“I learned to duck before I even learned to read,” Edna Lizbeth Chavez, a 17-year-old high school senior, says in a speech given at the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C., on Saturday.

Chavez​ goes on to talk about losing her brother Ricardo to gun violence and describes the trauma it caused her family. She also touches on police criminalization of black and brown communities, calling for “a department specializing in restorative justice.”

Watch the South L.A. native’s full address in the video above as she “honor[s] the Florida students that lost their lives and … stand[s] with the Parkland students” demanding gun control legislation.

Your support is crucial…

With an uncertain future and a new administration casting doubt on press freedoms, the danger is clear: The truth is at risk.

Now is the time to give. Your tax-deductible support allows us to dig deeper, delivering fearless investigative reporting and analysis that exposes what’s really happening — without compromise.

During this holiday season, stand with our courageous journalists. Donate today to protect a free press, uphold democracy and ensure the stories that matter are told.

SUPPORT TRUTHDIG