GOP Candidate Calls Parkland Student 'Skinhead Lesbian'

LEWISTON, Maine (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — A Republican Maine House candidate has used Twitter to attack two students who survived a shooting at a Florida high school, calling one of them a "skinhead lesbian" and the other a "bald-faced liar."

Leslie Gibson is the only declared candidate for the 57th District and told the Sun Journal it was "not appropriate to single out the Parkland students." But he says he stands firm in his defense of "our constitutional rights." He says he served in the military and took an oath "to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States."

A Democratic organizer in Greene says, "That sort of stupidity really turns people off." Organizer Pat Fogg says she wishes she knew someone who could jump into the race.

The newspaper says Gibson has since made his Twitter account private.

From Maine to Hawaii, thousands of students planned to stage walkouts Wednesday to protest gun violence, one month after the deadly shooting inside a high school in Parkland, Florida.

Organizers say nearly 3,000 walkouts are set in the biggest demonstration yet of the student activism that has emerged following the massacre of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Meanwhile, free speech advocates geared up for a battle. The American Civil Liberties Union issued advice for students who walk out, saying schools can't legally punish them more harshly because of the political nature of their message. In Texas some lawyers said they will provide free legal help to students who are punished.