The Westboro Baptist Church's planned picket of the high school's production of "The Laramie Project" next month may be the catalyst for even more problematic counter-protests, principal Michael Welch said at last night's School Committee meeting.

The Westboro Baptist Church's planned picket of the high school's production of "The Laramie Project" next month may be the catalyst for even more problematic counter-protests, principal Michael Welch said at last night's School Committee meeting.

"The counter-protests are more of an issue than the actual (Westboro Baptist Church) itself," Welch said. "They come without being asked."

He said he is working with the town's police chief to prepare for any groups that come to the Framingham High School Drama Company's shows in early December.

The Westboro church, an anti-gay group from Kansas that travels around the country to protest, typically draws a much larger turnout of counter-protesters, Welch said.

After the group announced it would protest at Cambridge Rindge and Latin last year, for example, the school organized a massive counter response involving hundreds of students and townspeople, Welch said. But Westboro's group ended up only being a handful of people with signs who stayed for about 25 minutes.

Sometimes the group hasn't come at all to the locations it schedules on its website.

In an online post last month, the Westboro church said it would picket the Framingham drama company's production of the play on Dec. 4.

The group disapproves of the play's themes of homosexuality. Written by Moises Kaufman, "The Laramie Project" chronicles the murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard in Wyoming in 1998.

In anticipation of the Westboro group's involvement, the high school scheduled a series of forums for students this month. The discussions have been about topics raised in the play as well as free speech issues surrounding the Westboro Baptist Church's activities.

The last forum, a discussion on cyberbullying and teen suicide, is slated for tomorrow night at the high school at 7 p.m. and is open to the public.

School officials have also planned to hold a rally Dec. 4 before the show.

"It's really become a community effort," said School Committee Chairman Michael Bower, who plans to be at the rally. "We've gotten a great response."

Welch said tickets for the play, which are available at ticketstage.com, are selling well. About 900 had been purchased as of last night, and Welch said he expected them to be sold out by Thanksgiving.

"We've gotten a lot of publicity," he said.

But Welch also worried that the Westboro group's picket and counter-protests could hijack the play. He said he hoped people would focus more on the show and its message of acceptance.

"We need to accept people - not just tolerate them - for who they are," he said.

(Scott O'Connell can be reached at 508-626-4449 or soconnel@cnc.com.)