Student activists and community members took to the streets of Port Jefferson Station on Saturday, June 11, to protest the recent proliferation of gun violence in schools nationwide.
Demonstrators held signs and organizers delivered impassioned speeches calling upon public officials to enact comprehensive gun reform policies. Local photojournalist Daniel Palumbo was on the ground during the event, capturing images of the demonstrators as the event unfolded.
— Photos by Daniel Palumbo
Youth coalition pushes for ‘wave of orange,’ support for politicians in favor of more regulation this November
More than 600 people gathered together loudly chanting, “Enough is enough,” and calling for measures to help bring an end to gun violence in schools at a Huntington Station park this past weekend.
Members of Students against Gun Violence LI, a student-led coalition calling for stricter gun control measures, were joined by parents, Huntington area residents and community members in a rally July 29 at Breezy Park. This event aimed to build on the momentum gathered in the March 24 marches in response to the February Parkland, Florida, school shooting, encouraging young adults to voice their opinions on gun control issues at the polls this November.
“America just loves its guns more than its people and if that’s not f****d up, I don’t know what is,” said Lucy
Peters tearfully, as the niece of Dix Hills native Scott Beigel, who was killed in the Parkland shooting. “We need to elect ‘orange’ politicians who see gun control for what it is — a human issue and not a political issue.”
We need to elect ‘orange’ politicians who see gun control for what it is — a human issue and not a political issue.”
– Lucy Peters
Orange has been adopted as the color worn and displayed by those protesting stalled gun control measures.
Peters stood alongside relatives of other Parkland shooting victims: Commack resident Paul Guttenberg whose niece, Jaime, a student, was killed, and Linda Beigel Schulman, mother of Scott Beigel, in calling for stricter gun control measures.
“On Feb. 14, 2018, a 19-year-old was not mature or trustworthy enough to handle a beer but was mature and trustworthy enough to handle a weapon of war, an AR-15 assault rifle,” Beigel Schulman said, in questioning gun control laws. “In what world does that make sense?”
The mother of the 35-year-old Parkland shooting victim called out Long Island politicians who have offered their “thoughts and prayers” to victims of mass shootings but have not voted in support of gun control legislation, specifically naming U.S. Reps. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) and Peter King (R-Seaford). Beige Schulman said in the wake of Scott’s death, she had chosen to make gun control reform her life’s mission and encourages others to take action.
“People ask me, ‘What can we do to support you?’ My answer is so simple: Make sure you get out and vote.”
– Linda Beigel Schulman
“People ask me, ‘What can we do to support you?’” she said. “My answer is so simple: Make sure you get out and vote. Then make sure to tell at least two more people to get out and vote.”
U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), who co-sponsored the Huntington rally, stressed the importance of high school and college students continuing to voice their opinions on national issues by registering to vote and holding politicians accountable for their viewpoints in the upcoming
midterm elections.
“We need young people to continue to keep a youth movement going in this country to focus on this issue of gun violence,” Suozzi said. “This is a unique time in history. The adults have failed and we need young people to keep this going.”
Huntington resident Owen Toomey, who has been actively involved in March for Our Lives Long Island, stressed that the movement has defined five major legislative goals that it is fighting for. First on that list is universal background checks for gun purchasers.
“I accept that my innocence has been eroded by the fear of gun violence, but I refuse to accept that same fate for upcoming generations.”
– Gia Yetikyel
Other goals of the movement include upgrading and digitalizing the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives registry; a ban on the sale of high-capacity gun magazines and semi-automatic assault rifles, and getting Congress to approve funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to research and study gun violence.
“When people ask what you are rallying for, tell them our goals,” Toomey said. “Remind them we aren’t banning guns, remind them we aren’t taking their guns, remind them we aren’t taking away their sport or self-defense — we are just making it harder for someone to kill 15 people in the span of six minutes.”
Gia Yetikyel, of New Hyde Park, recalled how terrified she was 17 years old and her high school experienced an incident that required a lockdown. While crouching in the corner of the classroom, she reported sending out text messages to her mother to ask about a younger brother’s safety, sending messages to beloved family and friends all while making a list of goals she had yet to accomplish.
