Students at a Burlington, Massachusetts, middle school destroyed LGBTQ Pride decorations and chanted that their pronouns are "USA" in protest after being asked to wear rainbow-colored shirts to school earlier this month.
Clad in red, white and blue, the Marshall Simonds Middle School students tore down the decorations lining the hallways and ripped up Pride flag stickers, according to NBC10 Boston.
"I was shocked and horrified," Nila Almstrom, parent of an LGBT student, said during a town meeting about the protest.
Almstrom told NBC10 Boston that her son, whose pronouns are he/them, was there on June 2 when the protest occurred.
"I asked them if they were OK and they said, 'I choose not to give this my attention.' And I thought that was really brave and mature of them," Almstrom said.
Parents have told local media that their straight children felt forced to participate in the school's Pride Spirit Day and were "offended" by a Tennessee Williams quote printed on posters that said only lines and streets can be straight and that described the human heart as "curved like a road through the mountains."
"My daughter just said, 'You know, mom, that's offensive to me. I am straight,' " Christine Steiner told WCVB. "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."
In a letter to parents, Burlington Public Schools said that the district is "obligated to provide a safe environment for all students to feel safe, seen and respected without retaliation."
"I recognize that discussions and celebrations of individual identity are complex and impacted by individual values, religions, and cultural norms, the result of which may include expressions of racism, anti-religious hate, ableism, and in this case homophobia," Superintendent Eric Conti wrote.
"The Burlington Public Schools believe in the individual dignity and humanity of each and every person in our community," he continued. "We embrace everyone for who they are and for what they bring to our schools and larger community. Let us all work on being kinder to each other."
Claiming that "this type of intolerant rhetoric starts in the home," parents and LGBTQ allies have called on the school to provide more diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and have proposed reinstating the DEI board.
"These displays of intolerance and homophobia are unacceptable and impact the whole community," Burlington Equity Coalition co-chair, Nancy Bonassera, said at a town meeting Monday night. "We challenge Burlington town leadership to take an active stand against hate under the guise of 'free expression.' "
The school's DEI board was dissolved in 2022 after its one-year term concluded, according to the Daily Mail. Former board member Carl Foss told the outlet that the "need [to reinstate it] is pretty clear" after the meeting.