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bigtree

(85,986 posts) Wed May 2, 2018, 09:51 PM May 2018

WH blocks media from ceremony after Teacher of the Year hands Trump letters from refugee students

Jim Acosta @Acosta 31m31 minutes ago
The WH blocked the media from hearing from the teacher of the year. But she spoke to our @AlliemalCNN about her message.... about refugee students.

(CNN)National Teacher of the Year award winner Mandy Manning came to the White House with one goal in mind: to elevate the profile of her refugee and immigrant students with President Donald Trump.

In a phone interview with CNN, Manning said she had done just that, delivering handwritten letters from her students directly to the President when meeting with him one on one Wednesday.

Trump told Manning he was excited to read the letters, so much so that he asked an aide to put them directly on his desk, according to Manning.
Manning's students are all refugees and immigrants enrolled in the "Newcomer Center" program at Joel E. Ferris High School in Spokane, Washington.

"My goal is to share my student's stories," Manning said. "But to send a message -- to not only my immigrant and refugee students but the LGBT community -- that they are wanted, they are loved, they are enough and they matter."

Trump gave Manning the Teacher of the Year award at a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, but the media were not permitted to attend her speech at the event. Trump offered laudatory remarks about Manning but did not mention her students or refugees...

read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/02/politics/teacher-of-the-year-mandy-manning-white-house-trump/index.html