'Maria Ressa Auditorium' Honors Nobel Peace Prize Winner's Toms River Schools Ties

TOMS RIVER, NJ — When Maria Ressa was a student at Toms River High School North, she spent a lot of time in the auditorium, performing with the orchestra and with the drama club.

"I spent a lot of time on this stage. I know all the places to hide," Ressa said Monday to the students and staff, past and present, who joined her family and local officials as the Nobel Peace Prize winner was praised and the auditorium named in her honor.

Ressa, a 1982 graduate of Toms River North does not hide now but spends her time shining the light on corruption in her native Philippines, where she has been working as a journalist since the early 1990s, covering Southeast Asia.

It is her work to uncover facts and highlight the truth, in spite of persistent prosecution and the threat of jail, that led to Ressa — along with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov — being awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace," Nobel Prize officials said.

Ressa is the CEO and co-founder of Rappler, a digital news site fighting for press freedom that has been persistently focused on corruption in the Philippine government, from President Rodrigo Duterte's "murderous anti-drug campaign" to the recent election of Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the dictator who ran the country in the 1970s and '80s.

"It's only fitting that in this building, on this stage where she developed her voice, that it be named for her," Superintendent Michael Citta said.

Ressa, who also was inducted into the Toms River Schools' Academic Hall of Fame over the weekend, has said she owes much of who she has become today to the academic foundation she got in Toms River, from learning to play eight instruments under the tutelage of Don Spaulding, the orchestra director, to studying Shakespeare and seeing how the playwright's works form threads through modern literature that tie the past and the future together.

"What we want to do is teach you both sides of an issue and let you decide how you feel about it," Toms River North Principal Ed Keller said to the students, who were from all three of the district's high schools, as he introduced Ressa.

Ressa said her teachers in the Toms River schools were an important part of her finding her path in life, and continue to shape who she is now. Among them is Mary Thornborough, who taught sophomore English, including Shakespeare.

Thornborough said she first learned of Ressa's fights with the Philippine government when she saw a Newsweek article that said Ressa faced the prospect of jail time because of her reporting on the Duterte regime.

On Monday, Thornborough gave Ressa a bracelet that included the quote, "Though she be but little she is fierce," in recognition of Ressa's refusal to back down from her pursuit of truth.

"And then she quizzed me on it," Ressa said, laughing. The quote is from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

"I had to look it up," Thornborough said afterward, laughing. "I almost asked her what act and scene, too."

Thornborough said her former student's ascent to the Nobel Prize was not a surprise to her.

"She was always overly bright," Thornborough said, who added she had great admiration for Ressa's musical abilities.

Ressa said it was studying Shakespeare that led her to her love of T.S. Eliot, whom she said she quotes often because of his perspective on how the past and future are tied together.

Elliot said, " 'We live in the present moment of the past,' and it's all these layers put on top of it," Ressa said.

Shelley Bromberg, Ressa's friend in high school and now an adjunct professor at Montclair State, took a walk down memory lane for Ressa's classmates that gave a glimpse into the past for the younger generation, highlighting big hair and Madonna and Michael Jackson moonwalking, among other things. But she also shared how Ressa touched so many lives and was remembered because of how she treated others.

"She was the first in our group to get her driver's license," Bromberg said, and as such became the one who drove everyone to McDonald's on Route 37 for a fast lunch. Her classmates, asked to write down what they remembered about her, talked about her enthusiasm and her enjoyment of the stage. "Nobody wrote 'good driver,' however," she said with a laugh.

Bromberg said it's Ressa's relentless pursuit of truth that stands out now, even as she faces the possibility of jail in the Philippines.

"You are a true warrior for truth and continue to weather the seas like the courageous Mariner you are," Bromberg said.

Ressa said the fight for truth is far more complex in 2022 because of the impact of social media. She warned the students that much of what happens on social media "is designed to manipulate your emotions."

That manipulation has been on full display in the recent election of Ferdinand Marcos Jr., whose father was the dictator when Ressa's family fled the country in the 1970s, Ressa said, saying social media disinformation played a significant role in the election's outcome.

"This thing (social media) literally rewires your brain," Ressa said.

Jennifer Howe, president of the Toms River Regional Board of Education, said Ressa's remark over the weekend that social media "has given the devil a microphone" really struck a chord with her, as did Ressa's other message, "to be humble, help others, and get involved."

"Thank you for being an amazing example of what the Toms River Schools produce," Howe said.

Ressa said some of that thanks belonged to her parents for being willing to drive four hours a day round trip to New York so Ressa and her siblings could attend the Toms River Schools.

"Every single decision you make now affects where you will go in life," Ressa said. "It's not going to be about how much money you make or how cool you are. ... What you remember are the people whose lives touched you and the people whose lives you touched."

"There's always a cost for every choice you make," Ressa said. "When I go back to Manila, I could go to jail for the rest of my life just because I speak about facts, I speak about truth. I do my job. But that won't stop me."

"Beware of this toxic sludge" of social media that aims to stir up moral outrage and anger, because that leads to a mob mentality instead of individual critical thinking, she said.

"The battle for your minds is waged and won, not by helping you think, it's won by manipulating your emotions. The anger and hate is literally shaping who we become as a people," Ressa said.

That has contributed to turning the political climate into a battle akin to a gladiator blood sport, she said. "It's not sustainable."

"Stand in someone else's shoes. Hang on to your humanity," Ressa said. "Be good to people. Help others, and you'll be OK."