Progress Pride Flag hangs outside a classroom at Saticoy Elementary School, replacing a smaller version destroyed in an arson hate crime. (Photo credit: Renato Lira San Fernando Valley LGBTQ Center)
NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif. | The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed that a small LGBTQ+ Pride flag located outside of a classroom at Saticoy Elementary School was destroyed in an act of arson. The crime is now being investigated as a possible hate crime, according to an LAPD spokesperson.
First reported by the Los Angeles Daily News, Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton of the LAPD’s Valley Bureau told journalist Steve Scauzillo May 27 that “The investigation is ongoing. It is a vandalism hate crime. The hate crime is still significant but it is a misdemeanor.”
A group of parents have taken to social media and distributed flyers to protest a scheduled LGBTQ+ Pride event at the school on June 2. The group called for other parents to protest outside of the school at the start of the school day.
“We respect everyone, but some things are appropriate for children (of) that age, and some things are not,” George Dzhabroyan, who is among the Saticoy parents unhappy with the school, told KTLA 5 on May 24. “Hopefully the message gets across and people understand that parents should be the primary contact of what their children should be exposed to and shouldn’t be exposed to.”
The blackened planter and burned flag were discovered by school personnel on May 22 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.
According to The Daily News, a member of the group, Saticoy Elementary Parents, claims that no one from the group was responsible for the act of arson.
Ana, a parent in the group who asked that her last name not be published in the interest of her family’s safety, said she does not believe any member of the group is responsible for the possible hate crime, the Daily News reported.
“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 our children are.”
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) confirmed that the event being protested by the group will include a book reading by faculty of British author Mary Hoffman titled ‘The Great Big Book of Families. The book covers families of different colors, single parents, grandparents, two mothers, two fathers, and adoptive families. It also addresses family sizes, different homes, different ways to go to school, different ways parents work, the holidays families take, the food people eat, clothes, pets, and hobbies.
The school also has an assembly planned for that day.
The executive director of the San Fernando Valley LGBTQ Center, Renato Lira, expressed concern over this latest incident: “We have a real concern over what is going on. We have three teachers who are LGBTQ at that campus. And two parents are LGBTQ who bring their kids to that school.”
Lira and the Center donated a full size Progress Pride flag for display and told the paper that volunteers from the Center will be present on the event this Friday. He added: “We raised that flag to let them know we are going to be stronger and united,” he said.
Lira pointed out that whoever burned the flag showed disrespect for LGBTQ+ parents, teachers and the community. “They should not be doing that, whoever they are,” he said.
The Los Angeles Unified School District did not respond to a request by the Blade for comment.
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