Huge brawl erupts outside LA school board meeting while they voted on ... trends now
A California school board meeting descended into chaos on Tuesday when protesters began fighting in the street amid a debate over whether to recognize Pride month.
Glendale Unified School District was due to hold a vote on officially marking Pride this year - as they have done for the last four years. Gender and sexual identity curriculum were not on the agenda for the meeting.
Yet the meeting was marred in the evening by angry scenes outside.
Protests had been peaceful during the day, but around 6pm scuffles broke out between around 200 protesters and counter-demonstrators.
School administrators said many of the protesters did not have students in the district.
Police in Glendale, California are pictured on Tuesday separating protesters angered by a plan to recognize Pride month, and counter protesters in favor of the move
Around 50 officers were deployed on Tuesday to the school board meeting in Glendale
Rival groups could be seen throwing punches, and the police drew their batons to separate them
Police deployed around 50 officers to the scene, CBS News reported.
Officers used their batons to break up the mob, who were throwing punches.
The police ordered the protesters to disperse, and threatened to use force to break up the crowd.
Their efforts to persuade the crowd to disperse failed, prompting officers to arrest at least three people, on charges of using pepper spray and obstruction.
Many of those at the protest believed that the board was discussing the curriculum, which was not the case.
'Bringing in curriculum for K-6 on gender ideology, that is what we're against,' said Any Torosyan, a Glendale parent.
Torosyan told KTLA 5 that she believes money should be spent focusing on improving students' testing scores.
Another protester, Philip George, also believed the meeting was about the curriculum.
'We were talking about children,' he told
