Toronto's gay village has increased police protection on the streets after high school students have been allegedly coming to the area to harass residents and business owners, the Toronto Star reports.
Paul Windsor, a local florist, said a dozen students at Jarvis Collegiate Institute, located in the neighborhood, yelled a gay slur at him before they hurled a frozen drink at them and then chunks of ice.
“A slushie drink is one thing — it stains your clothes and hurts your pride — but when it escalates to chunks of ice, that’s dangerous,” he said in the article. The attack has been compared to that of a "slushie facial," popularized by the TV show Glee, in which the popular students bully the less-accepted students with a frozen drink to the face.
Enza Anderson, who was nearly hit by a shoe thrown by a student last year, is organizing community meetings to address the harassment. The principal of the school has also said that more will be done to curb such bullying.
“These kids aren’t being educated about where they live," Anderson said. “They need to be taught that their school is in the Gay Village.”
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