Columbus school cancels drag story time, citing security dispute

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Columbus school says an internal dispute over 
security prompted a last-minute cancellation of a weekend children's 
storytelling event featuring performers in drag amid a planned 
protest by a far-right group.

The Red Oak Community School's “Holi-Drag Storytime” event was to 
have been held Saturday morning at the First Unitarian Universalist 
Church of Columbus, where the school is based. The Ohio Chapter of 
the Proud Boys last month announced plans to attend and protest the 
event.

School manager Cheryl Ryan said Saturday morning that the 
cancellation was prompted by an internal disagreement “about how 
this community could be best protected.” In an often-emotional 
speech from the decorated stage where the event was to have been 
held, she spoke of repeated efforts to secure police protection 
along with the discomfort with law enforcement felt by a “community 
defense team” that had volunteered to help provide security.

“In the end our performers felt unsafe without a police presence 
while our safety team felt unsafe with a police presence," Ryan 
said. “So it turns out our biggest problem wasn’t the Proud Boys 
after all.”

About 50 to 70 members of the Proud Boys and other groups had 
gathered on the sidewalk on roads leading to the church, shouting, 
chanting and holding signs. About two dozen people showed up in 
opposition to the protesters despite a coalition of central Ohio 
LGBTQ-plus organizations urging people not to show up as 
counterprotesters, citing the need to protect children, families and 
the community in a “potentially volatile and dangerous” situation.

The event was to feature three local drag performers reading stories 
to children of all ages" and performing a “few holiday numbers.” The 
school said last month that such events promote values such as love, 
kindness and inclusivity in children and prevent future bullying as 
well as helping to “normalize and celebrate the beautiful diversity 
of the gender spectrum that is now and has always been, a natural 
part of the human experience.”

Ryan thanked people around the country for their support, saying the 
school had “sold almost 1,000 tickets" for the $10 event and raised 
more than $5,000 for a local LGBTQ-plus charity.

A statement sent to 10TV from the Columbus Division of Police said:

"The Columbus Division of Police is aware of a statement made 
earlier today about our involvement in the Holi-Drag Storytime 
event. Unfortunately, what was said about our involvement is 
incorrect.

CPD learned about this event through Facebook and immediately 
reached out to the church and the school. A face-to-face meeting 
took place with all parties on November 18th to talk about the event 
and a safety plan. The school did request a special duty officer, 
but cancelled that request on the same day of the meeting.

During this week, CPD continued to communicate with the church, 
school, neighbors, and businesses in that area to inform them of our 
safety action plan. The school and church were consistently involved 
in those discussions through email and phone calls. CPD was told by 
the school that we could have plainclothes officers outside the 
event, but not inside the building for they had hired their own 
private security. CPD pulled together resources from several units 
to make sure we were present, including officers from our bike 
patrol and dialogue team. Even though the event was cancelled, we 
still had personnel and officers in the area to make sure all 
parties were safe.

The Columbus Division of Police protects all residents of the city 
equally. We have had several meetings with the LGBTQ community and 
continue to work together in partnership to make sure they feel 
supported and protected at all of their events."

Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther also weighed in on the cancellation. 
His full statement is below:

"I stand fully with our LGBTQ+ neighbors, and I condemn any and all 
efforts to intimidate, harass, threaten or cause harm to any member 
of this community.

Earlier today, an extremist group known as the Proud Boys staged a 
demonstration outside of an event intended to be a family-friendly 
program. The Proud Boys is designated as a hate group by the 
Southern Poverty Law Center, regularly espousing extremist, white-
nationalist ideologies and beliefs that stand in stark contrast with 
who we are as a city. That is why we took this threat so seriously 
from the very beginning, and that is why we began developing a 
safety plan weeks ago.

When the City of Columbus was first made aware of the intent of 
these groups to have a presence at this event, the Columbus Division 
of Police immediately began working in close coordination with the 
organizer of the event, Red Oak Community School, the host of the 
event, the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus, and 
LGBTQ+ community leaders to ensure that a security plan was in place 
to allow the event to occur peacefully and without interruption.

These ongoing communications between the Division of Police and the 
event organizers began on Friday, November 18, and continued through 
today, when the event was intended to take place. As a result of 
these many conversations, a safety plan was developed that included 
coordination between the Columbus Division of Police and a private 
security firm that is owned, operated and staffed by LGBTQ+ 
community members. This safety plan was agreed upon and supported by 
the Central Ohio LGBTQ+ Leadership Roundtable which, in a statement 
issued on Wednesday, November 30, indicated that, “LGBTQ+ community 
leaders have been in conversation with Red Oak, local security 
professionals, local law enforcement, and Mayor Ginther and have 
confidence that they are taking this threat very seriously. They 
have a strong commitment to the children's and our community’s 
safety and we have confidence in their ability to address this 
situation.”

On Monday, November 28, I met with members of the Central Ohio 
LGBTQ+ Leadership Roundtable, which is made up of leaders who 
represent each of the organizations serving the Columbus-area LGBTQ+ 
community. Over the course of our conversation, Police Chief Elaine 
Bryant, Officer Shawn Lutz and Lt. Justin Coleman outlined the 
Police Division’s robust plans to respond to any potential threat to 
today’s event. During that discussion, our community’s LGBTQ+ 
leadership expressed support for and confidence in the safety plan 
that we had developed in coordination with the event organizers.

Yesterday, on Friday, December 2, the organizer of the event 
indicated that they no longer wished to partner with the private 
security firm and police tasked with protecting the event. As a 
result of this abrupt change, the event performers indicated that 
they no longer felt safe to participate in the event. Shortly 
thereafter, the event organizer announced the cancellation of the 
event. Despite the cancellation, Columbus Division of Police 
officers and personnel were onsite today to ensure safety at the 
site and throughout the surrounding neighborhood.

Our Division of Police, working in close coordination with the 
LGBTQ+ community, invested significant resources to ensure that this 
event could take place peacefully and without disruption. It is very 
unfortunate that the event was canceled, and we will continue to 
uplift and support the LGBTQ+ community moving forward."

Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin provided the written 
statement:

“We respect the parents, church, and organizers who worked to create 
a safe event at First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus. It 
is upsetting to see a terrorist group bus in white supremacist 
bullies with assault rifles to intimidate families and children. 
Hate has no place in Columbus, and we certainly have too many guns 
in the streets already. I’ve personally spoken with the Mayor and 
top Division of Police leadership, starting more than a week ago. 
The City of Columbus has been engaged and prepared for this event, 
and remain on-site today to ensure the safety of all residents. 
Police leadership tell me they respected the expressed wishes of 
event organizers to not have officers inside the venue, but still be 
in the area and outside the church to maintain civility and order. 
There can always be better communications, and we must all continue 
speaking out against the Proud Boys for bringing their hate speech 
to Columbus.”

<https://www.10tv.com/article/news/local/columbus-ohio-school-
cancels-drag-story-time-citing-security-dispute/530-9c1d2db7-dc54-
4576-84f9-6fcd4664a715>