‘Day of Silence’ Spurs Protest
A one-day school boycott is urged to counter support for bullied gay students
Some conservative groups are urging parents to keep children home from school today if their fellow students will be taking part in the annual Day of Silence observation.
Thousands of middle- and high-school students across the nation, including some in the Triangle, plan to take a vow of silence today to bring attention to the bullying of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered students.
Participation and support for the event, now in its 12th year, varies by school. It has long proved controversial among those opposed to homosexuality.
But this year, a network of local and national conservative groups is calling for a boycott. They claim that allowing some students to be silent in class will not only promote homosexuality, it also will disrupt education.
“If you’re not going to be educated that day, why let them go to school?” said Bill Brooks, executive director of the N.C. Family Policy Council, one of the groups encouraging parents to consider taking their children out of school today.
Supporters of the Day of Silence say that is an overreaction.
Seth Keel, 13, an eighth-grader who plans to stay silent today at Apex’s West Lake Middle School, called the boycott “silly.”
“It’s a lifestyle that’s going to be happening. Boycotting the school won’t help.”
Brooks and the Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the N.C. Christian Action League, said they don’t know whether many families, or just a handful, won’t send their children to school.
The number of students who have pledged to take part in the silent protest also isn’t publicly available. The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, the sponsor of the Day of Silence, lists only schools where students have registered. In North Carolina, 199 schools, including 42 in the Triangle, are expected to participate.
“We encourage students to organize around activities they believe in,” said Michael Ulku-Steiner, director of the Upper School at Durham Academy.
Ellen Gooding, a faculty sponsor for the Gay-Straight Alliance, a student club, at Cary Academy guessed that as many as half the high school students will be silent today.
Groups such as the American Family Association have developed forms for parents to use to argue that their children should get an excused absence if they boycott school today.
Principals said they’d handle requests for excused absences on a case-by-case basis. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board voted down a resolution this month that would have granted excused absences to students who boycott the Day of Silence.
New momentum
Groups opposed to the Day of Silence tried to organize a national walkout last year. Their efforts picked up steam this year when the American Family Association joined the campaign.
Creech is among those who have urged parents to contact schools to see if they’re participating in the Day of Silence.
Matt Wight, principal of Apex High School, said he has heard from parents who have asked why the school is participating. He said he has explained to them that it’s a student-sponsored event.
“My sense is people are getting misinformation and it’s being manipulated into being a school-sponsored event,” Wight said.
But Creech said it doesn’t matter whether the event is student sponsored. He said a school is complicit if it allows students to remain silent.
On Monday, the Alliance Defense Fund will sponsor the Day of Truth, a rival event to the Day of Silence, in which students will hand out cards saying people need to discuss the truth about homosexuality. Brooks said he doesn’t see the Day of Truth as disruptive because students won’t be refusing to speak.
Growing since 1996
The Day of Silence started in 1996 as part of a University of Virginia class project on nonviolent protests. Organizers turned it into a national event in 1997, and the number of schools participating has grown ever since.
This year’s Day of Silence is in remembrance of a 15-year-old California student who was killed by a classmate in February because of his sexual orientation.
Bullying is the reason that Deirdre Leary, a freshman at Broughton High School in Raleigh, said she intends to be silent today and hand out cards explaining her reasons.
“I believe in taking a stand for those who are mistreated by their peers on a daily basis,” Leary said. “I have witnessed peers being bullied, harassed and teased throughout the years because they are gay.”
Creech said such activities normalize homosexuality.
“Christian people like myself think its a politically exploitive activity,” he said.
Wight and several other principals said they have told teachers to treat it like a normal day.
Not all conservative groups agree that boycotting is the best way to handle today. Steve Noble, chairman of Called2Action, said he would encourage students to use the day as a time to evangelize classmates who are participating in the Day of Silence.
“It’s a great opportunity to share your faith with people,” Noble said. “They can’t talk. They can only walk away.”
© 2008 News & Observer
So these “Christian” parents are in favor of bulling as long as it is limited to gay, lesbian, transgendered students?
These conservatives think that if somebody does not bully gays more people will become gay?
Christians are getting a reputation for being mean spirited. Conservatives are getting a reputation for being stupid. Probably this is due to a liberal conspiracy.
The issue isn’t really about a “Day of Silence” or a “Day of Truth” between different groups.
