A California high school has nixed a student-run booster club's plans to sell Chick-fil-A sandwiches during a back-to-school night because of the restaurant chain's controversial stance on same-sex marriage.
Ventura High School Football Principal Val Wyatt said that she wanted to keep outside organizations from selling or advertising during the Sept. 10 event, according to the Ventura County Star, but also referenced the 2012 media firestorm which erupted after Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy confirmed his company's support of the "biblical definition of the family unit" in 2012.
Still, she said, "With their political stance on gay rights and because the students of Ventura High School and their parents would be at the event, I didn't want them on campus."
Still, the decision has divided parents and students, particularly since the booster club expected to raise $1,600 for the school's football team. The Ventura location has already donated $21,000 to area schools, according to CBS Los Angeles.
"Everybody is embraced,” one parent told the news station. “And Chick-fil-A should have been allowed to be here.”
Fox News' Todd Starnes was also among those to decry the decision, noting, "What, pray tell, could people find offensive about a plump juicy chicken breast tucked between two buttered buns?"
He added, "This is a classic example of those preaching inclusivity and diversity being the least inclusive and diverse of all."
It isn't the first that Chick-fil-A has prompted outcry in an educational setting. In 2012, the student government at North Carolina's Elon University voted 35-11 to ask the school's food vendor, Aramark, to find another restaurant to take the fast food chicken chain's place, the Times-News reports.
Similarly, St. Mary's College in Maryland and North Carolina's Davidson College have both opted against serving Chick-fil-A products at school events.
Before You Go
