Hannah Sampson- Miami Herald

David Lazerson, right, a teacher at The Quest Center in Hollywood, is given the news Tuesday that he has been named to the National Teachers Hall of Fame by volunteer Carol Strickland.

MIAMI, FL — Longtime educator David Lazerson, who has dedicated his career to teaching students with disabilities — and whose efforts to quell racial violence in Brooklyn in the 1990s were featured in a TV movie — will be named to the National Teachers Hall of Fame.

Broward Teacher to Receive National Honor

Hannah Sampson- Miami Herald

David Lazerson, right, a teacher at The Quest Center in Hollywood, is given the news Tuesday that he has been named to the National Teachers Hall of Fame by volunteer Carol Strickland.

MIAMI, FL — Longtime educator David Lazerson, who has dedicated his career to teaching students with disabilities — and whose efforts to quell racial violence in Brooklyn in the 1990s were featured in a TV movie — will be named to the National Teachers Hall of Fame.

Lazerson, who goes by ”Dr. Laz,” found out the news Tuesday morning at The Quest Center in Hollywood, where he teaches, during an Earth Day assembly. Everyone at the school had been keeping the news a secret.

”Wow!” said a beaming Lazerson. “That was not fair keeping this a secret.”

Lazerson, 57, will be inducted in June, becoming only the ninth Florida teacher named to the institution in its history.

A musician as well as a school teacher, Lazerson taught in New York and Miami-Dade before moving to the Broward public school system in 2002. He was named the 2007 Broward County Arts Teacher of the Year for his work at The Quest Center, a school for students with disabilities.

He lived in Brooklyn in 1991 when race riots erupted after a Jewish driver struck and killed a young black boy and served as a mediator between warring communities. The 2004 Showtime movie Crown Heights, with Howie Mandel playing him, was based on Lazerson’s memoir, Sharing Turf.

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