pkd804 Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 The Day of Silence is an annual event designed to bring attention to anti-gay bullying, harassment and discrimination in schools. Participating teachers and students spend a day without speaking to highlight the fact that many people in the GLBT community are forced to remain silent about who they are. