 This is your host Beatriz Cantelmo. On February 14, a mass shooting was committed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Seventeen people, mostly high school students, were killed by a gunman armed with an AR-15. Many more students were wounded, making it one of the world's deadliest school massacres. In response, fifteen, sixteen and seven-year-old high schoolers of Stoneman Douglas High School declared that enough is enough and started a brand-new movement. Never again. They have been demanding that our government adopt gun violence control reform now in the United States. Many students also started a march out on March 14 and a march for our lives movement on March 24, which was adopted by high school students in every community across this nation, including all over the state of Hawaii. To this episode of Perspectives on Global Justice Think Tech Hawaii, we get to hear from Gabriel Fernandez, Emile O'Bordland, Hayden Hawkins, and Christine. Their high school students who came in solidarity and action by first leading and co-organizing march outs with their high school peers in their respective high schools on March 14. And they have also united forces with all the high school students to organize and lead a one hundred percent independent high school movement on Oahu. Their first event was the high school march for our lives Honolulu Eramuana Boulevard, which had the participation of high school students from the following twelve high schools. Ferdinand High School, Assets High School, Moanalua High School, Hawaii Technology Academy, Ledra Jean Academy, Pune Hall High School, University Laboratory High School, Kalani High School, Yulani School, Campbell High School, Waipahu High School, and Pacific Buddhist Academy. We're excited to hear more from these young high school activists and leaders and to learn more about their vision and mission for the movement that they started on their own in Honolulu. We'll also learn about what is an orphan and the never-again movement means to each one of them individually and collectively, and their plans moving forward to give continuity to this movement on our INA. By the end of our program, we hope that other high school, middle schools, and elementary school students will feel inspired to join this high school led and organized movement and on how our community can support them and their leadership structure. On that note, welcome to our program, Hayden and Yumi. Yes, wow, so I want to start by asking you to give me your own personal account of how did the sparkling shooting impacted you? Where were you at and what were your thoughts when you first heard about it? So who would you like to start? I can say on on February 14th, it was for the most part, just, you know, just a normal day about Valentine's Day, nonetheless. But I was at school and I saw like a CNN notification on my phone about there's a shooting event happening in Florida, and that was in like early development state. So I just kind of honestly brush it off because that's actually something I see kind of often because there's news alerts about things and sometimes it's just there's so many of them that I suppose you're kind of desensitized. So I just kind of brush it off. But as the day progressed, I got home from school and by then like there was plenty of information of what happened that day. And I actually I read about what exactly had happened, how it was a former student, etc. And I honestly was appalled because that is now that the Parkland shooting is on the top 10 list now. That's it's just terrible. And it's astonishing that even now like Columbine's out that list, like Parkland helped to push that off the list. And I was appalled. I'm still appalled, but I there was something different in the days that followed the students that survived the shooting actually began to take action. And that was inspiring. People like Emma Gonzalez, like the speeches they gave through tears or not, like in wake of like the horrible tragedy that struck their peers, their teachers, like the staff members of their school. In wake of that, they still managed to come out and like actually make some kind of a movement out of this, a good movement, not inspired by like some political jargon, nothing. It's logical. And to them it's logical because they shouldn't have to suffer through something like that. And that inspired me personally to begin to take action. That's wonderful to hear how this connected to you at fast from a place of almost desensitization from hearing so many shootings to wait a minute, like shift this something was different. Yes. This time something was different. And what about for you, Emilo? How did this impact you on February 14? I was at school when it happened. I didn't find out until I got home and I saw on my phone everyone was posting like, you know, our thoughts of prayers with Parkland. I'm like, what's happening? And I looked it up and I was like, oh, it's just another school shooting. And then I just kind of forgot about it a bit. And then I woke up the next morning and I heard about all the Parkland students coming together. And I was like, I was like, oh, why did I think that? You know, that's not acceptable for it to just be another school shooting because these are 17 lives that were taken away. It shouldn't just be another incident of, oh, we just lost people. You know, and just the desensitization of it all. It's just really awful and how it's because it's a common occurrence you just shrug it off and watching the students speak and demanding for change and action helped inspire me. I'm like, if these people who are still coping with their traumas can do this, then of course I can do this. Oh, that's really powerful. So I'm going to actually ask you both the same question. And I would like to hear from you, Amy, first. So how did you think about what you could do as a high schooler and also in your school to join an office enough movement? What were your first