A Hubbard Middle School student has been named the winner of a statewide Martin Luther King Jr. art competition.

7th grader, Laruen Gasser has been named the winner of the 7th grade art competition for the 2022 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Essay & Multimedia Contest hosted by the Ohio Civil Rights Commission.

The contest encourages students to reflect upon Dr. King's life, philosophy and impact and is meant to challenge students to think about how civil rights and diversity affect their lives and how they can continue the work of Dr. King in their own way.

This year's theme was "Fighting Against Injustice." Each participant was tasked with creating work that creatively responded to a prompt to describe an event of injustice the participant has seen or experienced and what they would do or did to fight against that injustice like Dr. King.

Gasser drew a colorful picture (pictured below) that showcased her experience with injustice. With it, she included the following written response:

"All of my life I have seen body shaming and racism towards my friends and sister. My sister is adopted from Guatemala, so I have seen and heard about people being horrible to her because of that. So this shows things I have heard and seen before. It also shows things I've heard and seen about my friends. I hope you enjoy it."