Pro-lifers spread the truth at Batavia High School

Yesterday afternoon, the last day of school at Batavia High School, a group of local pro-lifers brought the truth about abortion to students from 2:30 to 3:00 when school let out. Eight activists, many of them high school students including Nate and Sam Scheidler and Dolores and Patty Weber, held large signs with pictures of aborted babies in hopes of making the gravity of the abortion holocaust real to area teens. The group set up their display on the public sidewalk by the driveway entrance to the school on Batavia’s Main Street. No sooner had they set up their display than security guards from the school told them they would have to move across the street or they would call the police. Undeterred by the threats of the guards, activists stood their ground. Despite the presence of adult organizers, the mounting crowd of security guards and eventually the school’s principal all chose to focus their efforts on intimidating Nate Scheidler. Nate was told, absurdly, that the sidewalk in front of the school was not public property. Nate called the guards’ attention to the fact that they were on public property and the 1st amendment guaranteed their right to be there. Police arrived on the scene and attempted to make the pro-lifers leave, agreeing with the school’s principal that he didn’t believe the public sidewalk in front of a publicly funded school to be public property. Police insisted that a permit was required for any protest in Batavia. Nate and other pro-lifers reminded the officers that they were only displaying signs protected by the 1st amendment on public property. Police continued their attempts to silence the truth, but the stalwart pro-lifers stood their ground. Pro-lifer Sylvia Keppel even got a promise from the police officer that, if she could prove to him that they had a right to be there, he would personally see to it that the whole police department was trained to respect the rights of pro-life protesters. Sylvia is currently compiling her case to bring back to the officer. Activists stayed the full half hour they had planned to stay and hundreds of teens saw the true face of abortion. Once again, pro-lifers are standing on the front lines in the battle to protect our first amendment rights. Praise God for our courageous pro-life teens and the adults that helped them. Special thanks to Dolores Weber for the picture of the event!