Members from the Center of Bio-Ethical Reform protested against abortion on the sidewalk alongside George C Marshall Drive on the afternoon of May 25. Protesters stood outside Door 3, near the exit for the buses and on the corner of Leesburg Pike.
They passed out informational pamphlets and held up posters that displayed images of bloodied, aborted fetuses.
“I thought it was completely inappropriate, the way that they chose to convey their message,” freshman Madeleine Kienzle said. “The pictures were medically inaccurate so it was straight up fear-mongering.”
The Center of Bio-Ethical Reform has protested at four other high schools in the area, including Falls Church High School and Hayfield Secondary School.
“I did express to the [protester] with the big sign that it really wasn’t a good place to be,” School Resource Officer Tom Harrington said. “As I was speaking to this [protester], he was video taping me the whole time and tried to get into an argument with me.”
Legally, the protesters weren’t violating any Fairfax County Public School regulations because they weren’t standing on Marshall property and instead stayed on public sidewalk, which resulted in principal Jeff Litz not having the ability to ask that the protesters leave.
“My number one concern was that kids who may have mental health issues could walk out to see 10 week trimester abortion fetuses, and most of the emails I got were from parents whose kids are having those mental difficulties,” Litz said.
Although the protesters didn’t interact with many students, as most were already on buses to go home, some went down to talk to the members who were protesting on the corner of Leesburg Pike.
“I don’t think you’re going to convince anyone of anything when you’re angry,” senior Tory Schatz said.