If parents could excersice their parental and Constitutional Right to send their kids to the school of their choosing than these political and religious arguments would become irrelevant. For as long as a monopoly exists in schools and liberty denied this will keep.
We wouldn’t want our kids to stand up for other kids or anything that make it a better world. Keep preaching hate, that will keep our kids safe and secure. No tolerance allowed!
YEAH..WHY EXPOSE YOUR LITTLE RIGHT WING LARVAE TO ..FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND NON-VIOLENT PROTEST..WOULDN’T WANT THEM TO ACTUALLY LEARN THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSON OF THEIR STUPID LIVES..NOW WOULD YOU…GUESS NOT..
THE ONE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM THAT SHOLUD NOT EXIST..IS THE FREEDOM TO DESTROY THE FREEDOMS OF OTHERS..THAT IS THE PARADOX OF OUR SYSTEM..AND IS ALMOST THE CATCH PHRASE OF THIS ERA OF POLITICS…BUSH DOCTRINE..I WANT THE FREEDOM TO SIGN AWAY MY OBLIGATION TO LAWS I AM SIGNING..BECAUSE I WANT MY “RIGHTS” AS PRESIDENT..EVEN THOUGH THE RIGHTS I AM CLAIMING ARE GOING TO DEPRIVE THE CITIZENS OF THEIR RIGHTS…AGAIN..THE SAME FORM OF “RIGHTS HYPOCRACY..”
THESE FUCKING SCUMBAG “CHRISTIANS” ARE SO EVIL..SO ANTI-CONSTITUTION, SO ANTI-FREEDOM, THAT REALLY THEY ARE ANTI-AMERICAN..WHY DOESN’T THAT MOVEMENT BEGIN..THE “CITIZENS FOR THE SCAPEGOATING OF THE OBVIOUSLY ANTI-AMERICAN CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATIONS..”?
THESE PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT TO PRACTICE THEIR RELIGION..BUT DO NOT SEEM TO UNDRSTAND THAT THIS “RIGHT” SHOULD NEVER..AND DOES NOT…SUPERCEDE OUR RIGHTS TO BE FREE FROM THEIR PRACTICING OF THEIR “RELIGION’ AND WHAT EXACTLY IS THE “RELIGION” OF THE NEO-CONS FASCIST THEOCRACY?
INTOLERANCE!
PERIOD!
SO, WAY TO GO GAY, LESBIAN ETC..STUDENTS..YOU HAVE MY FULL SUPPORT..AND IF I SEE ANY “CHRISTIAN” SWINE FUCKING WITH YOU..I WILL SHOUT IN THEIR STUPID INBRED FACES..”GO AWAY YOU REPREHENSABLE SWINE!”
THIS IS THE REALITY OF “UNITY” FOLKS…WELCOME TO “CHRISTIAN COMPASSION” REMEMBER THE BTK KILLER?
GOOD CHRISTIAN
REMEMBER THE WIPEOUT OF ..MULTIPLE ENTIRE CULTURES?
GOOD CHRISTIANS
THE SODOMY AND RAPE OF THOUSANDS…THOUSANDS! OF BOY’S AND GIRLS AT THE HANDS OF..PRIESTS?
GOOD CHRISTIANS..
ETC..ETC..ETC..
ORGANIZED “RELIGION” IS THE TRUE EVIL OF OUR TIMES..MORE SO THAN CORRUPTION AND GREED..IT IS A “PRESTO-FANATIC” MIXTURE..AND SHOULD BE..TAXED, ETC..MADE LESS…INVASIVE TO OUR FREEDOMS..BUT STILL FREE THEMSELVES OF COURSE..JUST NOT FREE TO ABOLISH OUR FREEDOMS..THE PARADOX SHOULD BE MADE..KNOWN TO ALL..
FUCK EM AND FEED EM…FISHHEADS?
not sure about the rest of you but I’m really not interested in reading a post from someone who hasn’t figured out the complexity of the CAPS LOCK.
And interestingly, how do you “allow” someone to be silent? By forcing him to talk? How stupid are these people?
One of my students is participating today, but since this is a school that teaches tolerance, it is rather like preaching to the choir. I hope that there are many silent students throughout the country today, and that they all grow up to be anti-war, pro-environment liberals with the ability to think.
