Posted on 09/07/2017 11:57:15 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Olivia Capestany, now a senior at Seattle’s Roosevelt High, writes about the need for more political tolerance at her high school.
(Editor’s note: This is the sixth essay we’ve published this year as part of Education Lab’s Student Voices program. Our Student Voices columnists are high-school and college students writing about education issues that matter to them. Know a student with a story to tell about school? Email Education Lab’s engagement editor, Dahlia Bazzaz: dbazzaz@seattletimes.com.)
A week after the election, when a man wearing a Make America Great Again hat walked into our journalism class, we all thought it was a joke. It’s rare to see anyone who is openly Republican at Roosevelt High School in Northeast Seattle.
With Hillary Clinton winning more than three times the votes as Donald Trump in King County, it’s no surprise that the election results devastated many Roosevelt students. Students showed up to school in black clothing, saying they were mourning the loss of intelligence in this country. Some were in tears, hugging and holding each other in the hallways. My school had a total of three walkouts with a large portion of the school participating, myself included.
So when our journalism teacher invited Forest Machala — a 22-year-old Trump supporter and former Roosevelt student — to visit our class, we were surprised, to say the least.
“Everyone was in that funk, and in this shock [from the election] … I thought that it would be a good opportunity for them to talk … with someone who honestly and openly walked into Roosevelt with a red hat on,” said Christine Roux, my journalism teacher.
Machala was equally excited for the opportunity. One of the reasons he was at Roosevelt that day was to see how we were handling the election.....
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.com ...
The hate that public ed has wrought.
If I didn’t know better I might think it’s clever satire.
Sound’s like a lot of people need a big dose of grow the f*&*% up.
If they don’t like America, there’s many other countries to immigrate to. No one forces anyone to stay here.
Her class walked out three times after Trump was elected, she’s never spoken to a Republican before, and she’s surprised to realize her school is a wee bit one-sided? Genius.
Fascinating, isn’t it.
A thoughtful student confronts liberal hate.
It makes her think.
The bubble is still bursting.
Not a bad article for a previously brainwashed high schooler.
She has more sense than most of her teachers.
It actually gladdens my heart that an old-school liberal with an actual open mind still teaches in Seattle, and that there are high school students there who still understand the meaning and purpose of free speech.
Both teachers and students have gone full Pol Pot in altogether too many places, and that should frighten them.
But, it doesn’t, they dress up in black, don masks like some dark latter day Klansman and go attack people who disagree with them out in the world at large.
I thought it was a good article. Such an article many school kids would still be afraid to write and put their name to.
She admits literally running out of class when the speaker mentioned a few controversial details.
What happened to all that “Girl Power” Michelle Obama used to preach about? Regardless, this girls article leaves me more hopeful for the country than before. She’s not the only one who allowed her ‘light’ to be turned on.
The creep factor in the Left has been building for years and it's currently off the charts. She is learning that speaking out against the hatred is physically dangerous in this toxic environment and that the people who should be stopping that, the teachers, are encouraging it instead. It is a thing to remember when the reckoning comes.
Doesn’t sound like they are welcome in that school if special effort must be made to get one to stand up and be counted.
Good for Professor Machala. He years for a period in journalism that no longer exists, but in his own ineffective grassroots way he is trying to do the right thing.
years=yearns
It’s good to know that there are students who aren’t totally brainwashed and who supports free speech and diversity of thought.
“In the hallways at school, [someone] I didn’t even know would pass me yelling ‘Make America Great Again’ and ‘Build a wall.’ It was like harassment,” Hoffman said.”
That’s harrassment.
But this is not harrassment:
“Some teachers weren’t helping matters. Six students told me that their teachers belittled Trump supporters and handed out fliers for the walkout after the election.”
“...their teachers belittled Trump supporters and handed out fliers for the walkout after the election.”
Ok. Well this kid is brainwashed, stating that the country being divided is reflected in the classroom. At least she struggles to conside. She says the teachers should allow points of view to be allowed other than their own
I’ve seen my liberal peers shutting themselves off to other viewpoints.
The left does a lot of projection. Calling those who disagree with them “dogmatic” is one example.
I lived in Seattle for 46 years and left there 6 years ago. IIRC, Roosevelt is very heavily minority.
She might even become a Constitutionalist.
I was so upset, I had to run out of the room to calm myself down. After a few minutes of deep breaths, I realized that he felt as strongly about his beliefs as I do about mine and I should respect him.
Well, I guess we have to start with baby steps. Snowflakes are easily offended.
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