“I’ll be telling them the young on Long Island have never rested or stopped fighting for what is right.”
– Avalon Fenster
“I accept that my innocence has been eroded by the fear of gun violence, but I refuse to accept that same fate for upcoming generations,” she said.
Yetikyel said she still suffers effects from that day and, as such, fights for stricter gun control measures.
“We send out condolences to the families of the dead, but I’m still sending them to the living for having to fight this battle that shouldn’t even exist,” she said.
March for Our Lives Long Island co-founder Avalon Fenster, of Dix Hills, announced that she will be taking her pledge to fight for gun control legislation to the national level. She’s been invited to join the “Road to Change” national March for Our Lives Tour as a representative for Long Island alongside Parkland survivors Emma González and David Hogg. The tour stopped in Greensboro, North Carolina, from July 31 to Aug. 2 to rally for gun control while showing active opposition to the National Rifle Association.
“I’ll be telling them the young on Long Island have never rested or stopped fighting for what is right,” Fenster promised those gathered. “We will resist. We will register, and we will bring justice.”
By Judie Gorenstein
Our democracy works best when everyone participates. Although the League of Women Voters works diligently to encourage all citizens to be informed and active participants in our government, engaging and motivating our youth is a particularly important challenge. Nationwide the young are the least likely to turn out to vote. In the 2016 presidential election, only 50 percent of young people voted. Reasons varied from apathy to alienation, from not feeling their votes counted or mattered to not seeing voting as being important.
Over the past few years local leagues in Suffolk County have made great efforts to transform students into educated and motivated voters, and 2018 is a good example.
Voter registration drives are held at both colleges and high schools.
Vote 18 is an interactive lesson plan for government classes. This program does more than just register students. It takes them first through the history of voting followed by participation in a mock election for a political office. Following the discussion, the students running for office make their speeches, and before a vote is taken a percentage of students are not given ballots and not allowed to vote. Students see for themselves how nonvoters make a difference in election results. The message is strong: Do not give up your power. Your vote does matter. It is not only important to register but to vote. The majority of students register to vote at the end of this lesson.
Students Inside Albany is a selective, three-day program with 60 students chosen by local leagues from all over the state. They have the wonderful experience of seeing for themselves how their government works. They tour the capitol building in Albany, shadow their NYS Senate and NYS Assembly members, sit in on a legislative session, learn how to lobby and much more. The students are often amazed that it is so different from what they anticipated and often are motivated to explore a political career. Some students have even been given summer internships with their elected officials.
Student Day at the Suffolk County Legislature is co-sponsored by the LWV and the Suffolk County Legislature. High school students take a day to learn about their county government by meeting and hearing from the presiding officer and members of the Legislature and department heads and then prepare for and participate in a mock legislative session where they debate and vote on a bill.
Running and Winning is a one-day workshop for girls from local high schools to encourage them to consider a political career. Women public officials make brief presentations and then are each interviewed by a group of students who design and present their own political campaign for a virtual woman candidate. Many girls who have never considered political careers leave feeling they can do and be anything they want and will consider public service.
We strive to develop and present programs that will engage students, which has often been difficult. Recently things began to change. Student groups sought out the league and became student members and learned from us.
Next Generation Politics, a youth nonpartisan political group asked the LWV of Huntington to help with its first event, a public debate on the electoral college versus the popular vote. This group has now affiliated with over 50 chapters in 15 states and works to promote its mission of nonpartisanship and civic engagement.
Girl Scout troops called the LWV of the Hamptons to develop a program to help their girls earn their suffrage badge. Libraries and high schools have contacted us asking to do youth programs because of a need and interest in their community.
On college campuses, students came up to our voter registration table and thanked us for being there.
After the shooting at Parkland High and the youth-created activist movement March for Our Lives, students everywhere are seeing the need to act, to speak out and to have their voices heard. They are now engaging each other, realizing the power of their vote and wanting to make a difference as the future leaders of our country.
Judie Gorenstein is vice president for voter services of the League of Women Voters of Suffolk County, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government and influences public policy through education and advocacy. For more information, visit www.lwv-suffolkcounty.org, email [email protected] or call 631-862-6860.
