The rainbow-colored tree originally included handmade pink ornaments with the messages "Be Gay Be Slay" and "Gay Panic" in reference to a legal defense in which a man claims a kind of temporary insanity for an act of violence committed against another man due to allegedly unwanted homoerotic advances.
Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute says leftists are mocking two Christian symbols with this politicized tree, and Edison Middle School administrators are refusing requests to remove it. In fact, both the principal, Rachel Bednar, and superintendent, Jeff Schuler, approve of what Higgins calls "this offense against Christians."
"You have to assume that the principal and the superintendent and whoever else is involved in the decision-making think it's just Jim-dandy to mock and appropriate Christian traditions for the purposes of a far-left political cause," she submits.
A concerned member of the community spoke about the display with Superintendent Schuler, who reportedly asserted that the Christmas tree is not a religious symbol -- despite being called a Christmas tree and only being displayed during the Christmas season. Though the tree remains in place, the administration did remove the offensive ornaments.
Higgins does not think the person who spoke up stands alone.
"Parents should be organizing, talking to each other, going to the school board meetings, arranging and meeting with the new school principal and the superintendent, and keep on keeping on," the cultural issues writer contends. "The left is tenacious. Conservatives are not. Conservatives get battle-weary very easily."
Higgins goes on to point out that Illinois has multiple laws mandating that the state's public schools introduce, promote, and affirm leftist views on "identity" and sexuality to children starting in kindergarten.
"There is no way for parents to escape having their children's innocence stolen and their minds and hearts corrupted in and by public schools," she writes, urging churches to help conservative parents to get their children out of public schools.
