We Are America

Freedom of Speech

By Gavin

Robert Louis Stevenson Middle School, Honolulu, Hawaii

My name is Gavin Onodera. I'm Japanese. One memorable moment for me was when I witnessed someone at I-trampoline being openly racist towards other people around him. At first when I got to the I-trampoline, he just stayed in the basketball part of the building, so we didn’t notice him. After a while, my friends and I went to the dodgeball part of the building where we ran into him. He started calling some of the other kids racial slurs, and then he did it to my friends. I didn’t really care at first, but then I saw it hurt my friends. It was disappointing that he didn’t get in trouble at all. It kept getting more annoying because he was really big and I don't think anyone would have stood up to him because he was massive. He just kept harassing kids. Finally, he eventually got yelled at by the I-trampoline workers but it passed as only a warning. He didn’t listen and was still annoying people. Then his parents yelled at him so he was more quiet but still annoying. He probably had nothing better to do so he held up the line for the basketball. Finally, he got yelled at from the staff for harassment and was actually kicked out. I found out later that he was banned from I-trampoline for injuring a kid. It bothered me that the kid he injured was a different race than him because it meant that he didn’t learn anything after getting reprimanded by his parents and the workers.

The reason I want to share this story is because in America, we have the right to freedom of speech, but I think it’s important that all people should exercise good judgment in what they say. In my opinion, what he said was inconsiderate and hurtful to everyone around him, whether he was talking directly to them or not. It seemed as though he didn’t care about other people’s feelings. Living in America means that we have freedom of speech, but this is also a valuable right that we should use appropriately.