The 1980s rock band White Lion said it best when they sang: “When the children cry let them know we tried, ’cause when the children sing then the new world begins.”
Children across the country ensured their cries were heard March 24 when millions of them took to the streets to call for implementation of stricter gun control laws as part of hundreds of March for Our Lives rallies. Now we have a challenge for them and the parents and grandparents who joined them — keep the momentum.
The rallies were inspired by the battle cries of students who survived the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. For centuries, protesting has been a popular way to get politicians to pay attention, but those rallying calls need to be followed by action in order to get things done. We surmise many if not most of the student marchers understand this is just beginning, like Avalon Fenster, one of the organizers of the March 24 rally in Huntington.
“In the long term, we want to get youth more civically involved, collaborating with elected officials to create legislation that makes our lives a priority,” Fenster said.
It’s something Port Jefferson High School students Ben Zaltsman, Matt Pifko and Gavin Barrett also get. These students helped establish a station in their high school where their peers can get assistance in writing letters to their representatives. Letter writing, emailing and calling the offices of elected officials is a vital process to let legislators know what their constituents want and need.
However, writing to a congressman is not the end of the line either if true change is the students’ goal. All the letters and phone calls in the world mean nothing if a person isn’t registered to vote. The March for Our Lives website, www.marchforourlives.com, has set up a form to make it easier for voters to register. It’s a rite of passage and a civic responsibility when a teen turns 18. High school students who are heading off to college in the fall need to also familiarize themselves and their peers with the process of obtaining and
submitting an absentee ballot. If you are registered to vote in Setauket but go to school at SUNY Cortland, unless you’re driving home on the morning of Nov. 6, an absentee ballot is your only option.
Simply showing up to fill out a ballot is not enough either. People of all ages need to ask themselves what matters most to them, and then see how their representatives in the U. S. Senate, House of Representatives and state positions vote on issues.
There’s one more step 18-year-old marchers need to keep on the table as well. If you feel you and your community are not being represented effectively by those in power, consider running for office, or at least help those who represent your interests get elected. That’s what 24-year-old Josh Lafazan did last November, and he became Nassau County’s youngest legislator. For a few political offices — including New York State senator and assemblyperson — the minimum age requirement is 18 years old. To serve in the federal government, you must be at least 25 years old.
Leslie Gibson, a Republican candidate for the Maine House of Representatives, is a living embodiment of what is possible. He recently dropped out of his race after receiving criticism for remarks he made on Twitter about Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students, including calling Emma Gonzalez, who has been in the forefront of the movement, a “skinhead lesbian.” He had been running unopposed, but after he made the comment, challengers sprung up from both parties, including a 28-year-old Democrat who had never considered seeking political office before.
We’ve heard the children’s cries. Now the real work begins.
While March for Our Lives rallies were scheduled in various towns on Long Island, members of the Stony Brook University community felt it was important that the campus get involved in the movement, too.
Amanda DeJesus, an undergraduate student at the Stony Brook School of Social Welfare, was one of the organizers of a March for Our Lives rally at SBU. The event started at 11 a.m. March 24 and many of the approximately 300 people who attended the university rally went to Port Jefferson Station afterward to take part in that protest.
“As a social welfare student, promoting social justice is the cornerstone of our profession,” DeJesus said. “I believe that demanding common-sense gun laws is a first step in creating a safer society for everyone, so that is why I wanted Stony Brook University to become a part in this very important conversation.”
Alli Ross, from Port Jefferson Station, attended the SBU rally with her fiancé. She said it was the first march she ever attended, and she was amazed every time she looked back and saw more people joining in. While she doesn’t have children yet, she said she has younger sisters and cousins, and ensuring children’s safety is important to her.
“This is just something that really hits hard for me … as it does with a lot of others,” Ross said. “Just being a part of something like that, and everyone coming together and showing that this is something that needs to be done, something that needs to be changed, it makes me feel a little bit better. It makes me feel like there is hope because there are so many like-minded people who care so strongly about it.”
