Thanks for being here.
So I met your classmates, Emma and Jacqueline and Cameron.
And they're just amazing kids, as you are.
And I shouldn't even call you kids-- you are young adults,
and you're doing so much for all of us.
I mean, finally it seems like someone's
making enough noise that it's going to make a change.
And that-- it looks like it's your generation.
So thank you for what you're doing.
Thank you for everything you're doing.
[APPLAUSE]
First of all, know you're backed by all of us.
Everyone is behind you.
So thank you for that.
You lost your best friend, Joaquin.
Right?
Is that his name?
So it makes it even more personal for you.
Right.
Well, Joaquin-- I say to everyone,
I can imagine the impact that he would be making right now if he
were still here.
And this is, like--
I'm, like, 10% him.
You know?
Well, you're not.
And I'm sure that he's very proud of you.
And I'm sure he is watching and probably
giving you strength whenever you start feeling weak.
He's that other 80% that you need, which is 90%.
Which means that you would need [INAUDIBLE]..
[LAUGHTER]
Math is hard.
It's OK.
I really need to go back to school.
And how is how is his family doing?
Something his father said struck us.
And what he told us-- he told my dad,
the difference between them--
him and my father in this fight--
is that he doesn't have the fear anymore.
My dad still has four kids.
Joaquin's father doesn't.
So that's why he has this strength.
Because-- it's just unimaginable.
Yeah.
You went back to school recently,
which had to be really hard to walk down those halls again.
How was that?
The first day.
It's a necessary thing to do.
Because even if it is really hard for us
to go back, being there, being teenagers,
being high schoolers, even if it's
just those fleeting seconds where you still
get to feel like how you used to,
you still need to feel normal, those
are the things that I think we need
to treasure and to keep doing.
Do you, I mean, when you're in school
and if you hear a loud noise, does it do something to you?
I mean, I would think that anything--
I can't imagine.
You know, anywhere, but especially in school,
if you hear something, does it take you right back to that?
Yeah.
There's a textbook that falls off a desk,
the whole class jumps.
Every time somebody knocks on the door now,
if everyone's in the class and the teacher
says who is that, there's that moment where I think--
school shooter, which even if that isn't necessarily logical,
that's still the thought process.
Of course.
Every loud noise, fire alarms, everything
that even is slightly reminiscent of that day
now, it just sends me into this panic mode.
I think it sends all of us into a panic mode.
Were you activists before this in any way?
I never considered myself an activist.
Even the first couple of days after this
happened when people starting saying,
you guys are these activists, you guys are heroes, I'm like,
no, we're not.
We're just, we're grieving, and we're trying to be heard.
I didn't think that that title was even deserved.
Even now it feels strange to be told that we're
inspirations or anything.
Because we're just doing this because we have to.
Because we have to keep doing it.
There's nothing else to do at this point.
Yeah.
Well, and it is helping the grieving process, probably,
to keep busy and to know you're doing something for Joaquin.
And you know, it makes me sad that you have to do this.
But I'm happy that you are.
And like I said, we are all behind you.
And we're going to talk about the march
and how everyone can get involved and be a part of this.
Because there is power in numbers, and you all
are going to do that.
You sat down with the president just days after this happened.
And what was that like?
Did you know-- how much notice did
you get that you were going to do that?
Well, they called me the day before and said,
this is the White House.
I said, no, it's not.
And they said, no-- yes, it is.
And they sent me a picture of their card and everything.
And I said, wow.
So, what's up?
And they said they wanted me to come with a group of people
from Parkland and talk to the president about our country
and the state it's in.
And even seconds before I was handed
the microphone in the White House,
I had no idea what I was going to say.
And I sort of just slowed down, and I told myself,
I'm just going to tell them who I am and why I'm here.
And people who have been telling me the impact that what I said
has made.
And I think that's just because it came directly from my heart.
I didn't have anything prepared.
I just spoke what I felt.
Yeah.
There's been a lot of changes.
There have been a lot of stores that
stopped selling assault rifles.
There are a lot of--
the minimum age now has been raised to 21
before you can get a gun.
So you're making changes, which is great.
The march is happening this weekend. $6 million
was donated to the march, over $4 million
donated to the official Stoneman Douglas GoFundMe page.
So what do you want to tell people specifically
about the march?
I mean, the march-- first of all, marches are expensive.
Found that out recently.
They're really, really expensive to put on.
But the march for us, it's this display of unity
amongst everyone.
Because everybody is uniting under this cause.
There's so many people now that are being vocal and outspoken
when they weren't necessarily that way before.
But it's more than that.
It's a chance to not be ignored.
Because when there are hundreds of thousands
of people marching on Washington saying, do something,
it's kind of hard to ignore that when
it's such loud and clear voice.
And that's our goal here, is to have that loud and clear voice.
And you will have a very loud and clear voice
when you can go to the polls and vote, as well.
So you can make a big difference.
And if no one is paying attention to you now,
they will when you vote.
So that's a good thing that you're
going to get a lot of people and have loud voices to reach
a lot of people.
To get more information about March For Our Lives,
you can go to our website.
And if you can't make it to the march, you can donate.