DEARBORN — About 100 local high school students joined public officials in a march on Martin Luther King Day to dispel negative stereotypes about the city.

“Unify, diversify,” demonstrators chanted as they held signs while they walked in freezing weather down Michigan Avenue.

Dubbed “Real Dearborn”, the march was conceived and organized by students who reached out to school administers to help them gain steam among public officials.

The likes of Mayor Jack O’Reilly, U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D- Dearborn) and Police Chief Ron Haddad joined the teenagers in support of their mission.

“We’re a bunch of religions and cultures, all unified and diversified,” shouted an Arab American student. “We don’t have sharia law here, and we’re not all Muslims here. There’s Jews, atheists, Christians and Muslims. We welcome everybody.”

At the city’s Administrative Center, some participants stood behind a podium and declared their frustration with persistent misrepresentation of the city and straightened out falsehoods to several reporters and photographers.

An “O’Reilly Factor” video segment that aired in August served as a prominent example of dishonest reports about Dearborn. The show claimed a woman was stoned in Dearborn and that Muslims control the City Council, calling Police Chief Haddad a Muslim.

Dearborn instantly became a target of online attacks.

Student Nada Alhamdi said she attended the march to celebrate Dr. King’s contributions and advocate for his values, which she says are just as important today as they were in the 60’s.

“These stereotypes are just going to continue to grow, so I feel like showing that these stereotypes are not true and coming together as a community on this is very important,” Alhamdi said.

State Rep. candidate Brian Stone said the students’ successful rally demonstrates the city’s promising future.

Claudia Hammoud, an event organizer from Divine Child High School, said being a Muslim at a Catholic school gave her a unique perspective on the differences and unifying elements of this community.

“Dearborn is a place where people of all different ethnicities and religions come together,” Hammoud said. “But I feel like we need to talk about that more and appreciate that more and learn from each other even more than we already do.”

Hammoud added that the march has rekindled that dialogue and brought the diverse community closer together.

As she sat between two of her Muslim friends, Karina Gottschalk said she was there in solidarity with her classmates.

“We’re here because we want to prove that Dearborn is unified,” Gottschalk said. “I have a lot of friends who are Muslim and generally people can be racist toward them. And with all the things spreading around the news, I just want to stand up for them.”

Abraham Ouza, one of the students who organized the rally, said he and others wanted to step up to the hate Dearborn began receiving following the Paris attacks.

“We were thinking of a theme and a name and I said #TheRealDearborn and it just stuck,” Ouza said. “We said all right, that’s gonna be our theme; let’s show people what the real Dearborn is.”

Rep. Dingell said she is showing support to the young students who reject how they are portrayed.

“I have been very concerned in the last couple of months in the way we’re targeting people because of nationality or religion; and we have to stand up and get people not to do that and not to be afraid,” Dingell said.

She added that an event like this tells the story more effectively than any other way.

Mayor O’Reilly said he is proud of the students for bringing their voices to the table to debunk the myths about the city.

Of the talking heads who use their platforms to attack Dearborn, O’Reilly said their goal is to scare people into rejecting their Muslim neighbors, suggesting Dearborn as an example of what could happen when Muslims live among them.

The mayor said that the opposite is true, adding that Muslims have played a key role in the Dearborn’s success, as they have always been top investors and supporters of the city.

“The children are performing well— including Muslims students— are achieving great academic completions and are really becoming major people themselves,” the mayor said.