Students at the Marshall Simonds Middle School in Burlington, Mass., tore down rainbow decorations and chanted “U.S.A are my pronouns” during the school’s spirit day celebrating Pride month on Friday, June 2.
The school-approved spirit day was organized by the school’s student-led LGBTQ+ and allies “Spectrum Club.”
According to a letter to parents sent by Marshall Simonds Principal Cari Perchase, the Spectrum Club hung up “Happy Pride Month” signs, rainbow banners, posters with slogans such as “Why it’s not ok to say ‘That’s so gay’,” and handed out rainbow stickers.
Students and faculty were also asked to wear rainbow for the Pride spirit day.
Some students who opposed the middle school’s Pride celebrations tore down the banners and signs, and, according to Principal Perchase’s letter, were seen “being inappropriate” with the rainbow stickers.
The protesting middle schoolers chanted “U.S.A. are my pronouns” in the halls, and wore red, white, and blue clothes and face paint instead of the Pride-friendly rainbow colors.
“I fully respect that our diverse community has diverse opinions and beliefs. I also respect individuals’ right to express their opinions through clothing choices and freedom of speech,” Perchase said in her letter. “When one individual or group of individuals’ beliefs and actions result in the demeaning of another individual or group, it is completely unacceptable.”
“I am truly sorry that a day meant for you to celebrate your identity turned into a day of intolerance. Schools are supposed to be a safe place for ALL students and faculty. Some community members’ actions created an unsafe environment for many of our students, caregivers, and faculty,” she said.
Christine Steiner, a parent of one of the counter-protesting middle schoolers, said that her daughter did not want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but felt coerced to participate in the Pride event, speaking to WCVB Boston.
“Some of the kids threw the stickers on the ground. But I can only speak for my daughter, she just didn’t want to wear that to school. It’s not that she wanted to hurt anybody’s feelings,” said Steiner.
Steiner said her daughter was offended by a poster in the school that said “What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it’s curved like a road through the mountains.”
Other parents and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) activists spoke at a Burlington Select Board meeting Monday night to call out the “intolerance and homophobia” of the protesting middle schoolers.
Nancy Bonassera, co-chair of the Burlington Equity Coalition and a parent of students at Marshall Simonds, gave a statement to the Select Board calling for “consequences” for the students who participated in the counter-protest.
“Students were invited to show their pride and wear rainbow clothing in celebration of Pride month,” Bonassera said. “On that same day there was a counter-demonstration in response to what should have been a day to celebrate, where students wore red, white and blue clothing, chanted ‘my pronouns are U.S.A.,’ and destroyed rainbow decorations at the school.”
“These displays of intolerance and homophobia are unacceptable and impact the whole community,” she said. “We call upon the school administration to address and provide consequences for the students who participated in the counter-protest.”
Bonassera said that without “any concrete and direct action these incidents will occur again and increase in severity,” calling upon Burlington to hire a DEI Director.
Carl Foss, a former school committee member, former representative on the town’s DEI subcommittee and parent to elementary school students in Burlington said he was “shocked and saddened” by the incident at Marshall Simonds.
“I thought Burlington was a ‘safer’ place than Texas or Florida, obviously I was wrong,” Foss said.
“Upon reflection, my reaction shows my privilege,” he said. “I don’t have to worry about being accepted. I don’t have to worry about others using the American flag, a symbol that is supposed to unite us as a community, to intimidate or harass me.”
“With this privilege, I am able to have beliefs like this would never happen in Burlington,” he said, adding that “this type of intolerant rhetoric starts in the home.”
“It would be naïve of us to think that what happened at the middle school won’t escalate to something more tragic in the future,” said parent Jessika Dubay-Dang. “It isn’t going to go magically away; it will get worse.”
Burlington Public Schools Superintendent Eric Conti also sent a letter to parents, saying that the increase in violence against LGBTQ+ individuals “has no place in our schools.”
“We ask all staff, teachers, and members of the Burlington Public School community to join us in taking a stand against homophobia and identity-directed hateful actions,” Conti wrote.
