CNN’s John Berman Celebrates 14-Year-Old Student Flipping Off Anti-Mask Protesters at Her School

CNN’s John Berman celebrated a student on Wednesday who delivered a rude gesture to anti-mask protesters outside her school, asking her to “walk through” the incident in a morning interview.

“OK, so the protesters are there every single day,” the Vermont student, Fiona Downey, told Berman in the interview. “And they come over and they just hold up their signs and for me, I was just fed up and I was filled with anger. And I just decided to give them the finger, because I thought it was the best thing I could do.”

Berman’s interview with Downey came after a photo circulated online of her displaying the gesture at two mothers who routinely protest outside Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg, Vermont. She appeared on Berman’s program alongside her mother, Meagan Downey. “She said, ‘Mom, I flipped off the anti-maskers and they flipped me off back,” the elder Downey recalled. “You know, honestly, I understood her frustration and her anger.”

“I’m just smiling,” Berman replied, “because it’s one of those challenging parenting moments where you know you’re supposed to say that’s not something you’re supposed to do but you’re whispering to yourself, ‘Right on.’ You got to be careful with that.”

He added, “I understand your frustration, because it is a minority, this vocal aggressive minority who are protesting masks, and sometimes you have to deliver a message back.”

Watch above via CNN.