They are 14 and they have tabled a law in Congress to exonerate the last of the Salem witches

At the end of the citizenship course, the students eighth grade at North Andover Middle School, Massachusetts, they thought things couldn’t end like this and became activists. The theme of the day was ” witches of salem“And there they learned that, very close to their school, the Salem Witch Trials Memorial, gathers the tombstones of 172 people – mostly women – who, between 1692 and 1693, were accused of witchcraft and condemned to the stake or hanged.

Prejudices, superstition, puritan inquisition, hunting women or maybe xenophobia … students The 13-year-olds thought of everything, but what moves them the most is the story of a Women who lived where they now live in North Andover, Massachusetts.

When Elizabeth Johnson Jr. was 22, she was declared “witch” as well as 28 other parents (several aunts, his mother, a grandfather who was a pastor, etc.). Some were sentenced, but those who confessed to being devoted to witchcraft they were exempt. Thus, 35% of the accused were able to save their skins; among them, Elizabeth Johnson.

A Salem witch they ignored

Finally, it seems Elizabeth Johnson was mentally insane and no one ever asked for her to be included among the 29 exemptions what was in Massachusetts. At 77, she died unmarried, childless and with a false stigma: to the community, she was still a witch.

The students They told their teacher, Carrie LaPierre, that they wanted to do something to change that. “It is worth traveling to correct a historical error”, The teacher answered them and the boys contacted several local representatives until they found the senator State Democrat Diana DiZoglio.

They spoke to DiZoglio, they convinced her. “With your help,” wrote the lawmaker law Project delete Johnson’s name. It was presented in March to the Mixed Commission of the Magistrature and the file started to roll by the Congress the United States.

“The acceptance It’s something we teach kids in North Andover public schools; it’s part of their civic education, ”Carrie LaPierre told The New York Times. “This is something we talk about a lot: the identity, The stereotypes and the I respect to people who are different from them, he added.

“It showed how people’s superstitions were still alive even after the hunts,” said Artem Likhanov, 14, one of the boys who participated in the school project. “It wasn’t that in the end people no longer believed in witches. They kept thinking that she was a witch and they would not exempt it, ”he said.

“In view of the news, which has captured the attention of the majority over the past year, this project may seem trivial. But the student efforts they straightened one historical error long time and I want them to be proud of it, ”Professor LaPierre told the Washington Post.

Everyone in North Andover is optimistic that the teen initiative, which is already flowing from camera to camera, will soon have a happy ending.

CP