Protesters gather at Roseville school district office after it cut ties with LGBTQ group

More than 100 protesters gathered outside the Roseville Joint Union High School District offices Friday afternoon in opposition to the district’s announcement last week that it would cut ties with a local LGBTQ+ group after its founder was featured in an undercover video from Project Veritas.

“We’re here to give support to all the the LGBT kids and oppose all the disgusting bills that have been going out against us,” said Jeane Nelson, a student at Oakmont High School. “We’re hoping to spread love and change the world for the better.”

The demonstration was organized by Parents for Social Consciouness, a local progressive parents group, and was scheduled for Friday to observe International Transgender Day of Visibility.

“Our district supports the rights of both our students and the general public to protest and petition their government,” said Pete Constant, president of the district’s board of trustees.

Alexis Garber, a junior at Oakmont High School, said she was participating in the demonstration in hopes that the district would reverse course on its decision to cut ties with the Landing Spot.

Last week,the school district sent a statement to parents saying it had decided not to continue its relationship with the LGBTQ+ peer support group due to comments made by its founder in the Project Veritas video.

“Based on what we have learned, the District has no intention of pursuing any contractual agreement of services with, or referrals to, the Landing Spot” the district said to parents.

The video, which has received 1.7 million views on Twitter, depicts the group’s founder, Pastor Casey Tinnin-Martinez, at a restaurant in which he was allegedly recorded without his permission as he discussed mentoring transgender teens and children through his church and peer support group.

The eight-minute video contains more than 15 cuts, edits that Tinnin-Martinez said take his words out of context.

In it, Tinnin-Martinez is shown saying he has called Placer County’s Child Protective Services in instances where parents refuse to use a transgender child’s preferred name or pronouns.

Constant said students who wished to leave class to participate in the demonstration are welcome to do so.

“We don’t discourage them from exercising their freedom of speech,” he said.