This Monday I went to a protest in the Northwest area of the District of Columbia.

Upwards of 300 students, alumni, and community members gathered in front of Woodrow Wilson High School to participate in a counter protest organized in lieu of a protest held by the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC).

The WBC came to the school on June 9 to protest Wilson’s second annual Pride Day held the week prior.

The WBC announced their protest on their webpage in late May. Immediately after learning of the WBC’s intent, students began organizing a peaceful counter protest.

This action by the students really shows the love and compassion that is a large part of Wilson HS.

This counter protest comes at an appropriate time, seeing as June is National Pride Month in the United States.

During Wilson’s second annual pride day, the principal of the school came out to his students during an assembly.

“How could I look my students in the eye and tell them to be themselves and embrace differences, when I wasn’t doing that in front of them,” Woodrow Wilson HS principal, Pete Cahall said.

The protest itself was a lot of fun. It consisted of members of the student leadership at Wilson leading cheers in support of members of the LGBTQ+ community. Cahall could also be seen jogging up and down the crowd waving the LGBTQ+ flag. The flag consists of many different colored stripes layered horizontally.

The way that the students at Wilson ran the rally was admirable. They made sure that all participants knew that it was a peaceful counter protest, meant, not to fight back against the WBC, but to promote a message of love and understanding.

“The students did an amazing job of conveying the ideas of compassion and respect that we share here at Wilson,” Cahall said.

I think that students at AHS could learn a thing or two from the Wilson kids about promoting respect and making everyone feel as if high school is a safe space.