Loudoun County parents are speaking out against a resident’s petition that calls to ban hate speech from school board meetings following a school board meeting in which parents lambasted school officials over their handling of a sexual assault case.

The petition, signed by several hundred county residents and started by 19-year-old Andrew Pihonak, a Loudoun County resident and member of the LGTBTQ community, calls to “ban hate speech in Loudoun School Board meetings” after a man called homosexuality “immoral” and quoted a violent Bible verse during the public comment period of the Dec. 13 board meeting. Parents present at the meeting and seeking accountability from the school board for a special grand jury report, which found the district failed to alert the community of multiple sexual assaults within the district, told the Daily Caller News Foundation the one comment is not representative of their efforts and that their demands have nothing to do with the LGBTQ community.

The petition misrepresents parents at the Dec. 13 school board meeting who are focusing on holding the school board accountable, Colin Donniger, a Loudoun County parent, told the DCNF.

“The petition is misleading as it relates to parental comments at the Dec. 13 school board meeting,” Donniger told the DCNF. “Parents, including myself, were there on the 13th to speak out about the utter failure of the Loudoun County Public School administration identified in the special grand jury report. There was very little reference at all in that meeting to gender dysphoria promoting policies, beyond the fact that the perpetrator of the sexual assault was a male who wore a skirt and had access to the women’s bathroom.”

Scott Mineo, a Loudoun County parent, told the DCNF that the comments made by a majority of parents at the school board meeting were about the mistakes the school administration had made, rather than the LGBTQ community.

“The list of unimaginable and unconscionable actions or lack thereof of the Loudoun County Public Schools administration is great,” Mineo told the DCNF. “These items have zero to do with the LGBTQIA+ community but all of us, all of our kids regardless of race, sex, religion. Not everything is about them and the sooner they can realize that, the sooner they can help us fight and expose the Loudoun County Public Schools administration.”…. (Excerpt from The Virginia Star and The Daily Caller)