Though Gunn High School students planned to hold an anti-protest on Friday morning in defiance of Westboro Baptist Church leader Fred Phelps’ announcement that his group of anti-Semitic and anti-gay activists would picket in front of the school, the Gunn administration decided that non-response is the better reaction.
In an e-mail to Gunn students and staff, Gunn Principal Noreen Likins said that Gunn students may stand in the library with counter-protest signs if they still wish to do so, but that there will be no formal protest and that “any outside organizations or people…will be actively discouraged from coming on campus.”
School will start at 8:30 a.m., half an hour later than the normal schedule, so that as few students as possible will have to be on campus during the WBC demonstration. In addition, Gunn students plan to hold a lunch rally in the school’s library.
According to the lunch event’s Facebook page, the rally will celebrate the Gunn community’s love and acceptance and feature songs performed by various students or groups. Students also plan to wear T-shirts displaying the message, “Gay? fine by me!”
Gunn student Ronit Roodman, who helped plan the original protest, agrees with Gunn’s course of action.
“In addition to a variety of risks involved with a protest, I think that it is an all-or-nothing deal when it comes to the protest,” Roodman said. “The idea that school is starting late could be a great thing; not having to even be present to hear these crazy people’s hatred being spread has the potential to be an effective way to deal with the situation if there are really no people there to listen. Once the school announced that that was their plan of action it made sense to cancel any formal protest.”
Paly GSA Co-President Caleb Jones says he is not completely sure which would be the best approach, an anti-protest or a rally at lunch with a late start.
“While there’s something exciting about protesting such a group, we [people with strong opposing views] seem to be the target audience,” Jones said. “So if people are going to ‘actively’ not pay attention, rather than actually not pay attention by not being there? Sure.”
Roodman feels that although Phelps’ plan to come to Gunn stirred a lot of trouble, there is still a silver lining in this situation. According to Roodman, Fred Phelps forced the community to discuss the important issues of gay rights, racism and anti-Semitism and brought the community together.
“Although Phelps coming to Gunn has fallen at an extremely tough time for the Gunn community, I think it has actually brought people together,” Roodman said. “It has enabled staff and students alike to unite over a common belief.”
“Gay? Fine by me!” shirts can be purchased here.