Courtesy Photo

Westboro Baptist Church has announced members will picket Santa Monica High School on Monday, Feb. 25.

Controversial anti-gay

group Westboro Baptist Church is expected to picket Santa Monica High School between 7 am and 8 am Monday morning.

Earlier this month, the Kansas-based group announced a handful of its members would picket outside Samohi to “tell students

the Gospel truth which their parents, teachers and preachers try desperately to

hide from them.”

“We will give your children an opportunity to see what truth

looks like, the face of what they were entitled to have from every adult that

ever touched their lives,” reads a news release on its website. “You brutish

teachers and hateful parents have broken the moral compass of this generation,

teaching rebellion with everything you say and do.”

SMMUSD School Board President Laurie Lieberman said she wanted to assure the community that the District was

aware of the situation.

She said administrators had been working with the Santa

Monica Police Department on a plan for the Feb. 25 picket, should it actually

occur. 

“The plan will certainly include a police

presence," Lieberman said. "As always, student safety is our priority. The District will be

working to ensure that our students are not only safe, but that a protest,

should it occur, will not interfere with the school day.”

Westboro Baptist Church members plan to

picket at three Malibu locations (Malibu

Presbyterian, Waveside Church, and Our Lady of Malibu) today, Feb.

24 before heading to Hollywood to picket outside the Academy Awards.