Whitwell Middle School

Whitwell Middle School, located in the small town of Whitwell, Tennessee, serves students in grades 5 through 8 as part of the Marion County School District. The school is perhaps most internationally recognized for its powerful "Children's Holocaust Memorial" project, which began in the 1990s. This initiative, aimed at helping students understand the magnitude of the Holocaust by collecting six million paper clips to represent the lives lost, transformed the school into a symbol of tolerance, diversity, and historical education, eventually becoming the subject of the documentary film *Paper Clips*.

Beyond its historical legacy, Whitwell Middle School functions as a traditional community-focused institution dedicated to the academic and personal growth of its student body. The school emphasizes a supportive learning environment, offering a standard middle school curriculum alongside various extracurricular opportunities to engage students during these formative years. By fostering both rigorous academic standards and a strong sense of civic responsibility, the school continues to honor the lessons of its past while preparing its students for success in high school and beyond.