bead color or color combination.

Oriana Bloom, 10, explained her class chose to support the environment, Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ rights, peace, immigrant respect, antibullying or religious acceptance and gender equality.

'We are doing this because we can't vote or give speeches or anything so this is our way of saying we believe in this cause,” said Ruby Casella, 11.

The beaded safety pins have spread throughout the school after the fifth- and sixth-grade classes went to explain the concept to the younger children. The kids now spend much of their free time beading and have set up a donation jar next to the pins at school so they can buy more supplies.

Since the project started last week, the kids have given away about 1,000 pins.

Demaris said she believes children should be able to let adults know what kind of world they want to live in. She said the project came from a very personal place for many of them because they are girls, children of immigrants or have LGBTQ loved ones.

Dana Smith, communications coordinator for the school, said she's mostly heard the pins spark conversations between parents and children, which makes for open dialogue.

'I think the sense from the students is that this, what they're seeing today and what they're hearing about hate and discrimination, is not something they want for themselves or for their community in the future,” Smith said.

Smith said the students hope to simply inspire others enough to start their own projects about the issues they care about. As for what they care about, the students at Willowwind put together this list:

l We believe that bullying is wrong. We believe that all religious beliefs should be respected. Purple beads - anti-bullying and religious acceptance.

l We believe that immigrants make our country stronger. Blue and brown beads - immigrant respect.

l We believe that opportunity should not be limited by gender. Pink and blue beads - gender equity.

l We believe that you should not be limited in who you love and that gender identity is bigger than a binary. Rainbow beads - LGBTQ rights.

l We believe that you should be treated fairly regardless of the color of your skin, and black lives should be valued equally. Red and black beads - Black Lives Matter.

l We believe that we should protect our environment from destruction by human activity. Green beads - environmental protection.

l We believe that promoting peace in our world is very important. Blue and white beads - peace.

l Comments: (319) 339-3172; maddy.arnold@thegazette.com