Lesson in freedom

COSTA MESA ? For a few minutes Friday morning, Jon Williams’ students held a tiny piece of Saddam Hussein’s regime in their hands.

On the last day of school before Memorial Day, with the students immersed in creating a tribute wall to Iraq War casualties, former Estancia student Margarita Medrano came back to make a presentation to the history class. Medrano, who graduated in 2002, is in the U.S. Army and expects to return to Iraq in June.

At the end of her speech to Williams’ second-period class, Medrano passed around a rare item that she received from an Iraqi soldier: a currency note from a few years back, worth 250 dinars and featuring Hussein’s portrait.

The contrast couldn’t have been clearer ? Williams’ room is lined with posters of Elvis Presley, the Clash and other famous rock artists. In Hussein’s Iraq, people were allowed to celebrate exactly one man, and there could be mortal consequences if they didn’t.

“I think the kids get it today, what freedom means and what it means to live in this country,” Williams said. “I saw a lot of teary eyes today.”

Williams, who has taught history at Estancia for six years, has mixed feelings about the Iraq War, although he said he’s still rooting for democracy to prevail. He has no problem supporting the troops, and for Memorial Day this year, he arranged a project to help his students feel their sacrifice a little more closely.

This week, each of Williams’ students created a placard with the names of about 15 American troops killed in Iraq. On Thursday and Friday, the classes took turns posting their placards on a wall in the history wing. Meanwhile, each student researched the life of one American casualty and made a formal presentation.

By Friday afternoon, the wall outside Williams’ room was covered with about 2,500 names ? each with its own life story.

There was David Fisher, 21 years old when his Humvee rolled over during a patrol; Adam Brooks, who died in Iraq six months to the day after his wedding; Michael Battles, who perished in a suicide bombing, leaving behind a wife and a young son.

“Every time there was a plane in the sky, his son would ask his mom if that was his dad coming home,” said junior Dion Domurat, 16, who reported on Battles.

Nicole Amaya, 16, got choked up while talking about Fisher, whose friends, she said, remembered him as a live wire.

“He was really athletic, and he played three sports in high school,” she said. “He was an artist, and he liked to draw.”

As she spoke, senior Willy Martinez stood to the side with a hand-held camera, filming her for the school’s twice-monthly news program. Every two weeks, the crew puts together a broadcast for Estancia’s English classes, and Willy, 18, said he wanted to capture an unusual Memorial Day project.

“A lot of the time, we don’t think outside our little box that’s Costa Mesa,” he said.

During Medrano’s speech, a student asked her if she felt the Iraq War was justified. Williams intervened for a moment, saying that she didn’t need to answer political questions, but the speaker provided an answer that went straight down the middle.

“Being in the Armed Forces, you don’t have a say,” Medrano said gently. “It doesn’t matter what you think. It matters what you do.”

She added, however, that despite the ongoing violence and dissent at home, she found at least some signs of hope.

“I can see we’re helping out the Iraqi people by taking them food and water, things they didn’t have,” she said.

At the end of each period, Williams’ students held a processional march by the wall, laying flowers and other items on the floor as recordings of “Taps” and “America the Beautiful” played. More than once, neighboring classes spilled out into the hall to watch the procession.dpt.27-estancia-2-CPhotoInfoER1RDDPP20060527izwnqlnc(LA)dpt.27-estancia-1-CPhotoInfoER1RDDOV20060527izwnpfncPHOTOS BY DON LEACH / DAILY PILOT(LA) Above, Estancia High School students walk past a 24-foot mural honoring U.S. soldiers killed in the Iraq War. It was assembled by John Williams’ history class and hangs in a hallway on campus. Below, placards display the names of soldiers.