Excerpt
Friday afternoon, Boone County 11th-grader Morgan Smith stood behind a podium in front of more than a thousand other West Virginia students and community members who were rallying to support their teachers and other school employees.
“I wasn’t scared, even though I was shaking,” Smith said. “It wasn’t because I was nervous, though. It was because I was so passionate about what’s been going on, about what I had to say.”
It was the first time she’s ever spoken in front of a crowd that size. While she said she was shaking, it was impossible to tell from the crowd, and her voice carried strong from the Capitol’s steps out to Kanawha Boulevard.
“It seems like they [legislators] aren’t seeing the bigger picture … this is our future, this is my future, this is my brother’s future,” the Sherman High School student said, answered by cheers from the crowd. “They need to stop overlooking us. They need to stop ignoring us, and they need to see what is going on.”
