Protests over LGBTQ issues bring drama to Southern California school board meeting
Glendale police were on high alert Tuesday after violent brawls broke out at last school board meeting on June 6.
More than 300 people, including parents, supporters of LGBTQ+ groups, and those who oppose them gathered outside Glendale Unified School District headquarters on Tuesday, June 20, as protests intensified over the issue of teaching children about same-sex parents and queer issues, both locally and nationwide.
On June 6, the school board voted in favor of celebrating Pride month, prompting a crowd of several hundred people to gather outside, who loudly voiced both support and opposition for the proposition.
“I came to voice how I feel about this issue, and also how my son feels about it,” said a Glendale Unified mom on Tuesday, who did not want her or her child named out of fear of retaliation. She said that she and her son “agreed that the more information children have, the more empowered they can be, and in his words, be a better friend.”
But longtime Glendale resident Dede Vena, who does not have children in school in the district, said, “The school district is shoving their ideology into the curriculum.” She added, “I am here to support the parents who are angry about sexual perversion.”
Schools in Los Angeles have been a focus of the debate since an uproar at Saticoy Elementary School in early June in the San Fernando Valley.
In Glendale on Tuesday, more than 30 people lined up to speak to the Glendale school board, more than an hour before the meeting started — but no agenda items involved LGBTQ+.
Some were parents of children attending Glendale schools, others were not. The two sides, which grew quickly, were separated into two groups by the Glendale Police Department, and the two groups spanned the length of the building’s parking lot.
One parent, Shannon, who has three children in Glendale Unified schools — a high school freshman, a pre-kindergarten student, and a first-grader — said that the district’s decision to promote LGBTQ+ issues such as Pride month encroached on issues that parents should teach their children.
“These conversations regarding sexual identity and preference are issues that should be discussed in the home,” said Shannon, who did not want to give her last name. “We just want transparency.”
Gina, an LAUSD teacher who wouldn’t give her name, said that anger toward the schools has made her afraid for herself, her colleagues and her students.
“I was worried about teachers getting beaten up,” she said. “There are so many people who are so accepting, but there is also a lot of backlash.”
Several dozen officers from the Glendale PD were clad in riot gear and carried batons, as people wrote public comments on cards and prepared to go inside the building. Officers were on alert after intense scuffles broke out at the last school board meeting, resulting in the arrests of three people.
As people began to make public comments to the school board, a group of protesters crowded around the front doors, and Glendale PD responded by erecting a spiked barricade to separate the two sides.
Inside, there was an air of intensity in the comments made to the board from parents and members of the community.
“We can see violence at the last meeting, and the antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ plus groups that are gathering outside again today,” one parent said. “It remains very important for loving parents and advocates to keep showing up to speak on the issue of empowerment and inclusion in schools nationwide.”
But another speaker said, “Stop teaching kids that they can cut a body part up, or sew another up, just because they feel certain things.”
Another speaker, Elizabeth Krauss, said, “The curriculum that is being taught to our kids as young as five is the equivalent of child abuse. I beseech you to stop confusing love and kindness and acceptance with sexual confusion.”