Change the Ref - "The Lost Class" 

Manuel and Patricia Oliver lost their son, Joaquin, in the Parkland shooting mere months before he was set to graduate. This year, we worked with them to get a divided America to unify around the need for universal background checks and show how this legislation could save the lives of children like their son.

The Olivers’ pain of not seeing their child graduate high school is a reality for thousands of families who have lost a child to gun violence. For them, graduation season is a tragic reminder of lost potential. This year alone, 3,044 members of the high school class of 2021 didn’t graduate because they were killed by a gun. To call attention to this, we held a graduation ceremony for this Lost Class, where each empty chair represented a student who should’ve graduated if we had laws like universal background checks. But it wasn’t enough to paint a picture. We had to confront the problem. So, we invited two prominent pro-gun advocates to deliver the The Lost Class’ commencement addresses.

To do this, we created James Madison Academy, a fake online high school named after the author of the Second Amendment. The language and ethos of the school’s website were written to appeal to right-wing sensibilities. We then invited David Keene, former NRA President, and John Lott, author of More Guns, Less Crime, to make the school’s commencement speech. We filmed their speeches during what they believed was a dress rehearsal. But really, they were speaking to The Lost Class of 2021, in effect facing the consequences of careers spent lobbying against common-sense gun legislation. In doing this, these two gun advocates became the unlikely spokesmen for our gun violence PSA. Each film encouraged viewers to sign Change the Ref’s petition to pass universal background checks for gun sales, a petition that now has over 40,000 signatures.