COLORADO SPRINGS — Staff at the Palmer Ridge High School student newspaper expected “significant reaction” when they endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton for president, but they’ve been surprised by the vitriol they’ve received.

“Some of the stuff we’ve seen on Facebook is quite disgusting,” said Evan Ochsner, a Palmer Ridge senior and co-editor-in-chief. “There were a lot of personal attacks that seemed out of bounds. It almost borders on bullying.”

Angry parents e-mailed the school and used social media to say last week’s editorial was inappropriate for a student publication, that Republican Donald Trump should have been given equal space, and that the paper’s staff should be suspended. They said newspaper adviser Tom Patrick was a “communist” and a “socialist.” They accused him of indoctrinating students and called for his job.

Because of the volume of complaints, Patrick and the Palmer Ridge principal sent an e-mail to parents last Friday, saying that the political views expressed were an opinion of the nine-member editorial board and does not reflect any position held by the school or district.

Some parents also questioned whether the student editorial only overstepped its bounds but also violated Lewis-Palmer School District 38 policies. But Julie Stephen, D-38 spokeswoman, said policies governing student publications allow for such opinions.

Read the full story at Gazette.com.