Share story

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Thousands of students marched in demonstrations against gun violence across Connecticut as part of a nationwide movement inspired by high school students in Parkland, Florida.

Connecticut cities including Hartford, Stamford and Guilford had marches attended by several thousand people on Saturday.

Eastern Connecticut State University student Demitra Kourtzidis, who was in Hartford, says she wants “to show our strength in numbers.”

The 21-year-old says she fears for her mother, who is a middle and high school math teacher. She says she doesn’t want her “to die protecting her students.”

A rally in Washington, D.C., on Saturday was anchored by students from Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 people were killed in a February shooting.