My Experience with the Students from Parkland

I�ve spent the past month organizing and working with the survivors of the Parkland school shooting to organize a series of events in Charleston as a part of their �Road to Change� tour. Yesterday, those events happened and a lot of questions that I have gotten since then are, �What are the students from Parkland like?�

            So, I am going to take this blog to talk about my experience with them and some of the things I observed about them throughout the day.

            The Parkland students are normal people. That sounds clich� but it�s true. When they got off the bus they just walked up and introduced themselves to us and we hung out for about half an hour before the lunch we had scheduled took place. I spent a lot of that time around Lauren Hogg and Emma Gonzalez and asked them a bunch of questions. I asked Emma what her initial reaction was when Kanye West tweeted out that she was his hero and she told me that she gets that question a lot. She said she was at a restaurant with her family when it happened and immediately people started looking at her and she opened up her phone and saw the tweet. Her reaction was negative and told me that she was thinking something along the lines of, �[Kanye] what are you doing?�

            I also asked them how they interact with Kyle Kashuv, the conservative figure from Marjorie Stoneman-Douglas who has repeatedly criticized them over the past few months. Lauren told me that he tries to avoid them in the hallways and that he won�t make eye contact with any of them. The group I was talking to at that moment collectively scowled when I said his name.

            David Hogg was a little different. He is an intense person. I sat down next to him later on in the lunch along with another local organizer and we were discussing the March For Our Lives in Washington DC and the sheer amount of people that were there and the cost of security (There were between 800 thousand and 1.1 million people at the march. Security cost over $15 million). I asked him what was going through his mind when he took the stage to talk to an amount of people that is hard to comprehend and he looked at me dead in the eyes and without hesitation said, �I was worried that I would get shot.� 

            When we arrived at Mother Emanuel AME and walked from the bus to the steps of the church, a commotion broke out among a few members of the group. The Senate had just voted down a bill that would have banned the release of blueprints for 3D guns and the news had just come in. Immediately phones were ringing and I believe Senator Bill Nelson (he sponsored the bill) from Florida was on the phone with Matt Dietsch who then handed the phone to Hogg. Hogg was not happy and was tweeting out a response as we walked in to the church, slamming Senate Republicans. He later went on CNN during our town hall to talk about it.

            The Parkland students were heavily affected by Emanuel AME. Reverend Manning forced the media to leave and for an hour he talked with them in a really intimate, really powerful way. It was candid and they spent a while discussing forgiveness and how hard it is to forgive the people that committed evil towards them. That was a profound dialogue. The connection between these two groups was on a different level because there is a common denominator between them. Everything else about their lives is completely different.

            After the town hall, I spent a lot of time with Matt Dietsch, Jamal Lemy, and Ramon Contreras. Our group went out to eat with them while everybody else went to the hotel. While we were sitting there they learned that Will.i.am was wearing one of their t-shirts on his Instagram story. Jamal designed the shirt he was wearing so he thought it was cool.

            I asked them what their favorite and least favorite shows to go on were. Dietsch said that CNN was the worst because, �They treat you like you�re nothing behind the camera.� Lemy said that he enjoyed being interviewed by Complex the most.

            They also have had a lot of interactions with celebrities. They really liked George Clooney. He really was impacted by them when they met and he eagerly became one of their donors. According to Jamal, Kim Kardashian was not the brightest.

            I wondered on the drive home what significance my team has to them and if they will even remember Charleston very much. They do that kind of stuff every day in a new city so I pondered and am still pondering whether we were just another stop or if we actually left a mark. I hope we left a mark.  

            I was humbled to be able to work with them and be in their presence throughout the day. They fight the good fight and they are focused and determined. There is also a tight bond between the group. They look out for each other and respect their differences and their experiences. They live a fast-paced life where there is not much time to reflect and digest what they have gone through. They rinse and repeat every day in a new city and they are able to maintain their energy. I don�t know how they do it.

            That�s all for this week.