Courtney Kidd, an adjunct professor at the university, spoke at the event and said she was honored when the student-organizers invited her. She said she first thought of declining and suggesting a speaker who would be an expert on gun violence, but then she remembered when she was a student hearing the saying: “One voice can make a difference; I am one voice.”
“I realized that this march is about more than rehearing the statistics that you already know, and instead about making change,” Kidd said at the rally. “It’s not about their voice — it’s about yours. So, if I can help you realize that you don’t always need the years and the title, that we need your voice, then I may be able to say I made a difference.”
DeJesus said she hopes the young people will continue voicing their concerns.
“I believe that we will be able to see change if we continue speaking about it,” DeJesus said. “We must keep the conversation going, never forget all the lives lost due to gun violence, continue walking out and don’t let anyone silence us.”
She said it’s vital to get out and vote.
“The midterm elections are so important and not enough people, especially young people, are registered,” DeJesus said. “The best way to make your voices heard is to vote. You never know if your vote will be the one that makes a difference.”
By Karen Forman
Hundreds of students, parents, grandparents and politicians rallied outside Huntington Town Hall this Saturday to honor the lives of the Parkland school shooting victims and call for the implementation of stricter gun control measures.
The March for Our Lives Long Island held March 24, founded by 16-year-old Huntington students Avalon Fenster and Sara Frawley, was one of the more than 800 rallies that sprung up across the country as part of the national movement started by survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
“In the short term, we want to honor the lives lost in Parkland and all the school shootings since Columbine,” Fenster said. “In the long term, we want to get youth more civically involved, collaborating with elected officials to create legislation that makes our lives a priority.”
“We want to live in a country where children can go to school and not fear that they won’t come home.”
— Julia Fenster
The event was kicked off with a performance by Dan Krochmal, an Australian-born singer now residing in New York City, who wrote a song in support of the movement titled “Pride Before the Fall.” Featured speakers included student organizers, local politicians and family members of the Parkland shooting victims.
“We want to live in a country where children can go to school and not fear that they won’t come home,” said Julia Fenster, Avalon’s mom, and the founding chairperson of March for Our Lives Long Island. “Where parents saying goodbye to their children in the morning don’t fear it is the final goodbye. Where teachers only need to worry about teaching and not about being a human shield.”
Melissa Beigel, the sister of Dix Hills native Scott Beigel, spoke at the rally. Beigel was a geography teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who was shot and killed while attempting to lock his classroom door to protect students.
Avalon Fenster publicly called for politicians to pass stricter gun control legislation in the wake of the shootings. The student organizer acknowledged that U.S. citizens are entitled the right to bear arms but highlighted that there is a significant difference between colonial-era rifles and assault rifles.
“People forget that the 2nd Amendment was created in colonial times when they used a rifle that only shot about two bullets in three minutes,” she said. “Now we have automatic weapons that can shoot 140 rounds in three minutes. We are not trying to abridge people’s rights, but we do think that human life should take priority over material ownership and convenience of that ownership.”
“All you students, your voices count. Fight for change.”
— Paul Guttenberg
Rally organizers took turns reading the names of all the people who have been killed in a mass shooting since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. This somber act caused a quiet hush to sweep over those gathered.
Former U.S. Rep Steve Israel (D-Huntington), who left office in January 2017, spoke about the voting behavior of elected officials he witnessed while in office.
“I spent 16 years watching people in Congress voting no for laws that would have kept us safe,” Israel said. “Each time I kept thinking that this time would be different, but they kept voting no. They didn’t want to let down their [National Rifle Association] voters.”
Among the signs carried by rally participants included “NRA profits are bathed in the blood of our children.” Israel has written a 320-page book titled “Big Guns,” a comical novel about the firearms industry and Washington politics, which is currently scheduled to be published in April.
“If adult politicians can’t keep you safe, you vote against them,” he said, to which the crowd responded with “vote them out.” “Change is coming and you are our change. We are going to make the world safe again.”
Commack resident Paul Guttenberg, uncle of slain 14-year-old Parkland student Jaime Guttenberg, took to the stage to publicly address a crowd for the first time.
“All the students who died in these mass shootings had their voices robbed from them. Now we have to be their voices.”
