Shawnee Mission East High School Students Tell Westboro Church its Hate isn't Welcome in Prairie Village, KS

WINGS OF JUSTICE

Shawnee Mission East High School (KS) Students

^{Photo credit: Tammy Ljungblad/The Kansas City Star}

**UPDATED BELOW**

American teens aren't necessarily known for their serenity and even-handedness. But when one of the most abrasive hate groups in the country showed up across the street from Shawnee Mission East High School, students there knew just what to counter with: peace and love.

Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, KS and led by Fred Phelps, is best known for its controversial picketing at soldiers' funerals, their attention-grabbing signs, and their use of children in protests. The group believes that negative events in the world are God's punishment for people being permissive of homosexuality.

For example, one recent press release announcing a Westboro protest at soldiers' funerals begins, "Thank god for 15 more dead troops. We are praying for 15,000 more." Beneath that shocking statement, the release lists dead soldiers' names under the heading "roster of the damned."

Given that kind of venom, it is unsurprising that the church organized a protest after just recently learning that students at nearby Shawnee Mission East High School in Prairie Village, KS, elected an openly gay prom king in 2007.

Though Westboro's online schedule has since been updated, this blog reprinted the church's call to protest the school, which begins with the following: "On the whole electing a fag to be your Homecoming Queen -- well that is so appropriate for a filthy little goody-two-shoes-type bible [sic] belt community like Prairie Village!"

When Shawnee students (or Lancers, as they call themselves) heard about the Westboro protest, they weren't about to take it lying down. Instead of succumbing to the hate, they returned the venom with love. Instead of simply trumpeting their beliefs, they acted, turning their last-minute counterprotest into an impromptu fundraiser.

The contrast was striking. Occupying one lonely corner of the four in front of the school, church members were surrounded by students, parents, teachers, and other community members on the three other corners in counterprotest. Only a handful of people from the Westboro church group showed up, carrying printed signs that said "God hates fags" and "America is doomed." Hundreds of students countered with handmade signs inscribed with messages such as "God loves everyone" and "I forgive you, Fred."

Local news outlets reported that the whole thing lasted about an hour and that there were no arrests. According to the principal of Shawnee Mission, Karl Krawitz, the students raised $5,000 for AIDS research. Krawitz described the scene later via e-mail:

"You never know how things like this will go, especially given the history of the Westboro Baptist Church, but all in attendance handled the situation in an admirable way. You would have had to see it to believe it. There were no negative signs, obscenities, or words of hate in retaliation for the church's presence -- [the students] merely shared their beliefs and thoughts in a positive and peaceful way."

It's important to note that this happened not in a coastal, urban area, but at a suburban high school in Kansas. As a Midwestern news organization, we at BuzzFlash know it doesn't exactly come naturally to the community to get up in the faces of such haters. Needless to say, we were especially pleased to see this display of acceptance came from the Heartland. Go Lancers!

WINGS OF JUSTICE

***

Special thanks to writer and Kansan Bob Sommer for nominating this group for a Wings of Justice Award, and for helping us get in contact with community members. To see a full list of past Wings of Justice nominees, click here.

UPDATE: After publishing this story, we heard from Principal Karl Krawitz via e-mail again, and we wanted to share his thoughts with our readers:

"Thank you for your beautiful story and certainly the award for the students at Shawnee Mission East High School. We could not have been more proud of our kids. Appreciate all you do in bringing the news to the people."

Technorati Tags: BuzzFlash Honors wings of justice shawnee mission high school gay GLBT westboro anti-gay protest phelps kansas prairie village