In the most powerful city in the country where power and scandal bask in the air, South Orange Middle School eighth graders from New Jersey threw some major shade when they arrived in the nation’s capital. For students who don’t live in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virgina(DMV) witnessing the wonders of Washington D.C. is a privilege.
However, when some of the eighth graders of South Orange MS arrived they were more than reluctant when told they were going to be taking a picture with Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan (R-Wis). When I say ‘some,’ I really mean a hundred of them opted out from a photo op with Paul Ryan.
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The wisdom of those 8th graders who refused to be in a picture with Paul Ryan is putting the entire political class to shame.
— Chris Dashiell (@cdashiell) May 28, 2017
You would think, “They’re eighth graders, what do they know?” However, these kids had valid and justified reasons for protesting this photo-op.
“I can’t take a picture with someone who supports a budget that would destroy public education and would leave 23 million people without healthcare,” 13-year-old, Matthew Malespina, a student on the trip, explained to his local newspaper, The Village Green.
Matthew also told The Washington Post, “I don’t like to take a picture with somebody that I can’t associate with, let’s say somebody is not nice to me at school, for example. I wouldn’t take a picture with them, probably.”
Other students expressed their reason for not getting a photo with Ryan because his views reflected that of Trump’s.
“I didn’t want to be in [the picture] because he believes in most of what Trump believes in,” another student, Louisa Maynard-Parisi, told The Village Green.
All things considered at the end of the day there were a few students who decided to pose for the picture, shown on Paul Ryan’s Instagram earlier in the week.
Whatever the case, this occurrence just goes to show more and more kids are becoming socially aware. They aren’t just kids who don’t know what they’re talking about, they understand and live the resistance. We are in the age of social revolution, and there’s no better age to start a revolution than when you’re in middle school.
