TEARS FOR FLA. SLAYS
Parkland teens salute L.I. teach & Pulse vics
LONG ISLAND’S festive Pride Parade took on a somber tone Sunday as marchers honored the victims of two mass shootings in Florida.
Parade participants held hands and waded in the ocean waters off Long Beach, and said prayers for the people shot to death at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub and the students and teachers gunned down at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Families of the victims joined members of Long Island’s LGBT community and tossed flowers in the ocean in the names of the 17 victims of the February school shooting and the 49 people massacred at the nightclub in 2016.
“All the love we got from everyone was really awesome,” Em Jiminian, 17, president of Douglas High School’s Gay Straight Alliance Club, and one of 30 students from the school to attend the parade.
“In times like this, we really have to come together and just love one another and show each other that there is some light in the world. There is positivity out there. You just have to look for it and find it.”
Jiminian said she has been moved by the kindness of strangers.
“It’s very personal to me,” Jiminian said.
“I was there at the school. So to see people who weren’t there for it be so affected by it, and to go do something on their own, honor the people they didn’t know, it’s very moving for me, personally.”
Few were moved more than Linda Beigel Schulman, whose son, Scott Beigel, was killed during the Valentine’s Day school rampage.
Not even the light rain that fell could hide Schulman’s tears as she paid tribute to her son, still counting the days since Scott’s tragic death.
“Nothing takes away the pain,” Schulman said.
“Today is 115 days since my son was massacred, and every day doesn’t get better. Every day just gets a little harder, but we’re going to make it better by doing something so nobody else has to do this. Nobody else has to feel like this.”
Schulman appealed for stricter gun laws. Beigel, a teacher at the school, died protecting students during the attack.
“I’m going to do everything I can with everybody who will help me to fight for gun control, to make sure this doesn’t happen again, to make sure no mother has to stand here and watch divers go to memorialize and celebrate their child’s life.”
Participants managed to add a little color to the dreary day, with an array of rainbow flags and costumes, sparkles and face paint.
Some carried signs that said, “Disarm Hate.”
Lucy Peters, 17, Beigel’s cousin, wore a T-shirt that said, “#MSDStrong. “We wanted to be part of this community that’s very supportive,” Lucy said. “It really means a lot. It shows that everyone is by our side and are standing with us.
“It’s still very surreal, but we’re staying very strong and we’re putting our efforts toward gun control now.”