for the Washington Post. It offers by far the most definitive numbers, so I relied on them throughout.
Eleven days before the Women’s March, the New York Times reported donations at $849,000 (“Women’s March on Washington . . .”). As of November 2018, the March has received $2,069,783 in donations.
3
The five recent grads were Matt Deitsch, Dylan Baierlein, Brendan Duff, Kaylyn Pipitone (Pippy), and Bradley Thornton. (All come up in the book except Bradley. Sorry Bradley—I wish our paths had crossed. I think they did briefly in Chicago.)
Statistics on Parkland’s demographics, median income and home value, and poverty rate are from City Data, DataUSA, and the US Census.
The Parkland Historical Society was invaluable in providing history on the area. The society’s president, Jeff Schwartz, and vice president, Jim Weiss, described the area as it was and is to my researcher Marc Greenawalt. (These were among the few interviews I did not conduct personally.) Jim Weiss also wrote articles on the Parkland Historical Society’s website that contribute to the background. Additional information comes from the city of Parkland’s website.
I relied on several sources to situate Parkland’s role in the Everglades, especially the US Geological Survey’s articles on the Everglades and the South Florida environment, and Michael Grunwald’s book The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise.
For biographical information on Marjory Stoneman Douglas, I relied primarily on “At the March for Our Lives . . .” (Washington Post) and Tim Collie’s “Marjory Stoneman Douglas, ‘Voice of the River’” (Sun-Sentinel). That Washington Post piece also provides the number of stoplights in Parkland.
The statistics on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School come from the National Center for Education Statistics and pertain to the 2017–18 school year. Additional statistics come from U.S. News & World Report.
Basic facts on the rally, including sponsors, come from the event’s Facebook page.
4
Emma’s experience in AP US government class that day and her thoughts about gun legislation at that time come from “Emma González Hated Guns . . .” (Washington Post).
The information about David Hogg recommending Emma for Anderson Cooper 360° initially came from the same article. I also spoke to the producers about David at the time, and appeared on the show that night.
Quotes from Emma in this section come from her appearances on Ellen and 60 Minutes, her interview with Milk.xyz, and the articles “Emma González Hated Guns . . .” (Washington Post) and “What We Know about Emma Gonzalez” (CNN).
Like most of America, I had never heard of Emma until Saturday, and I was unaware of the rally until Saturday afternoon, when I started seeing clips of her speech online. I watched it online many times. All quotes and descriptions are from that recording.
4. Tallahassee
1
All descriptions and quotes from the Tallahassee trip—including the organizational meeting and the parking lot—are from my interviews and observations. I rented a car and followed the first two buses in a long media caravan up to the capital. We made three rest stops along the way. At first, I left the kids alone to have quiet time, but at each break, more of them wandered over to chat with me. I pulled into Leon High School right behind the first bus, convinced a cop to let me into the parking lot, and then watched the kids get off the first two buses, receive a hero’s welcome, and make their speeches. Then the Leon kids went inside with them, and Claire let me inside the school. I spent the next few hours interviewing kids and observing the training. I was covering it with a two-man documentary film crew hired by Vanity Fair, so we often split up and compared notes, and I watched the video footage as well. The third bus arrived while I was inside, so I didn’t witness that. Jackie was on it, and she described their unceremonious entry to me later.
2
I watched Jackie and Cameron hop onto the SUV in the parking lot from a few feet away, but did not hear what they whispered to each other. I got the brief snatch of dialogue used in the book first by interviewing Jackie about it, and then I pasted it into a text message to run it by Cameron. He remembered a few bits slightly differently. I adjusted accordingly to match his memory, then ran that by Jackie, until they were both satisfied it was accurate. (This scene was included in a March Vanity Fair online story, and its fact-checker then checked most quotes like that, but I can’t recall