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Student Voices: My class talked with a Trump supporter. Here’s what I learned.
The Seattle Times ^ | September 7, 2017 | Olivia Capestany

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 ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Education; Politics
KEYWORDS: hillary; seattle; trump; washington
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To: NorthMountain
Some were in tears, hugging and holding each other in the hallways.

Yeah, I would have been the hug opportunist back in the day.

and yeah, selectively

21 posted on 09/08/2017 5:06:59 AM PDT by onona (Please Lord guide my thoughts and actions)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I admire what she wrote, but any thoughts in a career in a Left-dominated field, like ‘journalism’ are pretty much over. Absolutely no way a ‘mainstream’ outlet would take her, so she’d have to fight with other similarly-capable people for the much smaller number of slots at Breitbart, the Washington Times, etc.

On the other hand she’ll probably be ok if she goes into something technical...at least until the Democrats are able to seize enough power and finally start to round up their opponents.


22 posted on 09/08/2017 5:27:15 AM PDT by BobL (In Honor of the NeverTrumpers, I declare myself as FR's first 'Imitation NeverTrumper')
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To: Rocky
I told my niece that Trump wasn't going to be impeached, and "global warming/climate change" was mostly a myth. She collapsed in tears and had to be held by her mom.

My niece is 27 years old! True story ...

23 posted on 09/08/2017 5:41:37 AM PDT by Campion (Halten Sie sich unbedingt an die Lehre!)
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To: Campion

“I told my niece that Trump wasn’t going to be impeached, and “global warming/climate change” was mostly a myth. She collapsed in tears and had to be held by her mom.”

You got one of those also? My niece thinks “The Day the Earth Stood Still” is a documentary.


24 posted on 09/08/2017 5:54:47 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (“The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive.” - DJT)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Preschool through graduate degree...snowflakes in training.


25 posted on 09/08/2017 6:27:29 AM PDT by Sasparilla ( I'm Not Tired of Winning.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
It’s rare to see anyone who is openly Republican at Roosevelt High School in Northeast Seattle.

Good to know. I won't darken their doorway.

26 posted on 09/08/2017 7:08:14 AM PDT by bgill (CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola.")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Poor girl. She is going to be shunned by her friends and her teachers are going to fail her because she dared to say anything that was even remotely even minded about Trump supporters and how both side should be heard. In fact she’ll probably need to change schools and maybe forced to leave the area.


27 posted on 09/08/2017 7:20:16 AM PDT by skyman
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I've been to Seattle several times, and I had only one good experience there.

Boeing once provided VIP tickets to see the visiting King Tut Exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum -- for a fellow speaker and me at a (classified) conference hosted at Boeing...

28 posted on 09/08/2017 7:52:23 AM PDT by TXnMA (Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad! REPEAT San Jacinto!!!)
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To: robroys woman

During the Obama campaign before his first election,I knew the idiot was a fraud and the “Hope and Change” was utter BS. Every Obamabot that I talked to could not explain hope and change,what Obama’s qualifications were nor articulate how candidate Obama would be a good fit for the office of President. The second election,they still couldn’t and of course the same with Clinton. Liberals are truly brainwashed and brain dead sycophants who are all child like.


29 posted on 09/08/2017 8:14:27 AM PDT by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

What a bright young woman. She has discovered the necessity of respect and fee speech. Hope she wakes up one day and discovers she is actually a conservative, and brings the rest of her political views into line.


30 posted on 09/08/2017 8:14:55 AM PDT by Albion Wilde (I was not elected to continue a failed system. I was elected to change it. --Donald J. Trump)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Whoa...didn't see that coming. She passed the devil's test!

Her article is so well-written and so well thought out that I would have assumed she was home schooled instead of a senior in a Seattle public high school.

I just hope that her spirit isn't crushed before it grows even taller.

Her critical thinking skills are showing real potential, which makes her a serious threat to the progressive teachers and school administrations she'll continue to encounter.

31 posted on 09/08/2017 8:47:17 AM PDT by GBA (A = 432)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It sounds like the young lady has had too much to think. She runs the risk of being drummed out of her liberal collective if she develops a thinking problem.


32 posted on 09/08/2017 8:55:02 AM PDT by Durus (You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality. Ayn Rand)
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To: Campion

I believe it, and it’s sickening.


33 posted on 09/08/2017 9:38:41 AM PDT by Rocky (The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it. George Orwell)
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To: aquila48

The local teachers and administrators are doing most of the damage to our youth, not the Washington bunch.


34 posted on 09/08/2017 11:36:11 AM PDT by sarge83
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To: Campion
I told my niece that Trump wasn't going to be impeached, and "global warming/climate change" was mostly a myth. She collapsed in tears and had to be held by her mom. My niece is 27 years old! True story ...

Tell them that "getting the vapors" and feigning fainting was one old way that SOUTHERN Belles did their emotional manipulations. If she realizes that she is copying Confederates, maybe she will grow up a little.

35 posted on 09/08/2017 7:11:56 PM PDT by Teacher317 (We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men)
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