“Like any spirit day celebration at MSMS, participation is optional. Respectful behavior across the entire student body, however, is non negotiable,” he wrote.
Burlington School Committee Chair Martha Simon condemned the counter-protest at a meeting Tuesday night, but did not reveal specifics on any disciplinary actions being taken against the students.
19 Comments
So proud of those kids. Tear down every rainbow flag in your school. The only flag that should be there is the American flag.
S. Lubin…absolutely. Obviously, too, the principal believes in freedom of speech only as far as it concerns the LGBTQ+ community. I didn’t see any hate or intolerance here. I see students demanding their rights!. We, as a society, need to stop pandering to the sexually deviant who are perpetuating the double standard at every turn.
Where is the outrage when the same kids rip, tear, and burn the American Flag. Classrooms are for teaching. Not for teachers to push a Marxist agenda onto students. Taxpayers money should go for education not indoctrination.
I have friends who are homosexual. I have family members who are homosexual. There are online forums I participate in that have several homosexual members. 99% of them concur that the “Pride” movement has gone too far. It is monetized by corporations. Politicians will shill causes no matter how obscure and obscene. “Non profits” will form out of thin air and vacuum donations and government grants. Advocacy groups materialize and also demand grants and coerce legislative action using shaming campaigns. June serves as a steroid boost to attack conservative groups and corner politicians into condemning their own constituents.
The 99% of previously referenced homosexual individuals I speak to agree with the following:
Drag queen story hour is highly inappropriate and is essentially an “in your face” by lgbt extremist advocacy groups.
“Gender affirming” children and teens is wrong as they clearly and scientifically do not possess the abilities to understand the long term and permanent changes hormone therapy and body mutilation incur.
Encouraging children and teens to confide in strangers and lie to their parents about being gay or suffering gender dysphoria destroys family cohesion and trust.
Doctors, lawyers,big pharma, politicians, and advocacy groups have and will profit $$$ in the BILLIONS, and see them as paychecks and votes.
None of the “gender affirmation” activities have anything to do with tolerance and acceptance.
The same pattern as “racial justice”, “immigrant rights”, DEI, ESG bribery, “Green initiatives”. All monetized and political chicanery. Pride month is Profit month.
American flags *are* in schools. How a rainbow for a single day, or even school year, is at odds with that fact is puzzling.
LGBTQIA kids have been scared for years. Now that they have support, “straight” (one always wonders) kids are channeling their parents’ violent tendencies and using the American flag colors as cover. It is typical MAGA behavior.
As to Chief Redclaw’s personal experience, I doubt it.
Pride celebration 30 days. Many schools are against wearing a cross, try wearing a Trump hat or shirt, expelled. What about Christmas vacation, it’s now Winter Holiday, Easter is spring celebration. A man in a dress, high heels & beard is cute, not mentally disturbed. To kill babies is a human right. The world has gone mad & these Burlington kids that stood up for themselves are patriots & probably will be the ones protecting, defending your country & sorry ass.
Which part do you doubt hatch?
DQSH is inappropriate and off putting? Clearly divisive and does nothing to advance gays considering transexual performance is “being sexsational” in front of young children? Targeting children has always been a Boogeyman for the Cause.
The physical mutilation of sex organs of children?
Providing children with hormone blockers? Permanently altering their bodies with no recovery?
You think gay parents want their children keeping life altering secrets with some Sophmore at UMA studying child psychology? They would be happy to know their child was encouraged to lie because the 23 year old “they” is still “working it out” with your kid?
You noticed the Boston Pride parade explicitly stated they did not want corporate sponsorship and Bank of America employees riding floats and throwing beads?
Here you and yours shamelessly blaming parents when even the kids are reaching the point of “ok,we get it, youre gaaaaay”. Its a sexual preference, not an identity. Its not a skin color. Its not a country of origin.
Its a solid month of ass kissing and a grifters paradise.
Pharma, doctors,lawyers, politicians making profit?
NutHatch? I value your input.
