Michelle Obama to Hadiya Pendleton's Classmates: 'They Don’t Believe You Are Real'

The 15-year-old girl had taken part in President Obama's inauguration. The first lady attended her funeral.

First lady Michelle Obama delivers the commencement address during graduation ceremonies for the Class of 2015 at Dr. Martin Luther King College Preparatory High School held on the campus of Chicago State University, Tuesday, June 9, 2015, in Chicago.
Photograph: AP Photo/Christian K Lee

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By Ben Brody

June 10, 2015 at 12:45 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

In a high school graduation speech Tuesday, first lady Michelle Obama urged students on the South Side of Chicago to take inspiration from a classmate, Hadiya Pendleton, whose shooting death led to calls to address gun violence.

“If Hadiya’s friends and family could survive the heartbreak and pain, if they could found organizations to honor her unfulfilled dreams, if they could inspire folks across this country to wear orange [to] protest gun violence, then I know you all can live your life with the same determination and joy that Hadiya lived her life,” Obama told Pendleton's classmates at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. College Preparatory, according to a transcript released by the White House.