FAKE NEWS: The case of Sunny Oaks Elementary
In May of 2016, it had come to light that a Californian elementary school, Sunny Oaks, was forcing young students to “ ‘cross dress’ in honor of LGBT week,” reported by The Free Patriot. However, Snopes, as well as other sources have since then debunked the rumor. The Free Patriot has also deleted the alleged story.
To begin with, The Free Patriot is known to be an unreliable source, with numerous stories of theirs having been debunked and deleted. On May 19th, 2016, an article was released by them, “Sunny Oaks Elementary Forces Kids to Cross Dress for LGBT Week,” claiming that this story was on headlines and how outrageous this act was. Snopes was unable to find any headline that supported this rumor. A quick Google search on my side did not find any headline, or even that the elementary school existed at all. Anything tied to this rumor leads back to The Free Patriot.
Furthermore, the image above was claimed to be Sunny Oaks Elementary school. According to Snopes, a reverse image search revealed that this picture was also connected to other false news stories and was not Sunny Oaks.
This sort of fake news is dangerous in many ways- in this case to the LGBTQ+ community. The Free Patriot made up this story that feeds into the harmful stigma of what the LGBTQ+ is about. An article of little school children being forced into a situation that confuses their gender identity is sure to make anyone outraged, especially those who already disagree with the community. Except, the community is not about forcing others into their orientation, but for equality and welcoming arms to support anyone who needs help and more. However, even with the news being false, the damage is already done.
Remember all-it is important to be informed and it is fun to be on all sorts of media, but also be sure to do further research and to check your sources. In the modern-day of the Internet, anything could be true just as anything could not be.
Works Cited:
LaCapria, K. (2016, May 21). FALSE: Sunny Oaks elementary forces kids to cross-dress for LGBT Week. Retrieved March 08, 2021, from https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/sunny-oaks-elementary-forces-kids-to-cross-dress-for-lgbt-week/