steps? Well, me and Hayden, we met at a cafe together and we kind of worked through and we're trying to just figure out what are we supposed to do. Did you call each other right away? We were kind of sort of straight. Those are the ways, yeah. Did you know each other before? Yeah, you got to different schools. Yeah. Do you want to talk about that real fast? Sure, yeah. We met at a youth talk back, which is led by Seeds of Peace, which is a nonprofit piece organization. And it's a space where students can just talk about issues that matter to them. I met Hayden there. I met kids from all across the island and from other islands. And it was a really great experience. But we came together just about a week or two at the end of February. And we just were like, OK, let's plan this out. March 14 is when they're going to be a national walkout. Let's talk to our administrators and talk to them and have us schedule our own walkouts. And so we just kind of did that. And I went up to my school principal and I had a 45 minute meeting with her. And we just talked about how the students are going to walk out and how she and her fellow administrators can help support us and future stuff that we'll be doing. So you didn't quite ask. You just pretty much said, we're going to do this. And we would really like it to be on board with it. And were they on board right away? Was there any resistance? No, there was very little resistance from the administration. Just wanted to make sure that students were going to be on campus and stay on campus. So we scaled it for the middle of our quad and the academy, the high school. So how many students showed up doing your walkout? Every single student in the academy, I'm pretty sure, showed up with 1,000 something. 200, like 2,000. We have 1,700 kids in the academy. And we also were lucky enough to have about 100 or 200 middle schoolers show up as well. And it was really amazing to see such a school-wide movement and everyone coming together to honor the victims and to start getting ready to rally and to fight. It's a very private, but an entire school that came together to really make many of the lives that were lost and to mourn that loss and to come together in solidarity. And that's really powerful. How about for you, Hayden? What happened with the match out? And how did you feel, also, that urge to say, what can I do as a student? And how can I connect with my other fellow peers to get this coming here in Hodelulu? Yeah. Well, in the days, something else that happened in the days that followed the Parkland shooting, there were calls nationally to have a walkout on March 14. Like, there was a proposal to wear orange as the rallying color of the movement. And there was other things, like March 24. That was going to be March for our lives. And April 20 is another proposed walkout. And all that was put out there by Parkland organizers that was spread around the country. And I picked up on that. And my immediate thought was, I'm going to do that. Like, we need to do that. Not much of a want. Like, this has to happen. And I started asking my friends, like, hey, do a walkout like on the 14? Like, is that something you do? And surprisingly, people that aren't always super keen or like people that aren't always really into politics were like, yeah, yeah, I think we should probably do that. But there was a common sentiment I heard. And that was that I have an opinion on this. And I'd like to express that opinion, but I don't want to get suspended or like given detention for walking out of class on the 14th, which is understandable. So I began to push for making a school sanctioned event. And that alleviates any concerns about being suspended or anything. And fortunately, our state has been just so, the education system especially has been so supportful of these events. So like, you have the office of the deputy superintendent putting out statements about actually condoning these events and like pushing for schools to make a learning experience out of this and not just like say, no, you can't do that. We've been very lucky. Yeah. So actually speaking of where we are at as a state, I mean, Hawaii is a very amazing state with regards to gun legislation. We have one of the most strict laws implemented. And there are three other states who follow the same trend. And surprise, surprise, we also have not only Hawaii, but in the other states, the lowest fatalities due to gun violence. So as you think about this movement led by high schoolers all over the country, why is it a very special place? Because I think every state wants to be into mere where we at. And so I think part of the invitation and the beauty, I think, of having this movement here also is that, yes, there is a national call for the end of gun violence and for gun reform nationwide. We already are ahead of the cover as a state. So I would like to ask the both of you, your thoughts as you help advance this movement forward in Hawaii, not only Oahu, but with other islands and with other piers of yours. And where do you see this vantage point of Hawaii? And how would you like to promote where we at to empower other states to do the same? Yeah. Well, Hawaii has always been a pioneer in these kind of issues. Back in the 60s through the Civil Rights Movement, Hawaii was saying, integration works, because we're such a mixed place. And we were one of the first states to have universal health care. We were one of the first to have legal gay marriage. So we're usually a couple of steps ahead of the rest of the country. And a lot of the arguments against gun controls, when someone brings up Australia's gun control, people say, oh, that's Australia. It's not America. And you can be like, well, in Hawaii, we've had this. We're part of America, technically. We have these laws, and they work. We have very little deaths from gun violence. And it's important for us to be able to tell people in the rest of the country, hey, we can do this. And just help inspire