them has said anything along the lines of ‘I’ll donate but you have to listen to what I say.’ Nobody is pulling the strings for these kids,” he said. “I have to make clear: [Clooney] is not directing them, nor is anybody.”
He also said Clooney had hooked them up with attorneys and admin help, and, crucially, the powerhouse PR firm 42 West, which represented major entertainment talent. Jeff Kasky said the March for Our Lives Foundation would be set up that week to oversee the handling of all funds.
4
It was a wearying ride to Tallahassee, with three rest stops and lots of bladder issues. At the stops, kids said the elation had subsided in the first hour. No one was sure what they were in for. They were excited to meet their representatives, but fuzzy on what that would look like. And what should they say? Many were taken aback by the media whirlwind. They had expected us to move on by now, not follow them up the turnpike.
“I don’t think any of us thought it would get this big so quickly,” Daniel Duff said. Daniel was a skinny freshman with curly brown hair and braces across an irrepressible smile. He could be Central Casting for the sidekick’s handsome little brother in a high school rom-com. Governor Scott was one of the few officials he was familiar with—“Mostly because he looks so much like Voldemort.”
Daniel was fourteen, from a fervently Republican family, and had never paid much attention to politics. He was very into it now. Tallahassee sounded exciting. He was really eager to talk to officials—but how blunt should he be? Was someone going to guide them? He wasn’t aware of the training ahead, but would find it a godsend.
The lead bus pulled into Leon High School around 9:30 p.m. The kids were tired, hungry, and ready to crash. The campus was built on a hill, with a grassy ridge and a staircase leading up to the school. The grounds were lit, and hundreds of students lined the ridge. The kids staggered off the first bus to rapturous cheers and a hug-brigade of local officials lined up beside the door. As they mounted the staircase, adoring Leon students pressed in from both sides. A bank of TV cameras were positioned to capture it all, with the caravan of more rolling in. The kids felt like astronauts returning from the moon landing. No one had foreseen this. Daniel Duff wondered who was hugging him, and was visibly overcome. All those kids stayed at school till ten o’clock? “I didn’t know that we were that big,” he said. “To meet some kids who have a voice?”
Several Parkland kids stepped up to the microphone at the top of the stairs. Impassioned speeches recaptured the mood from the Publix lot, until a technical glitch took out the speakers. They wrapped it up and went inside. Some of the Leon kids joined them, but the bulk remained outside to repeat the process. The second bus got a similar welcome, but when Jackie’s bus pulled in an hour later, they had given up and gone in for pizza with two-thirds of the Parkland contingent. Jackie’s group was ushered in quickly with little fanfare.
It was very late, but the legislative training went forward. It was vital. Claire VanSusteren gave an overview. This is a conversation, two ways, and it demands respect, she said. It’s OK to be emotional with officials, but if you get angry or contentious, meetings will be canceled fast. She said that had happened to a group of activists earlier that month.
Several speakers repeated her warning, but Representative Jared Moskowitz went a different route. “You need to make this real for them,” he said. “You’ve got to put them in that school.”
“You are the epicenter of the earth right now,” Senator Book said. “You are what is going to change the world. And the most important thing is that we not let people look away!”
Daniel Duff was relieved. He got it now. They all did.
Senator Book and Claire VanSusteren spent the night with the girls, in sleeping bags on the Red Cross cots. Conversation bounced among normal teen topics, the speeches they were planning, and memories of the shooting. Some were sharing stories for the first time. “After three o’clock, I could not stay up one more minute,” VanSusteren said. She suggested everyone get some sleep.
“We don’t really sleep anymore,” the kids told her. She shuddered. Then she wandered off to try.
5
At five