Surfers, students honor slain Parkland teacher during Long Island Pride event
A festive Pride event on New York's Long Island turned somber Sunday as festival-goers honored victims of two mass shootings in Florida, CBS New York reports. About 30 survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School attended the event to honor their geography teacher, Scott Biegel, who was killed protecting his students.
Under a cloud-covered sky, a group of surfers paddled out into the ocean, formed a circle and dropped roses into the water to honor the 17 victims of the Feb. 14 Parkland shooting, including Beigel. They prayed and also remembered the 49 people killed in the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando.
Scott Beigel's mother, Linda Beigel Schulman, was there to watch her son be memorialized.
"Scott was a hero way before everybody else in the world deemed him a hero. I think everybody who knew Scott knew he was special, and he was a hero just in life," Beigel Shulman told WCBS 880.
Parkland shooting victims were memorialized here after the Long Beach Pride festival. Linda Beigel Schulman is the mother of Scott, the hero teacher who was murdered. She says her son was a hero long before the world deemed him one. @wcbs880 pic.twitter.com/YDUFFjbV33
— Mack Rosenberg (@MackRosenberg) June 10, 2018
Earlier in the day, the Stoneman Douglas students served as grand marshals at the 28th annual Long Island Pride Parade, according to CBS New York. Stoneman Douglas' drama department also appeared at the 2018 Tony Awards on Sunday, performing a tear-jerking rendition of "Seasons of Love" from the musical "Rent."