Oxnard—During his Tuesday, September 15, City Council meeting, Channel Islands High School student Haime Castro Martinez led the crowd in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and afterward told his story.
COUNCIL Member Gabriela Basua introduced him, and the student-athlete asked everyone to take off their caps and recite the pledge.
Mayor Luis McArthur asked for a moment of silence and noted that the school’s high school teacher has a sick child, so she couldn’t attend.
Martinez said he’s a senior and thanked his principal and the City Council for sharing his story.
“I was born without my hand and struggled with self-confidence since I was young,” he said. “I was the smallest one in my class and constantly got into fights defending myself over my hand.”
When he moved to Oxnard with his family, he just finished his third-grade year at Woodland Hills, and they stayed and he finished fourth and fifth grade.
“Here, in Oxnard, it was very different,” he said. “At my old school, I had friends which I still talk to now. Then COVID happened, and I would hardly talk to any of my friends.”
When Middle School started and they were attending in-person classes, he said kids he thought were his friends became…
