Right-Wing Extremists Harass McCallum High Students at School
By Maggie Q. Thompson, August 24, 2023, 3:47pm, Newsdesk
A handful of adults blocked the path of students leaving McCallum High School Tuesday and used a megaphone to tell the kids they were the “devil” and headed to hell.
Videos provided to the Chronicle and posted online show the adults filmed themselves laughing outside of McCallum before the school day ended. Later, as students tried to board their buses and as parents arrived to pick their kids up, the Christian group stood in the way and shouted things like, “if you had an abortion you’re going to hell because you are evil,” as well as anti-gay hate speech.
A video posted by the group shows that Austin ISD staff asked the men to move a few meters out of the way of the buses to allow kids to board, but they did not. Austin ISD police were also there to stand between the harassers and the students, but some parents still expressed alarm. “Very upsetting, with everyone wondering what to do,” one parent told the Chronicle. “Should we respond? Should we ignore? Just very unsettling that something like this could happen so close to a school.”
Parents were also concerned about what seemed to be vague threats. One of the men yelled that Jesus will “judge the living and the dead. That’s what he’s gonna do. I’ve already seen some transvestite out here boo-hooing and crying. … God’s people will never comply with the Devil’s lies.”
Austin ISD had not responded to the Chronicle’s questions at the time of publication.
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