Global Courant
Police intervened to break up protesters in a tense scene outside a North Hollywood elementary school on Friday morning when more than 100 parents rallied against a Pride Day rally, sparking weeks of unrest when a LGBTQ+ Pride flag was blown transgender teacher burned.
Parents held up signs outside Saticoy Elementary School with messages such as “No Pride in Grooming,” “Parental Choice Matters,” and “Leave Our Kids Alone.” Across the street, about 100 people had gathered for a counter-protest in support of LGBTQ+ rights and education.
Karine, 40, waved a small American flag as she joined the protesting parents. The woman, who asked that her last name be kept secret for fear her Saticoy third grader would be bullied, said she was “tired of the propaganda” and noted that her child brought rainbow-colored stickers and other items from school to school last year. taken home week.
“I didn’t come from Armenia for this,” she said about information about LGBTQ+ people. “I came for freedom and for my children to learn about math and education, not about this. I may go back home.”
At one point, Karine and others protesting LGBTQ+ education crossed the street to the front of the school, where they clashed with counter-demonstrators and police, who attempted to divide the groups.
Renato Lira, director of the San Fernando Valley LGBTQ Center in Van Nuys, was in the middle of the scrum. He yelled at protesting parents “to get an education” and snatched counter-demonstrators on his side away from possible fighting.
“On the other hand, they need education,” Lira said of the parent group. “They had to talk to real gays and parents.”
Tabitha Davis, 44, a parent educator in the Burbank Unified School District, arrived around 8 a.m. wearing a transgender pride flag, rainbow-colored glasses, and a sweater that read “You deserve to be happy.”
Davis is the mother of a trans child at an LA Unified school that she refused to identify. She felt compelled to speak up and “support families who are being harassed,” Davis said.
“I fought to feel safe,” she said. “Now I feel like it’s my position and my place to fight for others to feel safe.”
The group behind Friday’s protest called Saticoy Elementary School Parentsclaimed in an Instagram post on Thursday that they were not against LGBTQ+ people.
“We want to reiterate that our protest is in no way an attack on the LGBTQ community,” the group wrote. “We recognize the importance of promoting equality and acceptance for all individuals.”
However, the group had set its sights on Friday’s Gay Pride and Rainbow Day rally and urged other parents to keep their children home that day.
“Keep your kids home and innocent,” said a flyer posted by the group. “Videos will be shown to the students, including one that says ‘some kids have 2 mommies, some have 2 daddies’. This has led to outrage among parents.”
A transgender teacher at the school discovered on May 22 that a Pride flag had burned in a flower pot and the pot had broken. The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed the vandalism was under investigation, and Saticoy Elementary told parents the act occurred during a burglary the previous weekend.
The Los Angeles Police Department officers stationed at the school Friday morning to “support our LAUSD partners and facilitate the peaceful and lawful exercise of constitutional rights,” the department said.
The Los Angeles Unified School District “remains committed to maintaining a safe, inclusive and supportive environment for all students,” it said in a statement.
The district confirmed that the Los Angeles School Police provided additional patrols around the campus for the safety of students and staff.
