DENVER — One day after about 500 East High School students marched down East Colfax Avenue during school hours to protest to controversy in Ferguson, Mo., hundreds of students from several Denver high schools did the same on Thursday.

The crowds of students were a mix of all ethnic backgrounds. The common message was “we all need to be treated more equally.”

“It’s not about black or white, it’s about the right decision that cops have to make to protect themselves and the community,” student Michael Jordan Fox said.

FOX31 Denver’s Dave Young reported some of the student protesters disparaged police while dozens of officers worked to protect the marchers.

“What they did walking us here was protecting us and we respect that but we’re here to show people that we’re not going to stand for the racism and we’re not going to continue to let it happen and within the schools here in Denver,” student Holdan Mengel said.

Students walked down the middle of Monaco Parkway from George Washington High School all the way to Thomas Jefferson High School several miles away. TJ is just south of I-25 and East Hampden Avenue.

“It’s great to see this because we don’t get that kind of attention until we do stuff like this,” student Unique Evans said. The “stuff like this” they said was in protest of the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

” It’s actually really horrible because if it was someone you guys’ color it would have probably been different,” student Aminah Wilson Contreras said.

One day after a Denver officer was critically injured on Colfax while protecting East High School protesters, major midday traffic jams resulted all over the city while police did the same thing.

“Some cops are really supporting us out here. They’re making sure that we’re safe and not getting hit by the other cars,” student Ajere Oliver said. And several parents along the way told us they support the students’ intentions.

“When I see young people, even though some of them may be a little misguided or not fully understand it, but at least saying that ‘you know what, lives do matter, and I see myself as the marginalized…'” parent Cordelia Randall said.