A group of ASB senior students at Redwood High School in Visalia took a photo spelling out an anti-gay slur on T-shirts in the school gymnasium, sparking national backlash. The district has confirmed disciplinary action, but some LGBTQ+ students say they feel targeted and silenced.
Here are key takeaways from this still-developing story:
• Eight ASB students wearing T-shirts emblazoned with individual numbers and letters to spell “ALWAYS LEGIT, CLASS OF 2026” decided to rearrange themselves along a bleacher row to spell out “2 FAG6OTS” after their senior photo on Feb. 12. According to news reports, the move came after some ASB leaders reacted to two middle-school boys holding hands during an eighth-grade orientation earlier that day.
• The involved students have faced “disciplinary action,” according to the district, but officials said specifics of the investigation — including how many students were involved or how they were disciplined — won’t be made public.
A group of Redwood High School’s ASB students in Visalia are now under investigation for a “homophobic slur” photo incident on Thursday on school campus.
• An anonymous Redwood senior told The Fresno Bee that many LGBTQ+ students “feel kind of invisible or unheard” and that their concern is “not physical harm, but more of just not being understood or heard.”
• Superintendent Kirk Shrum said the district plans to “convene a roundtable with community leaders who support students in modeling civility and engaging in positive discourse.” Redwood administrators are also meeting with students to address hate speech and civility.
• Senior Kevin De Haro said the photo was wrong but expressed concern about backlash against involved students’ families. “I don’t think what they did was right,” he said, “but I don’t think they should be getting all the hate to their families and stuff.”
The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The full story in the link at top was reported, written and edited entirely by journalists.
This story was originally published February 22, 2026 at 1:09 PM.
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The Fresno Bee
Christopher Kirkpatrick is senior editor of The Fresno Bee and Vida en el Valle.