I am proud to say that I work in a Catholic high school and I would say about half of our student body is silent today. It’s doesn’t take much to figure out that Jesus would be silent…any guy who preached peace, love and acceptance as He did would look at these so-called Christians who preach hate and promote violence and say “Away from Me…I never knew you.”
My 15 yr old daughter is participating today. My feeling, from talking to her and her friends, is that by the time these kids are older, who you choose to have sex with/make families with, is going to be a nonissue.
[“If you’re not going to be educated that day, why let them go to school?” said Bill Brooks, executive director of the N.C. Family Policy Council]
Assuming teachers are not permitted to remain silent, classes will still go on as usual. Kids will still learn. Mr. Brooks’ reason is not a good one. Also, are they afraid their kids will become gay by going to school on this day? Why don’t they just be honest and state their real reasons for boycotting?
We should all learn sign language
it is an elegant and honest way to communicate
Save our voices for singing
How many of you know a “good Christian” family who’ve disowned their gay or lesbian child? I’ve known a few, including my own aunt and uncle. Those who can discard their own kids tend to be the ones with these crazy ideas of homosexuality being a thing that can be “caught,” or “taught.”
Who would think there is no lesson in silence in unity?
I’m…I’m…speechless
Hey brontoburger, I love the way the answer is always immediately and automatically “school choice.” Ha ha! Just exclude anybody and everybody who doesn’t look, act or think like you. (Anything I missed?)Sweet!
Today some people want to force students to speak. How do you do that, twist their ear until they howl? Most days teachers are trying to figure out how to get kids to stop chattering and pay attention to schoolwork. This will be a real learning day, bet teachers will love it. As far as people who want to keep their kids home, well if they are going to do their own protest, take the knocks, don’t ask for permission, just accept the absent without reason mark on the record.
No pain no gain.
I find it very strange that the ‘conservatives,’ who do their best to silence progressive voices, is up in arms over progressive students’ decisions to remain silent.
Yes, quotes around ‘conservative.’
I know real conservatives. They want:
fiscal restraint
no government intrusion in their churches (etc)
smaller, less intrusive government overall
limited foreign involvement
(That’s an abbreviated list, of course.)
Do these sound like the ‘values’ of today’s phony conservatives?
These are not conservatives. These are regressives.
*** No, I am not a conservative of any stripe. Nor do I wish to advance conservatism. I simply think we ought to be clear about what these people truly are.
I must take exception to jcrumb’s vitriolic rampage against
any and all things Christian. While it is true that there
have been many things done supposidly in the name of God
which were in fact nothing but greed. jcrumb managed to take
all the mis-steps by the Christian community and turn them
in to “If you’re Christian, you’re evil”
As far as I know, there has been only one person on this
planet who was perfect, and we all know what they did to him, don’t we.
nellemason… all my answers aren’t ’school choice’…just when its obvious.
What’s wrong with liberty and freedom in education?
Right wingers are afraid that this activity “normalizes homosexuality’. Well DUH. It IS normal. I feel sorry for all the homophobes with their heads full of fear and ignorance, so easily led by religious hypocrites. And in my opinion ALL RELIGION IS HYPOCRISY. How do the conservatives get to act like the tough ones, when every decision they make has its roots in irrational unexamined FEAR?
I participated in the day of silence and I have a couple of things that I would like to add to your guys’ discussion. One thing I notice is that the conservatives and christian organizations against the day of silence are completely ignoring that it is a day against harrassment for everyone hence the organization is gay lesbian and straight. In grade school I had a really good friend who was also a girl and we were together all the time. We got harrassed because people thought we were lesbian. She was a catholic girl that could easily be any of those christian parents who want to boycott the day of silence’s daughters. Intolerance of anyone hurts everyone.
I wonder how many of us progs go to rightwing websites and post there.
I urge more of us progs to do this.
But be civil in the enemy camp. Don’t give righties an opening for distractions. Don’t let your substantive points get ignored by your inviting their criticism about your lack of manners. Righties love to focus on politeness and god manners, so they don’t have to deal with realer human issues. This is how rank-and-file Nazis managed to bind their conscience while they obeyed commands to kill people in the name of nationalism, privilege, wealth, and racial superiority: They remained sticklers for anal order and superficial civility.
So, stay Civil with them. Progressive points can be made without name calling and rage.
Vent your goodly piss and vinegar about righties on friendly sites like this one, if you must. But stay civil in the other domain.
