Schools & Protests

I found this interesting especially since Sidwell Friends has been in the news recently due to a Westbro Baptist church protest held in front of the school. People have freedom of speech and right to peacefully assemble and protest. However, is it alright for people to push any sort of agenda hate or otherwise on young school children.

Some Washington area schools are being targeted for protests by an extremist church from Kansas whose website attacks gays, blacks, Jews and other minorities, as well as any whites who manage to get along with them.

On Monday, Westboro Baptist Church members protested at private Sidwell School's middle and upper school campus in the District, where President Obama's two daughters attend. Yesterday it was Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Montgomery County because, the group's website says, the school has a diversity club. And later in the day it was Sidwell's lower school campus in Bethesda.

Westboro, in an effort to stir controversy and gain publicity, stages protests around the country and announces many more protests than it actually holds. Military funerals are a special target, on the church's theory that fallen troops are God's punishment for a country tolerant of homosexuals.

On Monday ffive Westboro representatives were met by several hundred Sidwell students and adults dressed in rainbow colors and holding signs with positive messages. The same thing happened yesterday at BCC, five Westboro representatives found hundreds of students and BCC staff stood together quietly holding signs with messages of tolerance and peace.

Before the protests, parents exchanged e-mails debating the best way to react to Westboro. Some argued for using the situation to let students engage in civic action by banding together to stand up for their beliefs.

"In my opinion, BCC community members are right to use this as a teachable moment," said one parent e-mail. "How can diversity be honored within healthy communities? How can healthy people respond when an unprovoked attack occurs on people they care about? How do we show love (a universal value) in the face of hate?"

Others said that it was best to ignore the group, arguing that Westboro loves publicity, even when it is negative. Said one parent e-mail: "Please use your heads! If you threw a party and no one showed up. .. would you throw another one anytime soon?"

Here's a message sent out to the school's parents by the principal intern, Bennie W. Green, after yesterday's events:

Dear B-CC Parents,

The protest by the WBC and the counter protest by our students went off without incident.

The WBC was represented by three adults and two children. B-CC was represented by several hundred students and many of our staff. There was also a significant police presence in the area.

From the beginning, you would have been proud as our students silently demonstrated their solidarity with one another by standing together and displaying signs with positive messages. Throughout the counter protest students communicated a sense of unity and respect for each other.

The counter protest concluded at 7:24 a.m. with an impressive recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. After the protest concluded, students immediately proceeded to their first period class.

During the beginning of first period, I praised the students for their maturity, self-control, and the positive way in which they represented B-CC. They were great!

Bennie W. Green, Principal Intern
Bethesda Chevy Chase High School

Here's the question: Should schools ignore protesters with messages of hate or use the occasion to encourage students to make their own anti-hate stand?

Source: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/civics-education/what-should-schools-do-when-th.html

Here's an article on how students and Sidwell Friends reacted when five Westbro protesters held racist, homophobic and anti-Obama signs outside their school. Bolding some interesting parts. Its actually quite amazing how a bunch of kids can come together and handle things so maturely.




Its parent-teacher conferences made the evening news. So did cases of swine flu. And Sidwell Friends School has recently been the target of a few small protests that seem aimed at prominent parents, not students.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/11/AR2009111126806_2.html?g=0
Edited by return_to_hades - 14 years ago

Ah I am surprised that the Westboro members were not beaten up.

I think they should be called in for an intelligent discussion and given  cordial treatment.

It seems that the Westboro church should either be closed down or the person in charge arrested for instigating problems.

If the students had retaliated by fighting how would they have been any better.

The Westboro Baptist church is known to carefully target high profile schools for publicity. Most students have learned to not let the protests get the better of them and counter protest reasonably. In the past they used to target high profile colleges like Oberlin etc, but of late in 2009 they have been targeting high schools with young teens. While the kids have been reacting very well - the question is - how fair is it to target teens with such protests.

Its an interesting question because the WBC runs on the fact that they have constitutional rights to peacefully assemble and protest. The Phelps family that runs WBC are banned in UK and other countries and any member of WBC can be denied entry to UK upon review.

Here is another protest by WBC in Seattle this summer - http://www.kirotv.com/education/19755923/detail.html

They are planning to go around USA so it could be any town next.

Schools should use the occassion to teach students. Students should be encouraged to express their views on such hate-demos. It is a good opportunity to teach the students that not all people in the world can think straight. They can be encouraged to think and express what is the best way to tackle them- ignore, ban or fight back.