Julian Perez, contestant number 4, wishes to express the life struggles he has faced, especially with how he was wrongly judged, and how these struggles formed who he is and his desire to change the world.

How was your day?

“Well, today has been a good day for me so far, except for what happened during the passing period. I saw online about the New Zealand Mass Shooting where a white guy went around killing poor innocent Muslims on Facebook live.”

The band room became silent.

How did it make you feel?

“Honestly, I just want to try my best to stop anything like what happened in New Zealand. Especially since it affects my own life.”

From here, Julian spoke in a more serious, somber tone.

“From freshman year, I was called a racist because I look white even though I am actually Hispanic. Not only that, I was also called and referred to as a school shooter when I’m not. Thanks to this, I hardly had friends and many people were scared of me. They started the rumors I was going to shoot up the school.”

His fellow bandmates were all in a state of shock.

How did you handle the situation?

Julian took a deep breath and said the following:

“I basically just learned to ignore it or just take it as a joke because I like dark humor but I know the boundaries. However, it got worse last year. My friends and I were just cracking dark humor jokes and my friends jokingly called me a school shooter and so on. Turns out this girl overheard us and went to the office to report us. The police came and my friend was falsely accused of something that hadn’t happened.”

A friend in the room agreed and said it’s true.

Why did this event occur?

“Honestly, if I had to guess, it was the false rumors about me being a school shooter. Literally, I can’t get a break from all the negativity – not at school or at home. But there is one thing I’m very happy about, which is having my marching band family and my new friends. Thank you guys for helping me live and make my high school life better. And I’m going to work hard to help make this world a better place.”

Julian smiled.

Make sure to help and support Julian make this world a better place and stop spreading rumors about students based on their appearance. And make sure to support and wish Julian good luck as he competes for the title of Mr. Cardinal 2019-2020 at Sturges Center of Performing Arts on April 13 at 5 P.M.