Students at Coláiste Eoin are to stage a protest this week after an anti-bullying LGBT workshop was cancelled yesterday.

Transition Year Students at all-boys’ school Coláiste Eoin in Stillorgan, Dublin, are to organise a peaceful protest after a workshop by ShoutOut was cancelled by the school’s board. The reason the board cited for cancelling was that “both sides should be represented”.

Students are to protest to show their solidarity with LGBTs and that the decision to cancel the workshop does not reflect their beliefs.

Declan Meehan, school coordinator with ShoutOut said: “My colleagues were baffled by this and questioned what he meant, but it wasn’t forthcoming”.

Meehan said that workshop had been booked several months ago and the cancellation was “out of the blue”.

“We’ve been out at Colaiste Eoin before back in 2012 and 2013,” he told TheJournal.ie. ”It was actually the first school we ever did a workshop in and they’ve always been very hospitable to us.”

It is the first time that the group has ever had a school cancel.

One student at girls’ school Coláiste Íosagáin told TheJournal.ie that she and her classmates support the protest.

“We saw that the talk was cancelled and nobody’s happy about it,” she said. “We want to show that it’s not the students’ choice.”

The Department of Education issued guidelines asking teachers to provide information on homophobic bullying, but many schools instead choose to bring in groups such as ShoutOut instead.

Update: Coláiste Eoin have made a statement.