SEAFORD, Del.- Bryan Allen Stevenson, a renowned lawyer and notable social justice activist from Milton, has earned countless accolades.
He's spent his life fighting against injustices in the legal system, and even freeing innocent men from death row.
Now, he is leaving his mark on Sussex County.
"His father had passed away, his family had a funeral. After the repass, they started to talk about legacy building, and how much of a wonderful impact that Bryan has made in the world, and how a lot of our kids in the communities don't know that, and they’re from the same places that Bryan is from," says Chantalle Ashford, the vice board chair of the Bryan Allen Stevenson School of Excellence.
To honor this legacy building, the board decided to create the Bryan Allen Stevenson School of Excellence, a free and public high school.
On Wednesday night, the board held a community focus group to share its plans and gather feedback from the community.
"We want the community to be apart of the school that we're building," says Alonna Berry, founder board chair of the Bryan Allen Stevenson School of Excellence, and Stevenson's cousin.
The group says this school will be different.
"Our goal is to be a service learning school, as we are naming the school after Bryan Stevenson," Berry says. "One of the things that he talks about is the power of proximity, and that he could've been an attorney and done great things, but when he actually started to go into prisons and hear first hand what’s happening, that changed his life. We thought, 'How do we create those kinds of proximate experiences for kids?’ And we thought we could do that through service learning."
The school plans to partner with local organizations to provide real world, hands-on experiences for kids. It will also offer an international baccalaureate curriculum, which Berry says no other school in Delaware is presently doing.
The school has not finalized a location. Georgetown or Milton could be possibilities. Organizers are currently in the process of submitting to the state, where they intend for the school to open in the fall of 2021 or 2022.
Bryan Stevenson's work will also be heading to the big screen. Just Mercy, based off of his award winning novel, called Just Mercy: A story of Justice and Redemption, will be released in theaters on Jan. 10.