I think unless more progs start to engage righties on the rightie’s own web turf, while avoiding the pitfall of stylistic rage against them, we progs are largely wasting our time on sites like CD.
“Some conservative groups are urging parents to keep children home from school today if their fellow students will be taking part in the annual Day of Silence observation.”
Thaks for taking the lead in this gay protest Conservatives…stay home/stay silent…
…it also gives conservatives an extra day that week to molest their children.
canuckchuck; conservatives don’t molest their children; they have their priests and elected representatives do it for them.
Not that they would’nt, they’re just too drunk and fucked up on prescription drugs.
jcrumb;KEEP POSTING.
Waitwaitwait… “A school is complicit if it remains silent.”
So that means that schools which remain silent when school groups organize prayer sessions and inflict them on the entire body willy-nilly, as at athletic and school events, is in fact complicit IN those events?
Thought these were the folks who insisted that silence wasn’t a religious or political statement and was therefore allowed? Or is that only when it’s a moment of Fundamentalist Silence?
Beginning to wish the Romans had used hungrier lions….
That article is bent in the wrong way. Holy Cow! Spooky!
Me Think:
Good idea can you please post some right web sites so we can go there?
JCRUMB:
You are right ( hard to read) they don’t want 13 year old kids to learn to voice their opions and peaceful protests.
OK they say it will disrupt education for that day . If you keep your kid home to play PS3 etc all day what will they learn? I thought you were not to talk during class?????????
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/21/AR2007102100144.html
“An Associated Press investigation found more than 2,500 cases over five years in which educators were punished for actions from bizarre to sadistic.
There are 3 million public school teachers nationwide, most devoted to their work. Yet the number of abusive educators _ nearly three for every school day _ speaks to a much larger problem in a system that is stacked against victims.
Most of the abuse never gets reported. Those cases reported often end with no action. Cases investigated sometimes can’t be proven, and many abusers have several victims.
And no one _ not the schools, not the courts, not the state or federal governments _ has found a surefire way to keep molesting teachers out of classrooms.
Those are the findings of an AP investigation in which reporters sought disciplinary records in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The result is an unprecedented national look at the scope of sex offenses by educators _ the very definition of breach of trust”
The findings draw obvious comparisons to sex abuse scandals in other institutions, among them the Roman Catholic Church. A review by America’s Catholic bishops found that about 4,400 of 110,000 priests were accused of molesting minors from 1950 through 2002.
Clergy abuse is part of the national consciousness after a string of highly publicized cases. But until now, there’s been little sense of the extent of educator abuse.
TEACHERS
The American Medical Association found in 1986 that one in four girls, and one in eight boys, are sexually abused in or out of school before the age of 18. Two years later, a study included in The Handbook on Sexual Abuse of Children, reported that one in four girls, and one in six boys, is sexually abused by age 18.[xxix] It was reported in 1991 that 17.7 percent of males who graduated from high school, and 82.2 percent of females, reported sexual harassment by faculty or staff during their years in school. Fully 13.5 percent said they had sexual intercourse with their teacher.[xxx]
In New York City alone, at least one child is sexually abused by a school employee every day. One study concluded that more than 60 percent of employees accused of sexual abuse in the New York City schools were transferred to desk jobs at district offices located inside the schools. Most of these teachers are tenured and 40 percent of those transferred are repeat offenders. They call it “passing the garbage” in the schools. One reason why this exists is due to efforts by the United Federation of Teachers to protect teachers at the expense of children.[xxxi] Another is the fact that teachers accused of sexual misconduct cannot be fired under New York State law.[xxxii]
Since there is so much abuse from teachers (far far above and beyond anything that the Catholic Church has dealt with) we need a Day of Silence to protest the sex abuse by Public Schools….agreed?
brontoburger it’s the message that’s important not the size of the words!
Not all Christians are terrible people. There are churches who follow Christ’s teacings and pay a heavy price for it such as the Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ. They have lost members and support because they became openly welcoming to gays and lesbians.
The people who hate gays the most are probably in the closet themselves.
hello. I agree with CAPSGUY that “religious freedom to persecute others” is a truly bad idea.