everyone else and show that Hawaii knows what's up. Yeah. Right. So you're pushing, at the legislative level, that perhaps all the states have to do a much harder work. We already got that. So it's really about supporting our representatives to continue to be the champions ahead of the game in that. But really supporting all the states and all their students to have that sense of safety and that assurance that every state should have for gun control, reform, and run it like it is in Hawaii, aloha. Yeah. I suppose something else on that. There's a, of the criticism that this movement has received nationally, locally, something that I've heard is that it's pointless, what are you doing, et cetera. But beyond that, this common sentiment of like it's, there's no point to going out and like doing this because what's it going to change here? And I think that's not the point. I think the point is that we brought some change here and that change worked. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And I think part of the change to locally is about civic engagement. I mean, you're having 15-year-olds, elementary school age students doing this. We have to take a very quick break, but we'll be right back. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, everyone. I'm Andrea Gabrieli. The host for Young Talent's Making Way here on Fink Tech, Hawaii. We talk every Tuesday at 11 a.m. about things that matter to tech, matter to science, to the people of Hawaii with some extraordinary guests, the students of our schools who are participating in science fair. So Young Talent's Making Way every Tuesday at 11 a.m. only on Fink Tech, Hawaii. Mahalo. Aloha. I'm Kili Ikeena, and I'm here every other week on Mondays at 2 o'clock p.m. on Fink Tech, Hawaii's Hawaii Together. In Hawaii Together, we talk with some of the most fascinating people in the islands about working together, working together for a better economy, government, and society. So I invite you into our conversation every other Monday at 2 p.m. on Fink Tech, Hawaii Broadcast Network. Join us for Hawaii Together. I'm Kili Ikeena. Aloha. Welcome back to Perspectives on Global Justice. Fink Tech, Hawaii Broadcast. This is your host, Beatrice Cantelmo. And I back at our second segment in which we have new students with us. So we have Christine Mao and Gabriel Fernandez. So I'm going to actually start this second part of the segment by asking the same questions I asked over in Miloah and Hayden. Where were you at when you first heard of the Falkland shooting on February 14? And how did you react to this and what got you started with the movement? Well, I didn't hear about it until after I finished school that day because I'm kind of busy. But after I got home, my grandma told me about what happened and I thought it was awful. But since it happened so often, I was desensitized to it. So I was like, OK, it's really bad, but nothing crazy is going to come from this other than. So I didn't think much of it. And then later I saw all the kids doing their speeches and I saw that one kid talking to Marco Rubio and said, hey, could you look me straight in the eyes and tell me that you're not taking any money from the NRA? And that was crazy. I was like, well, he's really sticking it to himself. That kind of inspired me and yeah. What was it about that moment, Gabriel, that you felt inspired about it as a 15-year-old young teenager living outside of Hawaii? Just the fact that somebody that young, a teenager or something, can really go up to a politician and ask really hard-hitting questions and get answers. Maybe it's not the answer that they wanted, but you can do that. That's possible in the first place to actually go out Absolutely. Accountability can be asked. And the scrutiny of any government can be demanded by any person at any age. And I think the students have showed that. So how about for you, Christine? Like everyone else, I didn't find out really until after school. And also like everyone else, I didn't think too much of it because even though it was very bad, I had heard so much bad news over the past few years that I just didn't really think much of it. But I think a day or two later, I remember looking at the videos of the students speaking. I remember talking to Emi Loa and a few other students at my school about this issue and feeling really inspired about their persistence on the subject, even though they were having to go through such a horrible event. And so you already connected with Noda Pia and friend Emi Loa, but you were from a different school. I'm one of Loa. So how did you get started with a match out? So I've been friends with Haydn since like 32nd grade. We went to the same elementary school, like a Voyager Charter School. Yeah, so we've known each other for a long time. And basically how I got involved is he just posted some stuff on his Snapchat story about Donald Trump and how he was saying that teachers should be armed and how he thought that wasn't a good idea. And I agreed with him. So I reached out to him and was like, yeah, yeah. So this really has been a movement of grassroots students to do a snapshot. You guys use snapshot, Instagram, texting each other. I mean, that's what teenagers are most frequently on. So that's a pretty good way to reach out. So from that place of saying, OK, we're going to do match out. And you had a match out at Moana Loa. So did you guys have to go and talk to your principal? Hey, do you want to support us? How did that go? So the school got word of it. And they just asked this one particular teacher to go handle it. But then the teacher was like, no, this is a student led thing. So he reached out to some students and started them working on it. And I wanted to be involved, so I went and asked them. But by the time I came and asked the superintendent, I already gave the letter. So it was actually really easy and nice. How perceptive of this teacher to say, no, I defy the power back to the students, because