A group of high school students in Washington, DC got the surprise of a lifetime at the end of the first school week when they got a visit from former President Barack Obama.
He stopped in at McKinley Technology High School on Friday. He casually strolled into a classroom filled with shocked students.
“Hey, how’s it going everybody?” Obama said to the stunned students. “The chancellor told me you guys were meeting, so I thought I’d stop by. How’s everybody doing? Is that my seat? You don’t mind me crashing, right?”
Obama posted a video of the chat on Instagram. He captioned it “To all the young people headed back to school around the country: Make us proud. You’re the next generation of leaders, and we need you.”
The 44th president also captioned the above Instagram post with this:
These young people that I met at McKinley Tech today are the reason I’m hopeful about the future. To all the young people headed back to school around the country: Make us proud. You’re the next generation of leaders, and we need you.
@BarackObama made a surprise visit to McKinley Tech HS here in DC to welcome back students as they start a new school year. pic.twitter.com/Y64tAE0KBl
— Eric Schultz (@EricSchultz) September 8, 2017
Proud of these McKinley Tech students—inspiring young minds that make me hopeful about our future. pic.twitter.com/nqYC1mjjTB
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) September 8, 2017
In the video, he tells students, “One of the things that I did throughout my presidency was I’d meet with groups of young people everywhere I went, whether it was here in the United States, or when I was traveling overseas just to kind of hear from them, find out what they’re interested in, because I do believe that most of the problems that we have are going to be solved by you.”
At the end of Obama’s visit, he said to one of the students, “Remember what I say: Don’t back down.”
The former President has been keeping a low profile since he left the White House. However, this visit follows a statement he released earlier in the week slamming Trump’s decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, better known as DACA. He called the move “cruel, self-defeating and wrong.”
