People protesting a planned Pride month assembly outside the Los Angeles Unified School District's Saticoy Elementary School wore T-shirts emblazoned with “Leave our kids alone” — and carried signs with slogans such as “Parental Choice Matters” and “No Pride in Grooming.” Tensions at the school have been rising since last month, when a social media page was created to urge parents to keep their children home Friday, the day of the planned assembly.
Los Angeles police headquarters tweeted: “LAPD is at Saticoy Elementary School this morning. We are here to support our LAUSD partners and facilitate a peaceful and lawful exercise of constitutional rights.”
Los Angeles Unified School District Board Member Kelly Gonez said the assembly went on without issue. It included a reading of “The Great Big Book of Families,” which includes details about different family structures including single parents, LGBTQ+ parents, grandparents and foster parents, she said.
Gonez said the school board wants to “listen and to have these tough conversations” with parents who don't support the assembly.
“At the same time I think it’s really important to be factual about what content was shared today, the fact that it is age-appropriate and that it’s simply about providing inclusive, welcoming environments to all of our students and families,” she said.
Outside the school, protesters against the assembly outnumbered those who were there in support. Some protesters identified themselves as parents of students in the district but would not give their full names during interviews, saying they had agreed not to, as a group, citing safety concerns. Broadly, they said they felt elementary school was too young to discuss LGBTQ+ issues.
An Instagram page called Saticoy Elementary Parents called Pride “an inappropriate topic for our kids!” In one post, the page says that Christian families and those who “share conservative values don’t feel this material is appropriate to teach to the children and believe it’s a parents’ right to choose.” It’s not clear who started the page, which also includes phone numbers and email addresses for district and school officials, urging parents to call them to protest the event.
