45 Young Writers to Receive Anne Frank Award in N.Y.

Forty-five Long Beach student writers are going to New York to receive the 1998 Spirit of Anne Frank Award.

The Anne Frank Center USA will present the award to the “Freedom Writers” and their Wilson High School teacher, Erin Gruwell, on Thursday in Rockefeller Center. The students will also meet with New York Gov. George Pataki.

The “Freedom Writers,” a group of 150 high school authors, have written a book in diary form about their own life-shaping events. Some have been touched by violence; others have overcome intolerance.

The Anne Frank Center gives the award to groups that show courage in confronting anti-Semitism, racism and prejudice, and that help reduce bias-related violence in their community.