#MeToo March in Durango
Story By: Faith Owen, Photo By Shania Concha-Ortiz
In order to advocate for the #MeToo movement that has been widespread across the country, the city of Durango held a #MeToo march downtown in order to spread awareness of sexual harassment in contemporary society on Saturday, Feb. 24.
The march began at the train station depot south on Main Avenue and continued to Buckley Park on the north side of Main Street. The community in Durango came together in order to raise awareness and affect change in regards to this movement.
FLC Students
At the end of the march, there were several speakers who addressed the crowd. One of those speakers was a student at FLC, Merkin Karr.
Karr is the founder of an organization on campus called LOTUS. This organization is a sexual assault support group. She and others from the crowd let their voices be heard on this particular Saturday morning in Durango.
FLC students were not only just speaking in front of the crowd, they also made up the crowd. One student, Marianna Carpenter, spoke about her reasons for marching.
“This is important because we need to talk about this stuff basically,” Carpenter said, “It’s always good to hear everybody’s sides of the story, and I’ve experienced some aspects of this as well.”
Students were there to speak up about this ongoing issue and to talk about their own personal experiences with sexual assault as well.
Others in the Crowd
People from ages of three to 75 showed up to march down Main Street.
Diana Collins, was taking a part of the #MeToo march in Durango because she never wants to see something like sexual assault happen to her nine-year-old granddaughter, she said.
“I don’t want my granddaughter to go through, in corporate America, what I went through,” Collins said.
Janna Sivannick was accompanied by her three-year-old daughter Simone.
“We are here today because it is our first time together going to a march just to show our support for women and for consent,” Sivannick said. “Hopefully my daughter will never have to endure any of this and to respect other people. Hopefully this will be the first of many marches.”