Students carrying a “Make America Great Again” banner confronted LGBTQ youth and allies after a Gay Straight Alliance meeting at a California school.
The disruption happened at Frontier High School in Bakersfield, where members of the Future Farmers of America chapter confronted their peers. Waving flags promoting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, students yelled “this is what’s right” as they followed GSA members to the parking lot, reports KHSD 23 ABC News.
A parent of a GSA member, who was not identified by the local news station, shared an account of the confrontation on Facebook. That parent’s son reports “tension at the school between FFA and any kids they’ve determined as ‘liberal.’”
Kern High School District has now stepped in to investigate the incident.
“One of the goals of the educational process is to teach students how to communicate respectfully,” reads a statement from the district.
“The reported incident that occurred on Wednesday afternoon at Frontier High School is currently being investigated. Once the investigation is complete, appropriate follow-up measures will be taken.”
Meanwhile, one of the students who harassed the GSA says he attended the meeting out of curiosity. He and his friends were the ones harangued, he claimed to the station.
“We showed up to the meeting and when we walked inside, we could immediately tell people did not want us there,” said the student, identified only as Matthew.
He and friends suffered “dirty looks” and said “we could tell they did not want us there.”
All parties agreed that arguments continued outside of the meeting in the parking lot of the school, and some students shared cell phone videos of students shouting at one another.
Currently, there are over 4,000 GSAs in the United States that continue to provide a safe space for LGBTQ members and those they consider allies.
*story by The Advocate