THE ONE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM THAT SHOLUD NOT EXIST..IS THE FREEDOM TO DESTROY THE FREEDOMS OF OTHERS..THAT IS THE PARADOX OF OUR SYSTEM..AND IS ALMOST THE CATCH PHRASE OF THIS ERA OF POLITICS…
the thing that really rankles me is as follows: religions have been, well, from the monotheistic traditions (circa 1000BCE let’s say) have relied on the principle that if one is right, the others must be wrong. that god is everywhere and if you don’t worship our god, there will be dire consequences… yet, even in the Hebrew testament, you find evidence of other gods: Jeremiah 44, and Jacob paying tribute to the “local gods.” even Josiah destoying the temples of other gods - then dying in a war over them…
the true way to peace is tolerance: we know that now. Yet, there are things we cannot tolerate. yes, even we liberals: we can’t tolerate tennage girls being a “spiritual wife” of a 50 or 60 year old man (xref the FLDS stories of late) we cannot tolerate others who wish to annihilate our values. if we truly value peace and prosperity -for all- we should sit at the table with these people whose values we disagree with, and see what we agree on. I imagine many conservatives would agree there’s too much sex and violence on television!
as to the conservatives’ view, their take on homosexuality is, in their interpretation, biblical. but the thing, for me, that is also relevant here is that there have been thousands of years intervening, and, let’s say post-Kinsey our view of sexuality is remarkably different from the biblical view. yet there is evidence if homsexuality in the bible, and without the “stoning” subsequent. (xref king david, xref “the beloved disciple” in the gospel of John).
insults do not help! that’s my view.
the most compelling aspect of this story for me is that teenagers are choosing, some even for themselves, to participate in a non-violent protest of mistreatment of others. that is huge. for our information-saturated age, choosing an opinion is a pretty important and difficult task. I work with teenagers, and they have pressures upon them I couldn’t even have imagined when I was in high school, and I’m not that old…
the other relevant saying that comes to mind is from Francis of Asissi: “Preach the gospel at all times; if necessary, use words.”
these kids are preaching the gospel. these kids are in solidarity with the opporessed whom they know. that is something, in my mind, which needs to be affirmed and celebrated.
as for the protesters of this event - history has comprehensively shown that unjust systems do not last. apartheid, slavery, oppression of women, oppression by skin color. these have all failed. and they will continue to fail. christianity took a wrong turn when it became the official religion of the Roman Empire - when it became the dominator instead of the voice from underneath, challenging the domination. people are bringing it back, though. this is really important. (read the works of the Jesus Seminar!)
prayerfully submitted, anna
Boycotting an organized student effort to show caring for their fellow human beings is not, never was Christian or moral. This is the first I’ve heard of this day of silence. Hopefully, it will backfire by spreading the word and bringing more students onboard in the years to come. My Unitarian Universalist congregation is an official “welcoming congregation” and all the better for it. We have been blessed. It is way past time for the acceptance and respect for those with the variations of sexual orientation that people are born with. While I’m at it, that rant about the sexual abuse of children in schools has nothing to do with sexual orientation. Nearly all child molesters happen to be heterosexuals.
There was no rant but simply the fact that sexual abuse of children in schools by teachers is the worst problem we have in education and to ‘distract’ us by doing a ‘day of silence’ is the point.
How about a week of silence throughout all of our schools to protest the war in Iraq? But right-wing conservatives insist on being blind and stupid so it’s just pie in the sky to think ignorance can be overcome wihout education and the raising our consciousness. Ignorance will always be a curse along with misguided teachings and we don’t need the religious nuts to instill their recipe for governance and advice.
how about a week of silense to protest the nazi ideology of abortion and euthanasia?
Or maybe a lifetime of silence
in recognition of the fact
that the vast majority of humans
are too challenged simply surviving
to have the luxury of addressing any of these issues
That said, it bothers me that we are hypersexualizing
our young people. In the immortal words of George
Costanza’s mother on Seinfeld,
“My son was using his body as an amusement park !”
Hopefully the next generation will be more sexually mature than that.
I think much of the problem people have with same-sex behavior is
the ‘amusement park’ aspects of it. (Applies to other-sex behavior too.)
Kids don’t have enough perspective to see where their chosen orientations
will lead. If they say they ‘are born that way’, then they have learned that this
is NOT a free-will planet. Is that true ?
Having feelings and acting on them are two different things. The first item on
the agenda is to try to figure out exactly where those feelings are coming from,
and the second is to determine exactly what is creating the impetus to act on them.
Welcome to the free-will zone.