ATLANTA PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Office of Communications and Public Engagement
130 Trinity Avenue SW | Atlanta, Georgia 30303

    

Ian Smith, Executive Director
404-802-2855, office
404-603-6934, cell
ian.smith@atlanta.k12.ga.us

 

Seth Coleman, Media Relations Manager
404-802-2891, office
404-406-5570, cell
seth.coleman@atlanta.k12.ga.us  

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                     

October 23, 2020

 

APS Students, Graduate to Lead Forum for US Senate Seat Candidates

ATLANTA – Two Atlanta Public School students and an APS graduate will lead Georgia’s first student-led United States Senate Candidate Forum, featuring at least eight of the candidates for one of Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats, Saturday.

Kemoni Dunn, a seventh grader at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, and Emma Katz, a ninth grader at Maynard Jackson High School, will moderate the forum. The event will be held at the National Civil and Human Rights Museum.

Tye Tavaras, who graduated with honors from Grady High School in 2005, and has gone on to earn two degrees from Emory University, will host the forum. Tavaras currently works at Emory. At the beginning of the forum, she will bring words of encouragement from APS Superintendent Dr. Lisa Herring.

The forum will be closed to the public, due to coronavirus concerns. However, the event will be livestreamed here (https://www.facebook.com/Younglitigatorsproject/). All of the candidates, the student moderators and the forum host will adhere to strict social distancing protocols during the event.

This unique forum was organized by local non-profit Soulstice Inc., which seeks to encourage positive change by empowering the next generation of leaders, with support from the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights.  The forum provides an opportunity for middle and high school participants of the organization’s Young Litigators Project to ask questions directly to the candidates about issues that directly or indirectly affect them, their families, and the community.  Eight candidates have confirmed that they will participate:

 

• Al Bartell, Independent 
• Derrick Grayson, Republican Party 
• Annette Davis Jackson, Republican Party 
• Deborah A. Jackson, Democratic Party 
• Brian Slowinski, Libertarian 
• Kandiss Taylor, Republican Party 
• Ed. Tarver Democratic Party
• Richard Dien Winfield, Democratic Party 

WHAT:       Two APS students and an APS graduate will lead the state’s first U.S. Senate candidate forum for students.

WHO:          Kemoni Dunn, a seventh grader at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School; Emma Katz, a ninth grader at Maynard Jackson High School, will moderate the event while Tye Tavaras, a 2005 graduate of Grady High School who has earned two degrees from Emory University, will act as the event’s host. 

 

WHEN:       Saturday, October 24, 2020 | 6PM

 

WHERE:      The National Center for Civil and Human Rights Museum

                  100 Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard, NW

 

The forum will be closed to the public, due to coronavirus concerns. However, the event will be livestreamed here (https://www.facebook.com/Younglitigatorsproject/). 

 

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About Atlanta Public Schools

Atlanta Public Schools is one of the largest school districts in the state of Georgia, serving

approximately 52,000 students across 87 schools. The District is organized into nine K-12 clusters with 58 traditional schools, 18 charter schools, six partner schools, two citywide single-gender academies and three alternative programs. To learn more about Atlanta Public Schools, follow us on social media – Twitter (@apsupdate), Facebook (Atlanta Public Schools), and Instagram (apsupdate) – or visit us online at www.atlantapublicschools.us.