[griojw id=”pfYPefeL” playerid=”GqX43ZoG”]
Wednesday, Justin Blackman got up from his desk and walked out of his Spanish class in solidarity with the school walkout protests happening all over the nation.
Unfortunately, when he got outside, he saw that he was the only one.
After 17 minutes, the 16-year-old accepted that none of the estimated 700 students at Wilson Preparatory Academy in Wilson, North Carolina, would be joining him, even though he’d spoken to his classmates about it earlier in the day.
Shortly after, the teen uploaded a video on Twitter as he grappled with his disappointment.
“Umm… hello Twitter, there’s going to be like six people watching this hopefully,” Justin Blackman says in the video. “It’s National Walkout Day, I’m the only one from my school out here”
When he walked back into the building, someone from the school congratulated him for his lone act of bravery.
“Now, I truly know that one person is all it takes,” Justin Blackman said. “No matter the age, skin color, gender—it doesn’t matter.”
And his mother isn’t the least surprised by his action.
“Justin is very opinionated,” she shared in an interview with CNN. “He’s not a follower. Strong minded.”
Janet Conner-Knox, who handles public relations for Wilson Preparatory Academy, agreed with those sentiments, telling the news station, “We teach our students to be independent thinkers. [Blackman] is an independent thinker.”
Within hours of posting the video on Twitter the post went viral. According to ABC 11, as of 5:45 p.m., the video from Justin Blackman had two million views, more than 22,000 retweets and 100,000 likes. Blackman also appeared on CNN for an interview with Don Lemon.
Justin Blackman was in good company on Wednesday. Thousands of students across the country walked out of their classes for 17 minutes to advocate for stricter gun laws in the aftermath of the deadly Parkland, Florida school massacre.