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Who Won Big At The Emmys? D.C. Public Schools

A single school district stole the show, thanks to shout-outs from Dave Chappelle, John Oliver, and a viral Twitter hashtag.

 Britni Danielle
09.18.17

Hollywood’s biggest stars aligned Sunday evening in Los Angeles for the 69th annual Primetime Emmy Awards. While many are still buzzing about Lena Waithe and Donald Glover’s history-making wins — Waithe is the first black woman to win an award for comedy writing while Glover is the first black person to win best director for a comedy series — an unlikely winner also emerged during the show: Washington, D.C.’s public schools.

Comedian Dave Chappelle was the first to shout out D.C. Public Schools when he took the stage to hand out the Emmy for best director in a comedy series. Though Chappelle admitted to improvising most of the dialogue leading up to the award, before announcing the names of the nominees he joked, “Now I’m going to read this teleprompter,” he said. “Please forgive me. Shout out to D.C. Public Schools.”

Chappelle wasn’t the only one to send love to D.C. Public Schools. “Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver also acknowledged the district’s students and teachers during his acceptance speech for winning Best Writing for a Variety Series.

“Like Dave Chappelle, I would like to unexpectedly thank D.C. Public Schools because I think it would be great if it started trending on Twitter for no reason tonight whatsoever,” Oliver said before encouraging Twitter users to “please use the hashtag #DCPublicSchools.”

Almost immediately #DCPublicSchools began trending on the social media platform, with many using the hashtag as an opportunity to shine a light on the district’s students and teachers.

D.C. Public Schools’ social media manager must have been watching the show, because soon after Chappelle and Oliver shouted them out, someone from the district took to Twitter to thank the comedians and share their plans for the future.

This isn’t the first time D.C. Public Schools became a viral sensation on Twitter. Earlier this month, Former President Barack Obama stopped by McKinley Technology High School to welcome a stunned group of young people back to school.

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