The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is planning to picket the funeral of the Sandy Hook Elementary School principal today.
In a news release posted by the WBC (Warning: link may be graphic to some audience), the controversial group stated it will picket Principal Dawn Hochsprung's funeral today in the afternoon.
People have made efforts to stop the group from appearing, known to picket at the funeral services of fallen members of the military.
The hacker group Anonymous has hacked onto WBC's website and few Twitter accounts, resulting in Twitter suspended a few WBC accounts
Petitions are currently being passed around online, notably on the White House website.
The White House allows people to create petitions and if it reaches 25,000 signatures, then the White House has to provide a response.
The petition titled "Legally recognize Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group" has garnered 209,470 signatures (as of 9:40 a.m. EST).
"Grant B" created the petition to the White House on Dec. 14, stating, " [WBC] actions have been directed at many groups, including homosexuals, military, Jewish people and even other Christians. They pose a threat to the welfare and treatment of others and will not improve without some form of imposed regulation."
Change.org's petition to prevent WBC from coming to Newtown, Connecticut has received over 19,700 supporters.
Supports of the Change petition stated:
Michael Adame: "These family's have been through enough we should not allow them to go through this as well."
Janessah Bone: "Those people need to be stopped. They are nothing but hate mongers and do nothing but go around harassing innocent people. Those families who lost the people they love, should be able to mourn in peace surrounded by people who care and support them. I hope that somehow the WBC can and will be stopped. God bless those children and families. I'm keeping them all in my thoughts and prayers. <3"
Ceindy Ton: "This is important because I am a mom, and my heart goes out to all those parents who lost their children and they should not have to be bothered by anyone who think that God sent a shooter to kill their child."
Claire Olson-Crocker: "The Westboro Baptist protesters are the evil ones. They do not represent the teachings of Christ."
The WBC does have the right to picket, according to a ruling by the Supreme Court in 2011, claiming First Amendment rights. President Barack Obama did sign that such protests must take place 300 feet away from funerals, as noted in the Honoring America's Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012
For the names of the 26 victims of the Sandy Hook shooting, click here.