Protest targets teens

Jessica Lyon, Editor September 30, 2004

The group of anti-abortion protestors who gathered outside Stratford High School last Wednesday morning, holding up graphic signs and trying to distribute pamphlets as teens entered the building, plan to do the same at Bunnell High School soon.

The protestors are local members of a national organization called Operation Save America. Milford resident Marilyn Carroll led the protest.

According to Carroll, her group is visiting one area high school per month. Last month the anti-abortionists went to Bridgeport schools.

Carroll said the group plans to go to Bunnell High School in October. However, she said it does not have a schedule to adhere to.

High schools are picked on a month-to-month basis, she said.

The group reaches out to high school students, Carroll said, because it believes many teens do not understand what abortion is.

"They go to an abortion clinic and do not realize what they have done until it is too late," she said.

The group also wants to reach teens with its message before they have an abortion so they don't have to suffer the consequences of post-abortion depression.

"We pass out literature that offers other alternatives," said Carroll. "We advocate for abstinence.

"They allow Planned Parenthood into schools," she said. "The kids need to hear the other side."

Graphic images upset some

Though some people who were present said the protestors conducted themselves peaceably, they still upset some parents. In addition, a police report and an account Carroll posted online revealed some confrontational moments during the time the group was there.

Along with passing out literature, the group displayed charts of fetal development and graphic photographs of aborted fetuses.

Stratford resident Margaret Stead, the mother of a Stratford High School freshman, said she was extremely upset by those photographs. She said she thought even the protestors' presence outside the school was inappropriate.

"They were in the kids' faces, shoving pamphlets at them," Stead said.

Carroll agreed that the photographs were horrific, but she defended the use of such images.

"We are trying to expose it because we want it to end," she said. "People should be upset by those pictures. If it is something so horrible that no one would even want to look at it, then no one should be doing it."

Group gave notice

Administrative Police Captain Harvey Maxwell said Carroll's group called in advance to alert police of their intended presence.

"We all held our breath when they called because we know this is a real hot-button issue and some parents would be unhappy," he said.

Principal Hatch said the protestors forewarned the school as well.

"[The protestors] were well within their First Amendment rights and conducted themselves in a forthright manner," he said.

Hatch said the students were not impeded on their way into school.

School Resource Officer Shawn Farmer, who is assigned to Stratford High School, said he and two other officers were at the school the morning of the protests.

"They were peaceful protestors," he said. "They did not come on school grounds and they were not confrontational."

Farmer said that once the students had all entered the building, the protestors left. He estimated that the protestors were at the school for about 15 minutes.

According to the Operation Save America website, the organization's purpose is to "take up the cause of the preborn children in the name of Jesus Christ."

Local members, including Carroll, have been known to protest outside area abortion clinics such as the Summit Women's Center in Bridgeport.

The group's website also advocates against homosexuality and the religion of Islam.

©Stratford Star 2004