High school students across Louisiana congregated in its two largest cities Saturday to make sure their voices were heard in the March For Our Lives.

The march was created by the survivors of the shooting at Majority Stoneman Douglas High School in February. They took part in the march in Washington, D.C., where they urged Congress to pass stricter gun control legislation. Other marches took place all over the country, including Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

The march in Baton Rouge started at 2:30 p.m. at North Boulevard Town Square in downtown and continued up 4th Street, until it reached the grounds of the Louisiana State Capitol. Once at the capitol, several people spoke to the crowd, including the Mayor-President of East Baton Rouge Parish, Sharon Weston Broome.

“It’s very encouraging to see our young people seizing their power,” Broome said. “My encouragement to young people is to go out and vote if you can vote, and if you are not of voting age, get ready. Get ready.”

Marchers at the capitol urged Louisiana lawmakers to create legislation that better protects students and brings forth an end to gun violence.

The march was organized by University senior Evan Butler and chair of the Louisiana High School Democrats Charlie Stephens. 

Stephens, who is a junior at Lee Magnet High School, made sure participants in the march understood Saturday’s event was not the final step in making sure their voices are heard.

“We all know that what happened in Florida wasn’t unique, that could have happened anywhere,” said Stephens. “When kids stand up, change can happen. When the students in Parkland decided that enough was enough, we walked out of school for 17 minutes across the nation, I think this walkout was the next step, I don’t plan on stopping (advocacy) any time soon.”
Participants of the march went beyond just high school students. Many parents turned out, many of them representing their young children who are not yet able to march. among them was Kelly Kocen, a other of four.

“I have four kids that are in elementary school and I want them to come home from school safely,” Kocen said.

While thousands stood outside the tallest building in Louisiana, thousands more gathered in the state’s most famous city: New Orleans.

The New Orleans march lasted three hours, starting at 12 p.m. in Washington Square and ending at 3 p.m. at the Duncan Plaza in the Central Business District, where protesters congregated to listen to speakers like NOPD Chief Michael Harrison, Representative Helen Moreno and some of the event co-organizers, such as Olivia Keefe and Louise Olivier, students at Benjamin Franklin High School.

Camille Marisol Garcia, a high school senior at Haynes Academy for Advanced Studies, said the protest was her way of showing her outrage with the gun violence problem.

“I think that staying silent somehow contributes to the violence that’s going on. If you don’t stand up for what you believe in, nothing’s going to ever change,” Garcia said. “This isn’t about red or blue. I think this is about life vs. death. I think we should care more about our youth than about our rifles.”

The march was hosted by the New Orleans chapter of March For Our Lives, along with the New Orleans chapter of Moms Demand Action, the a grassroots organization of moms and the largest gun violence prevention advocacy group in the country.

Louisiana state chapter leader of Moms Demand Action, Martha Alguera, said the protest signified real change.

“A lot of us have been working in the movement for years, and we’re finally seeing a turning point. And the fact that the youth is getting involved is really key,” Alguera said. “Every social movement has had a strong student component behind it, or youth group. So this is really empowering and exciting that maybe now our legislators will listen.”

Another student protester, Vincent Granito, a sophomore at Jesuit High School, said he came to the march because there had been so many school shootings.

“I say never again. It’s time to stop all this,” Granito said. “Assault weapons should not be sold to anybody.”