Trayvon Martin’s mom gives platform to high school valedictorian whose mic was cut off
A Dallas high school valedictorian finally got to deliver her speech in full with the help of Sybrina Fulton, the mother of slain 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who gave the graduating senior a platform to speak her “truth.”
Valedictorian Rooha Hagher said last week her speech was cut short by a suspiciously timed “technical difficulty” when she read the names of African Americans who were fatally shot in recent years, including Martin and Tamir Rice.{mosads}
Fulton posted a snippet of Hagher reciting her speech on Instagram, and directed followers to the Trayvon Martin Foundation website for the full video.
“Now the world can hear your SPEECH! Thank you @rooha_haghar for speaking your truth. We honor you! Continue to be a shinning star of your generation!,” Fulton wrote on Instagram.
Martin was shot by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, near his home in Florida in 2012. Zimmerman was charged with murder and later acquitted .
Rice, who was 12 at the time, was shot by a police officer in Cleveland in 2014. Officer Timothy Loehman was not charged in Rice’s death, and has recently been hired by another department in Ohio.
In the speech, Hagher asks graduates to remember those who “were robbed of this opportunity.”
She asks them to think not only of Martin and Rice but “all the other children who became victims of injustice.”
since this is getting more attention than i expected, here’s that section of my speech (for context) pic.twitter.com/4dsf865AZk
— روحا (@ItsRoohaHaghar) June 3, 2019
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