Due to Durham Public School's staff cuts and the relatively lower class sizes in Riverside's Latin classes, Principal Dr. Gloria Woods-Weeks is attempting to eliminate the Latin program at Riverside High School. Riverside is the only public high school left in Durham that offers Latin, and the classes; Riverside's chapter of Junior Classical League (coloquially known as Latin Club); and the teacher, Ms. Melissa Lido, mean the world to Riverside's students. We want to save this program. Moreover, Ms. Lido is the head of Riverside's Language Department, she has been teaching Latin for over 25 years (13 of these at Riverside), and she runs the yearly school trips that Riverside hosts with EF Tours. The opportunity to visit different countries is a tremendous one and we are unsure who would take over leading this program if Ms. Lido were removed. The Latin students of Riverside have started this petition to demonstrate interest in the classes, and any Riverside students that see this are heavily encouraged to message your counselor about your interest in Latin. Latin is a non-difficult language that looks amazing on a college transcript. Students who have taken Latin 1 are encouraged to email your counselor about taking Latin 2 next year, those who have taken Latin 2 are encouraged to do so with Latin 3 & 4, so on and so forth. Please help us save the Latin program.