A US-based church has threatened to picket a country high school in Western Australia over a play students will perform about homophobia, but the principal believes it's unlikely the hate group will follow through.
The anti-gay, anti-Semetic, Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church this week began tweeting about Margaret River High School in WA's South West region after learning students would soon perform the play, The Laramie Project.
The play is about Matt Shepard, a gay college student who was kidnapped and murdered in Wyoming in 1998, and is a set text on the school's drama syllabus.
A tweet by the Westboro church read: "WBC to preach God H8s Fags the Margaret River High School - the land of the damned down under".
The church also posted: "Westboro pickets Margaret River HS on 4/2/14".
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Principal Andrew Host said he was surprised the hate group had turned its attention to a school so far away.
He said the students had handled the matter very maturely and didn't need to be instructed to not return fire at the church via social media.
"I've been very proud of the way our students have handled the situation ... particularly the students in the play," Mr Host told Fairfax radio on Friday. "They see it for what it is - a group of people with extremist views - and any clear and reasonably thinking person would not accept those views.
"I believe it's highly unlikely that people would travel from the United States to disrupt a play in Margaret River, therefore I really don't think the threat is credible."
He said the play was part of the curriculum because it challenged the students' acting abilities.
