DeMatha offers a new course on terrorism

Where were you on September 11, 2001 as America watched two planes demolish the Twin Towers? When our country was shocked by 2,977 deaths in New York City, Washington DC and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Terrorism is a major threat in our world today. A lot of American mainstream news let’s us know about groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda, but that’s where they stop. The news informs but does not educate.

History teacher Scott Sicko addresses the topic of terrorism in his new course of “History of Terrorism and Extremism” digs deep into terrorism and extremism topics that we don’t hear in the media.

Mr. Sicko is focused on educating the students on every form of terrorism, “Most people focus on ISIS nowadays because they are the ones they see in the media the most… really the goal is to help students to understand there are terrorist groups overseas and in every continent but there are also domestic terrorists”. He wants to make sure that students are informed of terrorism all over the world and not just the terrorism we hear about in the middle east. “People typically associate terrorism with radical Islam, but really terrorism has been a part of every society”.

Students in the class are digging deep in different types of attacks and different terrorist group classifications. Senior Judson Tallandier said, “I like how we talk about current events and topics that you wouldn’t normally focus on in school”. In this class, students like watching videos and becoming aware of issues and events.

Tallandier added, “I hope to learn more about terrorists and extremist groups and their tendencies.” The class includes information about groups that aren’t shown in the mainstream news and media.

Mr. Sicko is ready to equip the class with the facts and more. This class is interactive and includes updates of the top news stories, short documentaries and class projects. Junior Demarcco Hellams said “My favorite part of the class is seeing presentations by classmates about the different types of terrorist attacks”.

This class is bringing light to a very sensitive topic in this country and around the world. We can only strengthen through educating people about things like this and not simply telling them the surface details. Mr. Sicko is making sure that gets done.