A fight broke out at Saticoy Elementary in North Hollywood Friday morning after adult protestors rallied against a Pride Day assembly. The violence outside the school followed weeks of hostility, including the burning of a transgender teacher’s LGBTQ+ Pride flag. Photo: Google image
A fight broke out at Saticoy Elementary in North Hollywood Friday morning after adult protestors rallied against a Pride Day assembly. The violence outside the school followed weeks of hostility, including the burning of a transgender teacher’s LGBTQ+ Pride flag.
The Gay Pride and Rainbow Day assembly’s focus was the diversity of families and spotlighted different family structures, including adoption, single parents, and families with two parents of the same gender, school officials said.
The assembly included a short reading of Hoffman Mary’s “Great Big Book of Families.”
The assembly was optional because it was a non-curricular event, the Los Angeles Unified School District said.
The conservative protesters, some of whom said they were parents of students at the school, said they were angry about teaching elementary school children about LGBTQ+ people. They held up signs that included “No pride in grooming.”
Two large trailers were parked on the street with the slogans “Leave our kids alone.”
Across the street, about 100 counter protesters gathered in support of LGBTQ+ rights and the school.
Throughout the morning, officers from the Los Angeles Police Department tried to separate the two sides as tensions mounted. Shortly before noon, violence broke out, according to various social media reports from the scene.
LAPD said nobody was arrested.
Last month, after the assembly was announced, some conservative parents went on Instagram to organize a protest, claiming – with no evidence – that inappropriate content would be presented.
Also, a transgender teacher at the school found their Pride flag displayed in a flower pot outside of their classroom had been burned, and the pot broken.
The LAPD is investigating the vandalism.
The protesters said on their Instagram account that they aren’t responsible for the burning.
The teacher spoke to LAist on the condition that they not be named due to threats they’ve received and concerns about their job. They’re still employed at Saticoy Elementary, but have opted to work at another location out of safety concerns.
“I was gonna go back, but then I got more hate and violent mail, so my kids made me promise,” the teacher said. “My kids are the ones who really were the push for it. They get real scared that something’s gonna happen.”
The teacher also elected to leave temporarily to keep their students safe should the situation escalate further.
The teacher is a well-respected educator who has spent the past seven years at the school during a 30-year teaching career, LAist said.
