The mother of a Linn-Mar High School student says her daughter is among a group of students in the school’s LGBTQ+ group Spectrum who were attacked during the school’s homecoming parade.
Someone allegedly hurled a boxcutter at the teens as they passed by on their float Wednesday, according to Jennifer Pitkin, whose daughter Ava is a sophomore. She said some attendees, including young children, also yelled anti-gay slurs at her daughter and her peers in Spectrum.
Pitkin recalled receiving a text from Ava while waiting for Spectrum’s float. By that point, Pitkin said she had noticed a lag between the parade floats and thought it was “weird.”
“I get a text from Ava saying that they had a knife thrown at them,” Pitkin told the Des Moines Register. “And that was it. That was all that we heard until we saw her, which was about 10 minutes later.”
They were robbed of an experience that was meant to be celebratory, she said. The students went all out, decorating their truck, doing each other’s makeup and dressing up, Pitkin said.