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M O N D AY, J U N E 05- J U N E 11, 2023
V I S I T B A L D W I N PA R K P R E S S . C O M
N O. 123
V O L U M E 11,
Pride event at NoHo elementary school sparks tense protest, scuffles By City News Service
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protest by parents and others upset about a Pride Month assembly at Saticoy Elementary School in North Hollywood turned violent Friday, with fights breaking out among protesters and LGBTQ-rights advocates who also descended on the campus. “It’s a sad morning,” Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told Fox11 outside the campus as dozens of parents, protesters and others amassed outside the school on Ethel Avenue, leading to shouting matches, isolated skirmishes and disputes that forced police to intervene and separate the various factions. A large police presence was at the school Friday morning in anticipation of the protest by parents of the Pride assembly, which was set to include the reading a book about diverse and different types of families. “The Great Big Book of Families,” the book being read during the assembly, is approved by the district, Carvalho said. “I think there’s fairly good awareness as to what the book represents (and) what the book does not
represent,” Carvalho told reporters outside the school Friday morning. “But as I said, people today easily pick political sides and decide to stick to the political sides, while to a certain extent ignoring the reality and the truth; so there’s general awareness as to what the book represents.” No arrests were immediately reported, police said. Parents opposed to the Pride event created an Instagram page to express displeasure with the planned assembly and called for parents to keep their kids home from school on Friday. But they also announced plans to conduct a protest at the campus to pass out leaflets to others about the issue. Renato Lira, director of the San Fernando Valley LGBTQ Center, said in advance that volunteers with that organization also planned to be at the campus in a show of support for LGBTQ teachers and parents at the school. What resulted was a mass of humanity assembled outside the school, with protesters wearing shirts and carrying signs with slogans such as “Leave Our Kids Alone” and “Parental
Choice Matters.” Some people in the crowd waved Pride and American flags. Parents organizing the protest repeatedly insisted this week that their grievance with the assembly was not a sign of bigotry or intolerance of the LGBTQ community, only a statement of their belief that a Pride assembly is inappropriate for elementaryschool-aged children, and that parents should have the right to decide when to educate their children on the topic. “We stand with (the) LGBTQ community in solidarity,” a message posted on the organizers’ Instagram page proclaimed Thursday. “Our protest is against LAUSD. In elementary schools, kids should learn math, English, science.” “We want to reiterate that our protest is in no way an attack on the LGBTQ community,” according to a statement on the page. “We recognize the importance of promoting equality and acceptance for all individuals. Our intention is to raise the parents voices in wanting a say in when this topic is discussed with our kids.” The organizers also
Demonstrators both for and against a Pride event voiced their positions in front of Saticoy Elementary School on Friday. | Photo courtesy of United Teachers Los Angeles/Twitter
posted repeated messages calling on protesters to be peaceful, calm and respectful. But tensions over the Pride assembly heightened this week with news that a small Pride flag that was on display outside a campus classroom was burned sometime during the weekend of May 20-21, prompting a hate crime
investigation by police. Organizers of the parent protest have vehemently denied any involvement with the flag-burning. But news of the crime rapidly inflamed passions around the issue, likely contributing to the large crowd that gathered outside the campus Friday. School officials made special arrangements
allowing teachers and students to enter the Saticoy campus through a back entrance Friday so they could avoid the turmoil occurring in front of the school. In a statement Thursday, the LAUSD insisted, “The safety of our students and See Pride Page 27
Police watchdog group files public records lawsuit against LAPD By City News Service
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police watchdog group announced Thursday it filed a public records lawsuit claiming the Los Angeles Police Department has deleted personnel rosters from the city’s official website. The Stop LAPD Spying Coalition claims the city of Los Angeles deleted LAPD personnel rosters to trans-
form the department into a “secret police” to appease the Los Angeles Police Protective League, a union which represents LAPD officers, and has “called for the identity of all police officers to be secret.” Ivor Pine, representative for the City Attorney’s Office, which represents the police department, said in
an email that they had “no comment.” According to the coalition, in April members of the group observed several examples of LAPD deleting rosters of officers from the official city website. Some of these rosters were able to be downloaded for more than three years, until they were removed.
The coalition in a statement said after it filed a request for those deleted rosters, LAPD claimed they were secret. “LAPD’s claim that records they put online for years are suddenly secret is an escalation of their efforts to become a fully secret police force,” said Shakeer Rahman, legal counsel
for the coalition. “The reason LAPD has become so brazen about violating public records laws is that both the mayor and City Attorney have made clear that they will coddle any police demands for secrecy, no matter the cost.” In March, the coalition previously sued the city for “censoring basic informa-
tion about LAPD officers on personnel rosters.” The group using that information then launched the Watch the Watchers website, where the public can search or browse LAPD officer’s based on their photographs, division, rank See Watchdog group Page 02