Eugene School District 4J is having a pride event following their removal of an event flyer from social media.
EUGENE, Ore. -- Eugene School District 4J's Pride Fest event is still taking place at the beginning of June even after the district's social media account removed the original event flyer post from their account.
4J Director of Communications Jenna McCulley was one of the 4J officials behind the removal of the pride fest flyer. The flyer stated the activities taking place including a drag show, which lead to event coordinators getting negative and hateful comments towards themselves and the district. McCulley said those comments were what lead to the post’s removal.
“As a government entity we do not moderate a public forum in which people have the opportunity to express their opinions,” McCulley said. “The organizers, the students and the staff supporting the students reached out to let us know that the students were no longer feeling safe based on some of the comments that were being posted on there."
This was the flyer that was removed from 4J's social media accounts after repeated negative comments and hateful comments.
The event had gained national attention following the announcement of the drag show being part of the event. North Eugene High School's stadium will be the site used for Pride Fest, with many of the students saying this will bring both good and bad attention to the event.
North Eugene High School students Dusty Stratton, Atticus Lincoln, and Alex shared there thoughts on having a Drag Show taking place on their campus with most agreeing that the shows are not as large of an issue in their community.
"I think its people expressing themselves I think its people doing performances in ways that we do theater,” Stratton said. “We're dressing up and doing these performances because it makes us happy."
Other students said it’s odd to have the district host a drag show event during a time when such shows spark a lot of attention and controversy.
“It's only really been controversial only recently and I feel like it's a really weird move for the district to now decide to put on a drag show,” said student Atticus Lincoln. “It being very controversial, I think that's a strange pick and I think it's bringing controversy to the event."
4J officials said the event is volunteer participation only and is not happening within school hours. With the event scheduled for a start time at 3:00 p.m. on June 2, all North Eugene High School student Alex wants is for the negativity to not take away from the event.
"I feel like as a school we should stand up and really say, 'hey we're not going to listen to hate, let us just enjoy our time and have a good pride,'" Alex said.