this really has been a movement started and fueled by students, high schoolers. And it would feel very unauthentic if it was done any differently. So kudos to that teacher for having had that vision and saying, no, we'll support, but the kids lead. And so, OK, so from match outs and your respective schools to then getting together to do a match for our lives at La Moana, I would like to hear, I would be wonderful to have all the kids available here and I think it's the part that I'm very moved. I was there, actually. And it was a beautiful event, very well organized, very modest. Like I know that all the events around the island and even around the country had huge attendance and mega productions. And it was very simple. And it had the students from 12 schools and a beautiful program. Everybody spoke from the heart. And it had your parents and it had community supporters there. I want to know why you wanted to do a match the way you did and not choose to do some things so super mega. One of the reasons why we didn't, why we made our own march was because of some complications with the capital march that was organized. And we figured that since we're having complications with them, we might as well make our own. And since we didn't have the production value or we didn't have as much money to organize it, we decided to try and gather as many people as we can but still keep it as authentic as possible. It was all about authenticity because at the capital event, there's politicians and everything. And they have their own agendas. And even though maybe a lot of us are on the same side, they might have ulterior motives and special interests. And we just wanted to separate ourselves from that and be like, we're just teenagers. No incentive, no nothing. We're just here and we're doing this for us and for peers. And at the national level actually, at the march for our lives in Washington DC, the mic was open only to students 18 and under. And no politicians, no adults came to speak or even to organize at NPR. The students for Parkland actually made very clear that the adults who wanted to support whether they were doing this independently or as organizations, that they really had to play a supportive role, not an organizational or leadership role. So I really commend your march organizers for sticking to the integrity of the intention of this march and for sticking to your guns and not really caring about what the outcome would be in terms of presence. I think that the success and the meaning of your event really played on those factors. And I really look forward to see you evolving with this movement. So what's next? What's the plan? What you guys been cooking and talking about and brewing? What's coming? So I know for a fact that we want to have, since we have the time to, we want to do something between now and April 20th because the April 20th plans are still tentative. Like it will differ from every school. We don't want to blindside everybody and just be like, now you have like a hundred less students or something. That would be bad. So we want to make sure that like, we make sure that we tell the school like what's happening on that day. And then also, I mean, while we have the time and everything we need to do as much as we can. So for the students who may wish to follow up or what are you up to, where did they go for that information? Do you have a Facebook page? Do you have a snapshot page? Do you have an Instagram page though? Yeah, our Instagram would probably be the best place to go for that. We do have Facebook too, but the Instagram would probably be the best. That's more to our likes Honolulu, yeah. Much more likes Honolulu, excellent. And so I would like to ask the both of you, what is the message that you would like to share with your peers and with other, from your school, but also from kids from other communities about this movement? What would it be compelling for them in the state of Hawaii to say, let's do something together? Yeah, they're teenagers, so I know it's hard. I know it's hard to get up from the couch. I know it's hard to get out of your bed. I know it's hard to even go anywhere, but especially somewhere where you have to put in some effort and maybe you're not super entertained by it, but it's really important and I wanna stress that and that this is something that we need to do. And that's why you got out of your couch and sat down to do this? Yes, that is exactly what I'm trying to do. Exactly, it was for a good reason, yeah. Right, what about for you? For anybody who says that we're trying to ban guns, we're not. We're not pushing for people to ban guns. We're pushing for better regulations, hopefully not allowing people to sell or buy bump stocks, which turns semi-automatic weapons into automatic. And we just want to show the world that we care about this issue and we want to be an example for the rest of the nation. And we already are, and you already are. I mean, in so many ways, despite all of the atrocities and other constraints you had to go through, I really hope that this may be the first of many times you show up here at our program at Pink Tech as guests to kind of give us an update of what's happening, what you're learning along the way, because I know it's hard, you know. You want to organize, but this is, you know, your first probably time as activists putting something together. So you have to sort out permits, agendas, many things. And this is part of the learning, how to, and you're already networking with each other and you already have the core, the most important thing of all of this. The other stuff is important, but it's the gravy. The deal of this is the heart and the connection that you all have with each other. And as long as you have that, you're gonna do great. So thank you so very much for coming here. Thank you. Well, this concludes our episode of Perspectives on Global Justice for today. Thank you so much for watching us and see you next Friday. We hope.