Watch: Nora Nijbroek reads aloud her speech on Wear Orange Day
Norah Nijbroek reads her speech at a Wear Orange Day event last year.
Transcript:
Good evening, everyone, as Joy said, my name is Norah Nijbroek, and I’m a junior at Hayfield Secondary School in Fairfax County VA. I’ve been trying to start a Students Demand Action chapter at my school for about 7 months now. Unfortunately, the county hasn’t yet approved my group. But that hasn’t stopped me. On Tuesday I planned a walkout at my school with the help of my friends and administration. I didn’t really know what to expect; planning large events, especially on short notice, is new to me. But to my surprise, over 500 students joined me outside that day to demand common sense gun legislation. It was wonderful, yet troubling, to see people's handmade signs, and to chant with them in unison. On the one hand, I had the comfort of knowing that I'm not the only one who is incredibly angry, and heartbroken all at the same time. But those are 500 students at my school who should not feel the need to say something so simple and obvious: our lives are worth more than guns.
The night before the walkout, I stayed up pretty late making signs, in case other people didn’t get the chance. My mother called up to me and said “Norah, have you done your schoolwork yet?” And I said, “Mom, I can’t study for finals; I’m making protest signs.” Rest assured, that line went on a poster. That statement has summed up my life these past few weeks, months, even years. How can I be worried about finals when 19 children in Uvalde didn’t make it to finals because they were murdered in their classroom? They were murdered. And it was preventable. But because Congress can’t do their job, I can’t do mine as a student, unfortunately. Finals are very far from my priority right now. Every piece of common sense gun legislation is above it. Which is a very long list because there is still a lot we have to do to ensure that nothing like what happened to the students in Uvalde, in Sandy Hook, in Columbine, in Red Lake, at Oxford, at Virginia Tech, at Parkland, and countless other schools that have lost lives to gun violence can happen again. And until something is done, I won’t be able to live the life of a normal student, or what should be a normal student. A student who doesn’t see school as the possible site for a battleground. In other words, until something is done, I will be living the life of a stereotypical American student. That’s why I wear orange. This should not be the normal for American students. Thank you.
