Parents Want Scuffle Over Pride Flags Investigated As Hate Crime

PINELLAS BEACHES, FL — The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office has been asked to investigate a clash among Seminole Middle School students over Pride flags as a possible hate crime.

On May 28, the last day of school, students were given an outdoor lunch period as a reward. During the lunch period, there was a clash between two groups of students over a Pride flag display at one of the lunch tables and the wearing of a Pride flag by one of the students.

Pinellas County School District spokeswoman Isabel Mascareñas said the school district has looked into the matter. She said the conflict involved five to 10 students and apparently occurred when one group of students grabbed several of the Pride flags off the table and threw them in the trash.

At least one family has filed a complaint with the sheriff's office, claiming their 12-year-old nonbinary student, Leo Hoffman, was “stomped on and covered in water" for wearing a Pride flag.

A portion of a video posted on Twitter by the student's sibling shows students tugging at a flag.

Parents also contacted the office of U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, D-St. Petersburg.

“Administrators at Seminole Middle assured my office that disciplinary action was being pursued, and I hope the students in question will be able to learn from this and do better in future,” Crist said in a statement.

Mascareñas said some students will be reassigned to an alternative school, adding that this behavior will not be tolerated by the school district.

“The students’ behavior was inappropriate and unacceptable, and they were disciplined for it,” she said.

Seminole Middle School Principal Michael Moss said he also instructed all teachers to review the school's core values of respect, tolerance, cooperation and diversity and he plans to implement a new bullying prevention program in the fall.