Protesters coming here

Members of the anti-gay, anti-Semitic Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., are planning to picket a number of Lowcountry locations this month.

According to a schedule on the group's Web site, the group plans demonstrations at Charleston Air Force Base, James Island Charter High School, Wando High School, West Ashley High School, Fort Dorchester High School, the College of Charleston, the Jewish Community Center and Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina.

The demonstrations are set to take place between March 22 and March 24.

Several readers told The Post and Courier that teachers at West Ashley High were advised during a faculty meeting Wednesday of the planned protest.

Susan Haire, a spokeswoman for the Charleston County School District, said the district had been notified that the church might stage demonstrations at several schools.

"The district is working closely with local law enforcement agencies and school safety personnel, and the leaders of the schools at which protests may occur are notifying their faculty to ensure that school operations are not interrupted," Haire said.

Next week the district plans to contact parents of students at the targeted schools, she said.

Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of the church's pastor, the Rev. Fred Phelps Sr., said she would be among the protesters in Charleston and she was looking forward to it. She said the group planned to protest in Charleston for the same reason it protests in other cities, to let people know that God demands obedience.

Phelps-Roper said the church is an independent Baptist church, not affiliated with any Baptist organization. It has about 70 people attending services, and about 80 percent of those attending are related by blood or marriage, she said.

The church is monitored as a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center. In addition to its opposition to homosexuality, it also opposes Catholicism and President Barack Obama.

In recent years, the church has been demonstrating at the funerals of fallen soldiers, sailors and airmen. It claims that casualties are divine retribution America's sins.

The protests have upset many of the relatives of the soldiers.

On Monday the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to decide if the father of a fallen Marine can collect damages from the church, which picketed his son's funeral with placards celebrating the death of American soldiers.

A jury awarded the father $5 million but an appeals court overturned the verdict on the basis that the church and its members were exercising their right to free speech.