Adults in Burlington, Massachusetts, have called for “action” in response to a group of middle school students tearing down Pride banners and chanting, “U.S.A. are my pronouns.”
The principal of Marshall Simonds Middle School, Cari Purchase, responded to the student’s choice to rebel against Pride Month, calling their actions “unacceptable” because those “beliefs and actions result in the demeaning of another individual or group.”
According to reporting by Boston.com, “The Burlington community” has called on the town’s leaders to “take action in the wake of a recent middle school incident” during a Pride event, which the students had disrupted.
On June 2, Marshall Simonds Middle School students allegedly disrupted the school’s Spirit Day celebration of Pride Month, sponsored by the school’s LGBT student group, the Spectrum Club.
As part of the event, the Spectrum club decorated the school with signs that read “Happy Pride Month” and posters with the message regarding “Why it’s not OK to say ‘that’s so gay,'” according to a letter sent to parents by Purchase.
The LGBT student group also put up rainbow cloth and Pride flag banners, handed out rainbow stickers, and encouraged students and faculty to wear rainbow-colored clothing.
But some students reportedly reacted by tearing down flags and signs, with the principal of Marshall Simonds High School calling it “inappropriate.”
Other students chanted “U.S.A. are my pronouns” in the hallways and wore red, white, and blue clothes and face paint rather than the planned rainbow attire, the letter added.
In the letter to parents, Purchase responded by calling the students’ actions “completely unacceptable” and saying it was “demeaning” to other students, comparing their actions to violence. ”
Purchase expressed her “respect that our diverse community has diverse opinions and beliefs,” adding that she also respects “individuals’ rights to express their opinions through their clothing choices and freedom of speech.”
However, Purchase condemned the actions of some students who had demeaned the others as “completely unacceptable.”
