An LGBTQ+ flag placed in a plant pot outside of a classroom at Saticoy Elementary School was lit on fire and the flag was destroyed, and it is being investigated as a possible hate crime after being discovered on Monday, May 29, according to LAPD.
The school has been the focus of a group of parents who are objecting to an upcoming Pride Day assembly on Friday, June 2, at which the school plans to teach children about LGBTQ+ identities during a book reading.
The fire incident at the school is being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department, said Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton of the Valley Bureau. “The investigation is ongoing. It is a vandalism hate crime. The hate crime is still significant but it is a misdemeanor,” he said on May 27.
The blackened planter and burned flag were discovered by school personnel on Monday at 6:30 a.m., Hamilton said. He did not know when the planter and flag were burned and there are no suspects, he said.
Conservative parents with children enrolled at the school last week posted their objections on social media to the upcoming school assembly and book reading on June 2, asking parents to boycott the event and “keep their children home and innocent” that day. The group passed out flyers in the neighborhood with a similar message.
The group, Saticoy Elementary Parents, says on its Instagram page that the school has a significant population of Armenian and Hispanic families who “share conservative values” and “don’t feel this material is appropriate to teach to the children.”
Ana, a parent in the group who asked that her last name not be published in the interest of her family’s safety, said she does not believe any member of the group is responsible for the possible hate crime.
“None of us parents are aware of who the person might have been who set the flag on fire,” she said. “None of us would jump the fence or set the flag on fire because we don’t want to bring that negativity to the school where…
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