California High School Asks Students to Remove Anti-Gay Badges

Students at a California high school have sparked controversy for adding anti-gay symbols to their ID badges, prompting the school to ask them to remove the symbols “for now.”

A handful of students at Shadow Hills High School in Indio, Calif., added images of a rainbow pattern crossed out by a circle with a line through it to their ID badges; one person used the image in a Google Classrooms profile, and one such symbol was placed on the classroom window of the Gay Straight Alliance coordinator.

After first saying the symbols were protected as free speech, the school said new information “has been brought forward that requires additional investigation and follow-up to determine a proper course of action. Pending further investigation, we are going to ask students who are displaying the symbol showing a rainbow pattern with a circle and a line, at least for now, to remove symbols while at school,” the Desert Sun reports.

[The Desert Sun]