Anti-vaccine protesters followed kids and parents taking part in National Walk to School Day in Beverly Hills, trailing them to Hawthorne Elementary School on Wednesday. The protesters engaged heatedly with parents along the way, accusing them of “traumatizing” their kids by masking them, and picketing the school once they arrived. “This is rape!” Shiva Bagheri, an anti-vaccine organizer best known for punching a cancer survivor at a rally, said within earshot of dozens of kids. “... They’re trying to rape our children with this poison. They’re going to rape their lives away.” Another protester compared masking to “child abuse.”
The anti-vaccine group also confronted Mayor Robert Wunderlich, who was there for the walk. As he proposed that three of the protesters meet him later to speak, away from the kids, Bagheri interrupted: “You don’t care about the kids!” At a rally earlier this week, an anti-vaccine activist made a speech on the plan to disrupt Walk to School Day, saying, “They think it’s going to be a fun and safe photo opportunity with parents and kids. Let’s show up here and show them it’s not… Let’s make them afraid.”
