Posted on 04/15/2005 10:39:56 AM PDT by ThisLittleLightofMine
A national event called the "Day of Silence" always gets a bit noisy as it receives both cheers and jeers.
Several high schools in Clark County participated in the event Wednesday. The annual event is sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network in cooperation with the United States Student Association, a national lobbying group.
GLSEN says that this year's protest of discrimination against lesbians and gays attracted students in nearly 4,000 schools nationwide. Students who participate take a vow of silence for the day to bring attention to the bullying and isolation that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students say they experience in schools.
Listed as participants on GLSEN's Web site are the following Clark County schools: Camas, Columbia River, Evergreen, Heritage, Hudson's Bay and Mountain View high schools, as well as the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics. The Web site notes that some student organizers ask that their school not be listed, so it's possible that even more students from schools in the area took part.
Should taxpayers or parents worry that public schools are a place for ideologicalprotests urged by outside groups with political ambitions?
While the Day of Silence is a student-led activity, many schools have counselors or teachers who help make the Day of Silence a schoolwide event. Some send out notices to teachers telling them that students might not be answering class questions because of their Day of Silence vow. And many high schools here and throughout the nation also have gay-straight alliances that are supported by GLSEN and that operate with school and staff support. In some schools, students even attend pull-out counseling sessions for gays and lesbians during the school day without parent permission.
These activities are far more debatable than the Day of Silence's quiet demonstration. Students should never be captive audiences for indoctrination by outside groups or even insider adults especially without parent consent.
How many get to play?
Even still, while speaking out (or being silent, in this case) against mistreatment or bullying of a student is admirable, GLSEN's Day of Silence brings up bigger concerns. First, should students be encouraged to bow out of class participation for any cause? And how much should teachers or counselors tolerate? After all, manyof them need communicative learners to do their jobs. It seems to me this Day of Silence should be limited to lunch and class breaks, and free time before and after school. Students don't need to impede learning to make their point.
Concerns about this protest make the most sense when you think about how many groups would like to bring their silence, or other forms of demonstration, into classrooms. How many causes should schools allow to disrupt any given number of school days?
Before you answer that question, know that today a counter cause, in response to the Day of Silence, will be in schoolhouses across the nation.
Rather than encouraging silence, the organizers are encouraging students to wear T-shirts and pass out cards during their free time that say "The Truth Cannot Be Silenced." This, too, will be disruptive. Organizers are conservative groups who worry that kids are being indoctrinated to accept homosexuality as a healthy life choice. They contend the Day of Silence and GLSEN's other outreaches into schools work to silence teens who believe homosexual relationships harm peers who choose them.
An Associated Press story on these days of Silence and Truth appropriately was headlined "Dueling Days." Within the story were adults arguing about the causes they were urging students to join.
Kevin Jennings, GLSEN executive director, said that he doubted the Day of Truth would catch on in the way his group's Day of Silence had. And Mike Johnson with the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group, said there would be no need for the Day of Truth if Christian kids weren't being silenced.
Students don't leave their free speech rights at the school door. But adults with political agendas should.
Elizabeth Hovde's column of personal opinion appears on the Other Opinions page each Thursday. Her e-mail address: elizabeth.hovde@columbian.com.
And if Christians did this, they would be yelled at and get into severe trouble.
Several schools in Clark County participated and only after the fact were parents informed. If you live in Clark County (whether or not you have children in schools) I encourage you to take a stand we need to check agenda at the door. Thanks!
As a taxpayer that funds schools, I do not feel is appropriate to advocate or support these types of protest days. Our children have one purpose for attending school and that is to be educated not indoctrinated.
Looking forward to the Christian students have a "Day of Praise".
"To compel a man to contribute monies for the propagation of beliefs and opinions he abhors is sinful and tyranicall" - Thomas Jefferson
Yes vocal loud praise.
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