At a time when the U.S. Department of Education is failing children miserably who can barely pass proficiency minimums, the LGBTQ+ agenda seems to be more important than creating a mind ready for the competitive world marketplace. LGBTQ is not a skill that society needs, it is a sexual preference that should remain private between consenting adults. Worse are the grade schools who sexualize children teaching them about grotesque sexual acts well before they have reached sexual maturity. This movement has gone way too far and now it merely seems to be an act of aggression toward any Christian or traditional family values that create a healthy, normal nuclear family. Contrarianism is the word that comes to mind…whatever outrages or angers Straight/Christians. Marxists are they, and they are very dangerous to any free society.
“Nancy Bonassera, co-chair of the Burlington Equity Coalition and a parent of students at Marshall Simonds, gave a statement to the Select Board calling for “consequences” for the students who participated in the counter-protest.”
Reeducation camp maybe?
Tuck that dick.
You are still not a chick.
You’re a worthless hack
Who wants his mommas rack.
Tuck that dick You will NEVER be a chick
The comments suggest this is just another hateful Christian propaganda source. Having grown up with the hypocrisy of Christianity, it doesn’t surprise me how Christians will twist, turn and manipulate every situation to justify their mean-spirited actions.
I may be old school but grade school, middle school and high school should be about reading, writing and arithmetic. I am totally against a school thinking they have total authority over our children. I’d like to remind you that it’s the citizens who pay their taxes for you to teach our children. I also believe that every child should be treated with respect no matter their sex. With that said, I ask the question about the pride flag, what is there to be proudful about? A school needs to leave sex out of the classroom, this should be left for the parents to teach. Has anyone heard what the Bible says about pride?
In Proverbs – it says pride goes before the fall.
We are all sinners and we all need to turn away from sexual immorality. Read what God’s Word the Bible says about these things.
I may be old school but grade school, middle school and high school should be about reading, writing and arithmetic. I am totally against a school thinking they have total authority over our children. I’d like to remind you that it’s the citizens who pay their taxes for you to teach our children. I also believe that every child should be treated with respect no matter their sex. With that said, I ask the question about the pride flag, what is there to be proudful about? A school needs to leave sex out of the classroom, this should be left for the parents to teach. Has anyone heard what the Bible says about pride?
In Proverbs – it says pride goes before the fall.
We are all sinners and we all need to turn away from sexual immorality.
I may be old school but grade school, middle school and high school should be about reading, writing and arithmetic. I am totally against a school thinking they have total authority over our children. I’d like to remind you that it’s the citizens who pay their taxes for you to teach our children. I also believe that every child should be treated with respect no matter their sex. With that said, I ask the question about the pride flag, what is there to be proudful about? A school needs to leave sex out of the classroom, this should be left for the parents to teach. Has anyone heard what the Bible says about pride?
In Proverbs – it says pride goes before the fall.
-lb
“hateful Christian propaganda”. Yes, yes we know. Jesus freaks and MAGA!!
Got anything else to blame for virtue signalling America down the drain? Covid didnt prove your worth? Toss some kids on the altar, for The Cause. Youve still got a couple more weeks to hold clandestine Drag Queen Storytime in old libraries and small bookstores. Because you’re proud, and children are valuable as both a currency and shield.
This article as everything now days makes it seem like the victims are the pride members. Nothing in reference to how frustrated those kids are from all this activism and brain washing. This is sexual propaganda by waving all these rainbows and flags. You’re expressing your sexual orientation more that any other message and should not be allowed in schools. It’s a shame that those school administrators don’t see the real agenda from all this. I’m sick and tired of all this indoctrination and so are our children.
It’s hust about flood time and every great empire that repelled God and exalted deviant homosexuality failed and they failed big time
Release the violent trans school shooter manifesto. These freaks and deviant outcasts are extremely violent and mentally ill
The same people want to sterilize your children with puberty blockers and make a lot of money as they destroy these children’s health. Maine taxpayers will be made to pay for it. $1.8 million per sex change. Get mad – Janet Mills is a monster.