GoodNews

GoodNewsFL.org 31 MAY 2018 LOCAL (YHU\ VXPPHU $GRSWLRQ E\ 6KHSKHUG &DUH IDFLOLWDWHV WKH KRVWLQJ RI D JURXS RI RUSKDQV IURP &RORPELD 7KH FKLOGUHQ FRPH WR )ORULGD IRU WZR ZHHNV DQG H[SHULHQFH IDPLO\ OLIH DQG FXOWXUH LQ $PHULFD 7KURXJK WKLV SURJUDP PRVW FKLOGUHQ ZKR FRPH DUH PDWFKHG ZLWK D IDPLO\ WKDW KRSHV WR DGRSW WKHP 7KLV LV DQ RSSRUWXQLW\ IRU ROGHU FKLOGUHQ ZKR ZRXOG RWKHUZLVH QRW EH FRQVLGHUHG WR ILQG D IRUHYHU IDPLO\ )LQG RXW KRZ \RX FDQ KRVW D FKLOG -XO\ DGRSWDEVF RUJ VXPPHU KRVWLQJ DGRSWDEVF RUJ ‡ the Fort Lauderdale area and march from the War Memorial at Holiday park to Fort Lauderdale City Hall. That was our plan. Things slowly spiraled down at our school as our initial support was dwindling. We started to get a multitude of hate from strangers on the internet, people passing in the street as we handed out flyers and even from our own friends and classmates. I did not expect a Christian school to breed stu- dents with such negativity, and I certainly did not expect hundreds to lash out at us just for using our voices. Among the mean com- ments and rude names I was per- sonally called, some favorites of mine were “retard” “a joke” “fake” “brainless” and the best one of all “I hope you get raped.” Now please don’t believe that when I say “favorites” that it means I like and approve of these words. When I say that these few comments out of the masses of hate I received were my favorite, I mean that these were some of the best and some of the worst. I received many more comments and messages containing even more vile things that I will leave out for the sake of you, the reader. But I included these few as a testament to the fact that we are not the lazy teens who can’t do anything and who get offended at everything. I worked as hard as I possibly could to make this dream come to fruition. I worked through all the barriers, through all the hate, through all the non-support, through it all to make this event happen. We expected to bring a whole busload of students. What we really brought was eight. Peo- ple decided not to come at the last minute because they didn’t want to miss class, because they didn’t want to get in trouble with administration, because of the immense hate we were getting, because of many things that could’ve been solved. We arrived that morning with our small crowd of eight to see City Hall and the Fort Laud- erdale Police Department pre- pared for a crowd of about 200. We were embarrassed and dis- appointed, but even so, we kept our heads held high and spoke to the Mayor Dean Trantalis of Fort Lauderdale and the news cameras that came to cover our event. The eight of us presented our speeches and acted as though we were speaking to the masses. As we finished, I asked if anyone had any questions they would like to ask me or any of the other speakers, and we started to pack up to leave. At that moment, we were feeling better and more energized but still not superb since our event was significantly smaller and shorter than we expected. Until someone ran back up to the courtyard and said, “Hey guys, there's a group of people marching this way!!!” I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I expected to walk down and see a group of two, maybe three people walking towards City Hall. What I really saw was a group of over 30 stu- dents being escorted by the po- lice marching towards us and chanting. I screamed. We all screamed. A few of us cried. We were elated. They met us up at the courtyard and we all chanted in unison for what felt like a happy eternity. We were all smiling, laughing, hugging, chanting. I was so happy to see these peo- ple I didn't even know. I didn’t even know where they came from. I would later find out that they were a group of over 30 stu- dents from Fort Lauderdale High School who made the longer than 40 minute walk just to join us at City Hall. We then decided to start our event up again. We gathered around the podium, called back the cameras and had an open mic time where we shared our speeches once again to the crowd, and they shared some of theirs. We talked, we shared stories and social media accounts, and we discussed fu- ture plans going forward. There are things in the works, and I am so excited to see what our gener- ation does. If you would like to stay updated, or if you would like to see videos, pictures and speeches from our event, please follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @FTLwalkout or email us at [email protected] to find out how you can get involved in our upcoming plans. Ariel is 17 years old and a senior at Calvary Christian Acad- emy. Top/Standing: Nicole Rodrigues, Eyelyn Martin, Matthew Ray, Anna Hopson, Angie Destafano. Bottom/Sitting: Ariel Feldman, Amanda Hotte, Zoey Boyette