
When Mandy Manning went to the White House yesterday to receive the Teacher of the Year honor from President Trump, she brought along gifts for him. When she met the president, the teacher from the Newcomer Center at Joel E. Ferris High School in Spokane, Washington, presented him with letters from her immigrant and refugee students.
One letter was from a Rwandan girl who asked the president to “take care” in the language he uses when speaking about immigrants. According to Manning, “she hopes he would model for others positive messaging around our immigrant and refugee communities,” because he serves as “a role model“ and “his words have a lot of weight,“ Manning said.
In her remarks to the president, Manning said that it was important to make all students feel wanted and to exclude no one. Manning teaches recently arrived immigrants at her school.