— Max Robins
“She will never get to go to college, get married or have children of her own because of assault rifles,” he said. “Mass shooting can happen in any town in this country. We have to stop gun violence in this country and ban assault rifles.”
Guttenberg encouraged those students at the rally to use the rally’s momentum to keep pushing for stricter gun legislation.
“All you students, your voices count,” he said. “Fight for change.”
Isabelle Kaufman, a 16-year-old student at Half Hollow Hills East, echoed his sentiments as she spoke to those gathered about the need to hold the federal government and elected officials accountable.
“All of this happened because of a 19-year-old who couldn’t be trusted to purchase alcohol, but he was allowed to purchase an assault rifle,” she said. “Students should go to school in fear of taking a test, not in fear of their lives.”
The crowd, moved by the speeches, took up the chant of “No more silence. No more violence.”
Max Robins, a member of the March for Our Lives Long Island group, concluded the two-hour rally with a motivating speech and call to action.
“All the students who died in these mass shootings had their voices robbed from them,” Robins said. “Now we have to be their voices. And we are the voice that will not be silenced. We will not be forgotten.”
Taking the lead of demonstrations started by people barely old enough to drive during the days of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement, North Shore students marched Saturday. Their messages were clear in their rhetoric delivered over a sound system from the bed of a pickup truck and on homemade signs: lives lost to gun violence are no longer acceptable, especially in schools, and politicians who do not agree are going to have organized and audible opposition.
A local incarnation of the March for Our Lives, a movement started by survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that left 17 people dead in Parkland, Florida, Feb. 14, took place at the intersection of Routes 347 and 112 in Port Jefferson Station March 24. While thousands stomped through Washington, D.C., and countless other areas across the globe, several hundred gathered locally, thanks to the organizing efforts of students from Miller Place, Port Jefferson, Ward Melville and other area high schools, to call on politicians to take action to prevent gun violence in schools and communities. Activist organizations The North Country Peace Group, Long Island Rising, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and Building Bridges in Brookhaven assisted the high schoolers in setting up the demonstration.
Calls for legislative action in speeches and on signs ranged from all-encompassing bans of “assault style” weapons seen abroad, like in Australia; to the more incremental policy changes being discussed in state houses and on the federal level, such as raising the minimum age to purchase firearms from 18 to 21; to bans on modifiers that make semi-automatic weapons function like automatic weapons; stronger background checks; and longer waiting periods for purchases.
“We are infused with a passion for change — change that we hope will drain the stagnant pool of corruption in our nation,” Miller Place High School student Jake Angelo said to the crowd. “We are the hope for our country’s future — the generation of awareness, the generation of calling ‘B.S.’ and the generation of change.”
Nearly all of the student speakers directed their remarks at U.S. 1st Congressional District Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) and the National Rifle Association, the powerful lobbying arm whose political contributions are often criticized as the deterrent to advancing gun legislation by those who lean to the political left. Zeldin received nearly $10,000 in campaign contributions from the NRA during his reelection campaign in 2016, according to campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets.org.
“Change does not happen when the leaders deem it so,” Ward Melville High School student Scott Egnor said. “Change happens when every day folks say that enough is enough. Change happens when every day folks draw the line. Change happens when we vote Lee Zeldin out. We will take this movement, by Americans, for Americans, and we will bring it to the doors of the capital. We will not stop until Congress is more afraid of our voice than the NRA checkbooks.”
A spokeswoman for Zeldin Katie Vincentz said in an email the Congressman has and will continue to meet with those on both sides of the gun control debate, when asked if he planned to meet with any of the NY-1 students behind the Port Jeff Station march. She said Zeldin supports banning bump stocks, fixing the National Criminal Instant Background Check System and “ensuring lunatics manifesting violent criminal intentions to murder with firearms have access to none,” among other changes widely regarded as incremental gun control steps. She did not say whether or not he would support a ban on assault-style weapons when asked.
“The more people of all ages participating the better,” Vincentz said when asked how Zeldin viewed the activism of students in his district and beyond.
A speaker who identified herself as Ariana, a sophomore at Longwood High School, also invoked Zeldin during her remarks.
