Just a few months ago, not many knew about these five fourth-graders from a low-income community in Indianapolis.
But now, the Panther Bots, a thriving robotics team at Pleasant Run Elementary School, have become the face of a success story about a group of kids who were taunted with racial slurs but were too determined to let that affect their confidence. Earlier this month, they found themselves being honored on the Senate floor of the Indiana Statehouse. The group traveled to Louisville, Ky., on Sunday to compete in a worldwide robotics contest.
“I cried. I literally cried. I’m so emotional right now because I know it’s hard for them,” said Darshie Owens, whose son, 10-year-old Elijah Goodwin, is a member of the Panther Bots. “I mean, like going through the robotics competition. There’s not a lot of African-American students and not a lot of Hispanic students in robotics competitions.”
Getting to that point had not been easy.
In early February, after the students won a local robotics challenge – a steppingstone to qualify for a state robotics championship – a couple of competitors from other schools were heard screaming, “You need to go back to Mexico!”