A Bronx teacher is not only the ONLY New York City teacher to be inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame but he also founded and runs the oldest HIV/AIDS educational program in the nation.
“As AIDS ravaged the city, Bronx teacher Thomas Porton took it upon himself to ensure students understood the deadly disease.
Porton, 65, recalled a student who was stunned in 1991 by the number of families devastated by AIDS asking him: “What are we going to do with this disease?”
So Porton, who now teaches English and drama at the Monroe Academy for Visual Arts & Design, founded Bronx Youth Creating Compassion — in spite of ill-founded opposition.
“We originally dealt with accusations of it being inappropriate,” he said.
Now, it is the longest-running student HIV/AIDS education program in the country, he says. It teaches 300 new students each year.”
– Read the rest at the New York Daily News
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This post was last modified on July 3, 2014 9:46 am
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