GMS Student To Participate In National History Day Contest

GREENDALE, WI — Greendale Middle School student Rachel Kohl is one of two Wisconsin students heading to Maryland in June for the finals of the 2018-2019 National History Day contest.

Kohl will compete against 100 other middle school students from across the country. Rachel's project focuses on the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New York City on March 11, 1911. This was the deadliest industrial fire in American history. It claimed the lives of 145 people, mostly young immigrant women who spoke no English. They worked in cramped, crowded sweatshop conditions and the deaths were largely preventable.

For the triumph of this historical event, Rachel focused on changes in laws that both protected workers and kept them safe in the workplace. To keep workers safe, laws were implemented ensuring that doors of factories opened outward, stairways were accessible, fire escapes sturdy and lead to the ground and that sprinkler systems were required in buildings.

At the end of her project, Rachel also identifies the struggle women have had in being treated fairly in the workplace, a struggle and tragedy that still exists today.

More than a half a million middle and high school students from across the country take part in National History Day each year.