8th graders refuse to take a photo with Paul Ryan because they don't "want to be associated with him"
Speaker Ryan is one of the most unpopular politicians in the country — and he's polling particularly poorly among one 8th grade class.
Eighth grade students from South Orange Middle School in South Orange, New Jersey were on a school trip to Washington D.C. on Friday when they were given a very special opportunity: a photo-op with Speaker Paul Ryan. Under normal circumstances, many students would leap for the chance to take a photo with the third most powerful politician in the country.
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Close to 100 8th graders refused to take a photo with the Speaker and instead sat in a parking lot across the street. Speaker Ryan then took a photo with the remaining class and posted it to his Instagram.
A post shared by Speaker Paul Ryan (@speakerryan) on May 26, 2017 at 6:39am PDT
"I can’t take a picture with someone who supports a budget that would destroy public education and would leave 23 million people without healthcare,” Matthew Malespina, a student at the school, told his local newspaper, The Village Green.
Others grounded their decision in their aversion to Trump.
“I didn’t want to be in [the picture] because he believes in most of what Trump believes in,” a fellow student, Louisa Maynard-Parisi, told The Village Green.
Parents were torn about whether the kids should have sat out on the photo. Ryan was a "legitimately elected official," one parent wrote, and they would have been offended if conservative students had done the same thing to President Obama.
Matthew Malespina's mother, on the other hand, couldn't have been more proud/.
"I am proud of my son and all the other students who chose to respectfully not to participate in the photograph with Speaker Ryan,” she told The Village Green.
Middle school #resistance is the best kind of resistance there is.
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