Whiteaker 8th grader wins national poetry contest commemorating Kent State massacre

Rachael Lang, an 8th grade student at Whiteaker Middle School, recently won a national poetry contest (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)

Whiteaker Middle School eighth-grader Rachael Lang hadn’t heard of the Kent State massacre until two of her teachers covered it in class this year.

But when the idealistic 14-year-old learned how the Ohio National Guard opened fire on unarmed college students protesting the bombings of Cambodia in 1970, she was inspired to write a poem.

“I…