Weekly roundup: Student filmmakers honored for promoting social justice, revised school reopening timelines, and more

Two local students from Orange County recently received top honors in the Directing Change Program and Film Contest. As part of a new “Hope & Justice” category, student filmmakers were tasked with producing 60-second films on the topic of “What this election means to me.”

Directing Change is part of Each Mind Matters: California’s Mental Health Movement and statewide efforts to prevent suicide, reduce stigma and discrimination related to mental illness, and promote the mental health and wellness of students. The film contest is open to youth ages 12 to 25 and free to enter.

According to the Directing Change website, the Hope & Justice category embraces the promoting social justice portion of the Directing Change mission statement, going a step beyond traditional submission categories – suicide prevention and mental health – to make the connection between social justice and health.

In this category, submissions are accepted and awarded monthly and encouraged to be submitted in multiple art forms.

Below is a list of winning videos from Orange County for the month of September.

Directing change film contest

First Place: “VOTE”
Canyon High School
A Film By: Carter Audet Marrero
Advisor: Alex Graham
View and download

Second Place: “A Vote for the Future”
El Dorado High School
A film by: Cooper Cuya
Advisor: Mark Switzer
View and download

And here are some additional stories we are following this week. 

  • Thirteen Orange County school districts returned to in-person instruction over the past month, marking the largest return to school in a major metropolitan area in California so far this year. Edsource takes a deeper look at this first wave of California school reopenings.
  • After delaying reopening plans, some schools in the Garden Grove Unified School District are now scheduled to reopen next Wednesday, Oct. 28. The district will reopen schools with a staggered approach based on COVID-19 data.
  • Teachers at the Orange County School of The Arts, a public charter school in the Santa Ana Unified School District, are concerned about plans to return to the classroom during the coronavirus pandemic, the Voice of OC and the OC Register reported.
  • OCDE this week joined millions of people from across the county to shed light on Bullying Prevention Month. OCDE’s Bullying Prevention team works year-round to support schools throughout Orange County with their efforts to provide a safe and positive environment for students, families and staff members.
  • The Los Angeles Unified School District, in partnership with Health Net, will provide free seasonal flu vaccinations to students, their family members and staff at rotating school sites throughout the month of October.
  • Four private schools in Los Angeles County were approved this week to reopen for on campus instruction for students in transitional kindergarten through the second grade. The list, made public on Oct. 21, marks the first time L.A. County schools have been given the go-ahead to reopen for its youngest students under a waiver program the county approved late last month.

This is the part where we encourage you to keep up with local education news stories by bookmarking the OCDE Newsroomsubscribing for emailed updates and following us on FacebookTwitter and Instagram.