Izzie Hallock | Signal Tribune
In response to the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, hundreds of thousands of protesters walked the streets of their cities on Saturday, March 24. The momentum and activism quickly spread throughout the country, and it was estimated that nearly 800 marches were in action that day, the City of Long Beach being one. To advocate for gun control and safer schools, locals met at Bixby Park and marched down Ocean Boulevard with posters, chants and spirit. “So, this is what it feels like to fight for your rights,” Brenda Minter, protester and resident of Long Beach, said after taking a moment during an interview with the Signal Tribune to scan the sea of people alongside her. Soon before the marchers began to walk, Megan Kerr, president of the Long Beach Unified School District Board of Education, explained how being a mother of two students has inspired her to take action. “My children are of the age that the only way of going to school they know is with the possibility that there could be a school shooting,” Kerr said. “My first child went to school the year after Columbine, and my last child went to Long Beach Poly the day after Parkland. So, their lived reality is that it’s always possible that something might happen, because we, as adults, have not managed to solve this problem yet. […] I am grateful for [students’] incredibly loud voice, for their boundless energy, the time commitment to make sure that [adults] are listening.” Pictured are just a few of the thousands of local protesters who marched.
