Remember that teen who’s picture went viral a few weeks ago? He was sharing a post on the popular Humans of New York blog about his favorite educator, and managed to garner more than $1 million in donations.
Vidal Chastanet from Brooklyn, New York, was hoping to shed a bit of positive light on his school’s principal when he decided to share on the Humans of New York Facebook page.
“When we get in trouble, she doesn’t suspend us. She calls us to her office and explains to us how society was built down around us. And she tells us that each time somebody fails out of school, a new jail cell gets built. And one time she made every student stand up, one at a time, and she told each one of us that we matter.”
Chastanet’s story was so inspirational that more than one million Facebook followers liked the post, and hundreds of thousands shared the story. President Obama even got wind, and invited Vidal and his principal to the White House for a conversation. “Usually life is not a straight line. We don’t do things alone. Nobody does things alone,” said the Commander-in-Chief during his interview with the teen. “Everybody always needs support. You’ll have a lot of people supporting you out there. You just gotta make sure you seize those opportunities.”
Watch the interaction between Vidal and the president here!
