Westboro Baptist Church, a hate group that travels around the country holding anti-gay rallies, protested outside the school attended by President Obama's children on Monday morning.
The "church," run by Fred Phelps and composed largely of his extensive family, is known for staging its events for maximum publicity and controversy. In the past, members have demonstrated outside troops' funerals. Recently they have been targeting Jewish temples. Now they're aiming their vitriol at Washington-area schools -- including Sidwell Friends, where Malia and Sasha Obama are students.
A message on Westboro's website refers to the Obama children as "satanic spawn" of a "murderous bastard." Along with various schools, the church is also protesting outside the White House, the World War II memorial, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission field office.
Via ThinkProgress, one of the attendees (and Phelps' granddaughter) posted a picture of the protest on Twitter:
Protesters were carrying signs with anti-gay, anti-abortion and anti-Obama slogans, slowing down traffic all along Wisconsin Avenue.
Malia attends the Washington, D.C. Sidwell middle school, where the Phelps family protested Monday; they plan to protest Tuesday at the Bethesda location, where Sasha is a student.