Director Statement

On February 14, 2018, I watched news coverage of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. I was angry. I was sad.

On CNN, Anderson Cooper interviewed MSD journalism teacher Melissa Falkowski. What she said left a mark. She had kept 19 students hidden and calm for nearly 2 hours in the newspaper classroom closet until the SWAT team arrived to escort them to safety. In her interview, she said that our country is failing our kids by not keeping them safe in schools.

I watched in tears and complete agreement. We shouldn't have to worry that when we hug our kids in the morning, that they could be shot to death at school. Or at the mall. Or at a movie theater. Or at church. Or at a dance party.

Our hearts cannot continue to break like this.

In the days that followed, I was glued to the television and in awe of the MSD students who were speaking up, calling out, and demanding change.

We live in a world that systematically tells kids to sit down and be quiet. The students of Parkland weren’t having it. Emma Gonzalez declared BS. #NeverAgain trended on Twitter. Four days after the shooting, March for Our Lives was announced. These were kids, and they were just getting started.

And I couldn't stop thinking about Melissa Falkowski huddled in a utility closet with 19 teenagers.

I found the MSD high school newspaper website, Eagle Eye News. I spent a solid hour on the site, reading well-reported stories about topics that are important to teens today, such as vaping and rape culture. Well before the tragedy, these kids knew how to write, and they knew how to speak up.

Seventeen years ago, I lost my cousin to gun violence. My kids have lockdown drills at their public schools, and I have to talk to them about things like shootings and terrorism. I am also a filmmaker with a journalism degree, and I believe deeply in empowering young people to use their voices.

So while I live in Minnesota, halfway across the country from Parkland, this story hit close to home. I emailed Mrs. Falkowski and asked her if I could make a film featuring her students, and focusing on the power of young voices. After just a few phone calls, I met up with her and her Eagle Eye student staffers in Washington, DC to film their coverage of March for Our Lives.

On that trip, I met Mary Beth Tinker, a student free speech advocate who won a landmark Supreme Court case in 1969 which states that students and teachers do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

That chance meeting with Ms. Tinker gave more depth and history to this project. In February 2019, Ms. Tinker organized events to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Des Moines, Iowa. (Serendipity side note: my name is also Maribeth and I also grew up in Des Moines!). The anniversary events were the perfect opportunity to connect the history dots of student free speech in America.

Raise Your Voice is a story about youth leading social change with the power of their voices.