When the clock struck 10am, 16-year old Justin Blackman joined the hundreds of thousands of students across the country in the National School Walkout To End Gun Violence. He told his Spanish teacher at Wilson Preparatory Academy in Wilson NC what he was doing and the teacher let him go. None of his 700 classmates joined him.
For the next 17 minutes Justin stood in the parking lot — a lone presence, but far from alone. He took out his phone and panned the camera around the empty parking lot and campus. "Um, hello Twitter. There's going to be like six people watching this hopefully,” he voiced over his video.
Standing up for what you believe in is commendable. Doing it as a child is remarkable. Being the only person in your school to make a stand is downright courageous. Young Justin had hoped 6 people might see it on Twitter. As of this writing, his post has garnered over 150,000 likes and Justin Blackman now has over 6000 Twitter followers. Alone? Hardly.