A Parent Speaks Out After Armed Fascists Force School Drag Event’s Cancelation

The father of two children who attended Red Oak Community School spoke with us about the school and its values, and the impact of the terrorism that resulted in the cancelation of the Holi-Drag Storytime event.

by Evan Urquhart

A K-5 school became the target of armed terrorist intimidation this past Saturday, December 3. When police failed to act to protect attendees from fascist demonstrators who included the Proud Boys gang, organizers from the Red Oak Community School felt forced to cancel their annual Holi-Drag Storytime event at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus. One parent, who had two kids attend ROCS and remains closely connected to the community, talked with me about the school, and what it means to his family and the community. 

The parent is a married, cisgender dad, and the younger two of his three children attended ROCS. His 12-year-old started as a kindergartener in 2015 (the same year the school opened) and attended until they aged out. His 7-year-old attended ROCS for two years before the family made other arrangements. The parent asked to remain anonymous, to protect his family’s safety in light of the armed fascist groups who have targeted their community.

ROCS rents space from First UU Columbus, but is not run by the church contrary to some early press accounts. It draws many students from UU families who attend the church, but the parentI spoke with was not a member. The school’s values, however, are familiar to anyone who knows a bit about the UU faith. They stress environmentalism and connection to nature, diversity and social justice, and valuing the unique contributions each individual makes to their community.

They’re also very LGBTQ+ friendly. “It’s one of the only places in Ohio I can think of where a trans kid is free to just be a kid at school,” the parent told me. He described an environment where “If you come in with a child who had one name last week and asks to go by another name this week, well, that happens, and it’s okay and welcome.”  While we were careful not to discuss private details of any past or current ROCS students, he said he absolutely knew of more than one student who did not have the same gender as the one they were assigned at birth.

This was the backdrop of inclusivity against which the Holi-Drag Storytime was planned. The event was intended to be a holiday-themed storytime featuring drag performers reading children’s books and performing family-friendly dance numbers. According to the parent, this wasn't the first such event to have been hosted by the school—he knew there’d been at least one prior performance, and believed the event was currently in its third year.

The dad described a close-knit, hands-on school community where the children would be heartbroken to see their big holiday event canceled after making the decorations and selling tickets.  He expressed concern for the parents who’d have to figure out what to tell their kids after “fucking Nazis” forced a cancellation. He described himself as “sick and angry and scared and heartbroken” over the whole situation, adding “I am deeply saddened and angered by failures of our law enforcement.”

“It is our community,” he said, becoming briefly overwhelmed with emotion. “We have a playdate with a current student next week. [School manager] Cheryl [Ryan]’s kid was at my kid’s birthday.”

School at Red Oak sounds different from most schools you would imagine, and not just because of their UU-inspired values of diversity, social justice, and environmental stewardship. Learning is conducted largely outdoors, in all kinds of weather (although there’s room to go inside the UU church building for meals, and also in harsh cold or otherwise inappropriate outdoor conditions). "The school color is mud," the parent said, in a tone suggesting an oft-repeated community in-joke. Kids are immersed in nature, “playing in and studying about the natural world” according to the mission and vision page of the ROCS website. 

ROCS may be particularly close knit because they straddle a gray area between homeschooling and private schooling. All parents of ROCS students are technically registered as homeschoolers in Ohio, with Red Oak providing options for 2, 3, or 5 days of attendance to supplement varying levels of homeschool efforts by its families. Parents are required to match their tuition commitments with volunteer hours, and the dad I spoke to told of clearing brush behind the UU church to ready the school for its first year of students. I learned that many ROCS parents are "unschoolers,” a group including the parent I spoke with. Unschooling is a strain of homeschooling whose philosophy of education is to let kids' interests lead the way, instead of hewing to a strict curriculum.

The picture, then, is of a close-knit community of families and students, all of whom know one another and put in volunteer hours to help the tiny school provide a unique learning experience for youngsters. The attack from right wing extremists on the drag event represents more than an attempt to shut down a single event. It’s an attack on the values and way of life of this community, and they are understandably devastated in the wake of such terror.