It’s been a wild past few months with two candidates ferociously battling it out to have chance of placing themselves inside the Oval Office. And the end result of it all was a surprise victory for Republican candidate Donald Trump.

This victory was a surprise to the nation and de Toledo, especially after the schoolwide poll, which was initiated after a Town Hall on November 28, with Dean of Students Mark Shpall sending out an email to the student body. This poll was about whom students wanted to be their next president and the results were as follows:

Hillary Clinton earned 112 votes (62.2%), Donald Trump 53 votes (29.4%), Gary Johnson 10 votes (5.5%), and Jill Stein 5 votes (2.7%). Even though Clinton received a landslide victory at our school and our home state of California, she was not as lucky nationwide, because at the end of election day TV broadcast maps of the nation looked like a sea of red.

de Toledo sophomore Wyatt was one of the many proponents for Hillary Clinton who were surprised by the Trump victory: “All the polls had Hillary winning and the Trump supporters came out of nowhere.”

Wyatt is referencing all the polls before the election that showed Hillary Clinton defeating Donald Trump, which ended up being completely wrong.

Even with all of this shock, confusion, and anger nationwide, fellow de Toledo sophomore and staunch Donald Trump supporter Dylan Lynch was not surprised in the least. He said, “I expected Trump to win all along.”

And when asked about what he thinks about Trump being the victor, he replied, “I think it is great for this country, and I think he will really turn things around.”

Senior Daniel Wasserman had this to say about the outcome of the election: “I think a lot of people in America expected a different outcome, but you still have to move on and show that we are stronger than we appear.”

These words couldn’t have come at a greater time as people across the nation have been protesting Trump winning the election. Some of the protests have occurred in Los Angeles, where 8,000 furious people protested at the Staples Center, directly on the 10 freeway, and in other locations throughout the city.  

According to Fox 11 News reports, over 200 people were arrested with some even allegedly committing vandalism.

But these crimes have been worse in areas such as Portland, Oregon, where the protests have been designated riots. This is because the protestors have allegedly committed crimes such as smashing windows, lighting dumpster fires, and throwing objects at police.

With all this violence and hate, hopefully our school and the nation can listen to the words of Daniel and show everyone that “we are stronger than we appear.”