Protest planned at Roanoke County school over LGBTQ materials

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - A protest is planned for Friday at Glen Cove Elementary School in Roanoke County. This comes after several parents spoke out at a school board meeting against LGBTQ material inside schools.

Glen Cove Elementary School Damon Gettier brought his concerns to the May 18th Roanoke County School Board Meeting.

“I care not if someone is LGBTQA – that is their decision. I have friends and business partners that are gay,” said Gettier. “What I’m here to talk about is the child abuse, grooming, conditioning, (and) indoctrination by sexual predators disguised as teachers and staff at Glen Cove Elementary.”

Gettier was one of four county residents who spoke at the meeting concerning LGBTQ decorations at the school. He said this came after he heard his son talking to another student about something they learned at school.

“They were talking about how a staff person had told them that a boy could be a girl and a girl could be a boy and that they could decide,” added Gettier.

Gettier said he visited the school and saw LGBTQ decorations and staff wearing pride symbols, including photos from the school’s yearbook.

Although Gettier didn’t name the teachers and staff he was talking about, he did list their positions.

“The guidance counselor, the school psychologist, the assistant principal, and the music teacher were bent on indoctrinating our children on LGBTQA and not on reading, writing, and arithmetic,” explained Gettier.

“How many music teachers do you know at one school – one – at least at an elementary school? And how many assistant principals are there usually – one,” explained Glen Cove Elementary School parent Samantha Newell.

Newell is organizing a peaceful demonstration at the school Friday afternoon to support teachers and staff.

“This impacts not just their livelihood of their jobs and their futures, but I mean, when you think of a sexual predator, you know you wanna throw paint at these people,” added Newell. “You know you want to get upset about a person who’s hurting children.”

Newell said multiple teachers resigned after the school board didn’t support them.

WDBJ7 contacted Roanoke County Public Schools officials, who confirmed 9 teachers have resigned and their positions have been filled. However, the school district wouldn’t confirm if the situations were related.

“While we cannot comment on the specifics of a personnel matter, we do want to affirm that Roanoke County Public Schools’ focus is on our students and their learning and wellbeing,” says Superintendent Dr. Ken Nicely. “Our baseline belief is that our schools must be safe and caring places for all students, where they can learn free of disruption.”

“Teachers like this prevent suicide. Teachers like this prevent self-harm. Teachers like this prevent bullying,” said Newell. “Imagine a kid with two dads goes to school and is constantly talked down to by their peers. They have no one to go to now because these teachers were bullied out of their jobs.”

WDBJ7 contacted Gettier, who said he had no comments regarding the situation; he said, “The media and alt-left are making this something it is not.”

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