Out Fresno Teen Pelted with Juice Boxes While Boys Screamed Antigay Slurs

Students at Bullard High School in Fresno, Calif., have habitually bullied lesbian student Logann Pruneda since she came out in 7th-grade, but on Monday, which happened to be her 16th birthday, the bullying turned physical when students pelted her with juice boxes while shouting epithets during a fire drill. She was hit in the back, ribs, and neck, where she sustained abrasions and a bruise, according to the Fresno Bee. The abuse occurred just days after Spirit Day on October 19, a day where people are encouraged to wear purple and to take a pledge to stand up to bullying.

"They were pretty hard throws," Pruneda told the newspaper. "All I heard was them calling me really mean names that involved my sexuality." While the abuse was happening she heard a male voice calling her "a faggot, a queer, a lesbo," she said, although she did not see who was hurling the epithets at her.

Pruneda, who is a sophomore and who has been out for a couple of years, said the bullying is not new, but that the juice box incident marks the first time it turned physical.

"I know who I am. I know I am gay, but I don't want to be treated unfairly," she said. "But they just keep going at it, and it breaks my heart," Pruneda said.

Her mother, Gina Pruneda, said that staff at the school have been supportive of her daughter and that Logann receives regular counseling, but also said that the bullying is ongoing as her daughter often eats lunch alone in a classroom to avoid it.

Bullard High's vice principal launched an investigation into Pruneda's allegations of having been attacked, but the investigation came up short as there are no security cameras in the space where it occurred and no witnesses came forth.

A spokeswoman for the Fresno Unified School District claimed that Bullard High School continues to be a safe campus for all students.

The incident occurred at a time when the school district in Fresno is scrambling to reach its LGBT students in the wake of school board President Brooke Ashjian's homophobic comments this summer about LGBT sex education in schools, his likening of LGBT people to those who perpetrated the Armenian Genocide, and most recently, when he left the dais in protest of a vote to name October LGBT history month, according to the Fresno Bee.

Despite the constant bullying, Pruneda has an optimistic outlook: "Ever since I came out, I finally get to be who I am on the inside, and I want people to know there's a chance for you to be open with the world. They may throw things at you and say mean things to you, but it will be worth it in the end."