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Anti-abortion group demonstrates outside Cox Mill High
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Published: November 24, 2009
Operation Save America, an anti-abortion group, brought their message and graphic photos of aborted babies to Cox Mill High School in Concord, Tuesday morning.
Lining the sidewalks just off school property, Flip Benham, director of the group shared his message and defended holding the graphic images in front of the children.
"What would Jesus do?" Benham asked.
The group was there to honor Jim Pouillon, an Owosso Mich. man who was shot outside the Owosso High School while holding an anti-abortion sign.
On one side read "Life" with a rosy-cheeked newborn, and on the other side the word "Abortion" and a graphic image of an aborted baby.
The Owosso Police said the shooter didn't like what Pouillon was doing, and gunned him down Sept. 11, 2009, outside the high school.
Demonstrators outside Cox Mill held the same signs.
"We are out here now remembering him. He can't be here now, so it's our turn," Benham said.
When asked how the parents have reacted to the signs and words, he replied, "What do parents know."
"These kids never see this picture," Benham said pointing to the aborted fetus on the sign.
Pointing to the picture of the rosy checked newborn, he said 475 babies have been saved from "abortion mills" in Charlotte since 2008.
"We put the two pictures together and say, 'they teach you about choice here, but what they don't tell you is what you are choosing. Which picture do you like? This one of a live baby or this one of a dead baby,'" Benham said.
School officials made an effort to contact parents and let them know about the protest earlier this week.
"We found out about the demonstration late on Friday," Cabarrus County School spokesperson Ronnye Boone said.
Parents were notified by an automated message Monday evening.
Laura Healy Catherwood, a mother of children who attend the high school and Cox Mill Elementary school across the street, voiced concern with the images and messages the group displayed.
"They say it is freedom of speech, I say it is in direct violation of separation of church and state," Catherwood said. "Operation Save America is holding up horribly graphic images, which my 9-year-old will also be exposed to as she attends Cox Mill Elementary right across the street. As a parent, I should have the right to keep my children from seeing such horrific images," Catherwood said.
Boone said the demonstrators were issued permitsand have the right to be on public property.
"They are well within their constitutional rights to share their thoughts and views," Boone said.
Catherwood argued that the group demonstrated without regards to other people's rights.
"Operation Save America is a hate-filled organization, who cares nothing for other people's rights," Catherwood said. "There is a time and place for all freedom of speech. The place is not in front of a high school and elementary school."
Boone said the group did not interfere with drop off or learning at the high school.
"We also have, as a part of planning, counselors at the school who are available to help students with any reactions," Boone said.
Parents at Cox Mill Elementary School were also alerted to the demonstration, but Operation Save America left before most of the elementary students arrived.
One lesson Boone hoped the high schoolers would take from the event is that people need to be tolerant of others views, whether they agree with them or not.
• Contact reporter Robin L. Gardner: 704-789-9140.
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