“Why should 15 year olds have to discuss the possibility of dying at the hands of a mass shooter?” she said. “Why should we be discussing dying in school, a place where we’re supposed to be safe and protected? And what can we expect from politicians like Lee Zeldin? Apparently only prayers and condolences. Congress is not taking the necessary steps to keep students like me and my friends safe — or the 5 year olds in kindergarten, or the 11 year olds in middle school. That’s why we are here. We cannot wait for the adults in Congress to continue to let the NRA call the shots when it comes to our safety. These politicians are not listening to us because we are supposedly too young to know what’s good for us, but apparently their silence is what’s best. Or perhaps the issue here is special interests and the money they receive is more important to them than our lives.”
Many of the parents of student speakers and participants in attendance expressed how proud of their children they were.
“It’s honestly the most proud that I’ve ever been of them,” said Kathy Podair, whose daughter Emma and frienf Alyssa Anderson, Smithtown High School West students, were among the marchers. “I’ve raised them to be strong women and to speak out against things that are wrong and that need to change. To see them take that initiative and stand up, I feel like I did a good job. I’m very proud of them today.”
She called sending a student off to high school in today’s world “terrifying.”
“They had a lockdown drill last week,” she said. “We got an email from the superintendent in the morning letting us know that there will be an unannounced lockdown drill today, and they came home from school and told me they were in the choir room when it happened, in a room that doesn’t have a lock on the [glass] door, and they said ‘we were sitting ducks if this was real.’ There were 150 kids in this room and they said ‘there’s nowhere safe for us to hide.’”
Port Jefferson High School students Ben Zaltsman and Matt Pifko, who helped organize an indoor assembly that took place March 14 on the day a national walkout was scheduled, along with classmate Gavin Barret, also spoke during the event. The trio said they were inspired by the solidarity they felt from seeing so many of their peers in attendance. The students helped establish a station in the high school that will remain open at which their peers can get assistance in writing letters to elected representatives.
Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket) and State Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) were also among the attendees.
“It is amazing to see the passion, the dedication, the commitment of these students — no fear,” Hahn said. “It is wonderful. They are focused, they are determined, they are smart and they’re getting things done already. And we need to follow their lead.”
A smaller group of counter protestors stood across the street on Route 347 holding signs in support of the Second Amendment, with several Suffolk County Police Department officers and their cars positioned on the median to separate the two groups, though no violence and minimal interaction occurred.
A package of gun control bills passed the New York State Assembly in March and will require passage by the Republican-majority state senate before becoming law. All of the students asked said they intend to vote in the next election, or the first one after their 18th birthday. Organizers from the various activist groups had a table set up during the march to help register attendees to vote.
Event will be held in Huntington Town Hall's parking lot March 24 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The organizers of the Huntington’s school shooting protest have announced a change of location after storms blanketed the area in more than a foot of snow.
The March for Our Lives Long Island event scheduled for March 24 at Heckscher Park will be relocating across the street to Huntington Town Hall, according to student organizers. The event’s website read: “due to the severe winter storm and resulting bad grand conditions expected on Saturday the location of the event has changed.”
Huntington Town spokeswoman Lauren Lembo said town officials had safety concerns regarding the use of Heckscher Park for the rally, due to large number of people attending, multiple entrances to the park and potentially muddy fields. By comparison, there are only two entrances to the town parking lot on Irwin and Jackson streets.
“The town supports the First Amendment rights of the students to assemble and speak their minds on this national matter,” she said on behalf of town officials.
The student organizers have filed the proper paperwork and received permits to host the rally on town property, according to Lembo.
The Huntington event is being held in conjunction with the Washington, D.C., march to show solidarity with the Parkland, Florida, shooting survivors and “demand that our lawmakers make gun reform a top priority to end this cycle of gun violence in our schools and our communities at large,” the organizers’ website reads. It will feature students speakers and local residents who lost loved ones in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
Participants and those following the events are promoting use of the hashtag #NeverAgain. As of March 22, the event’s Facebook page shows more than 900 individuals are stating they will attend.
Are you attending Huntington’s March For Our Lives March 24? Tweet us @TBRNewsMedia with your thoughts and photos.
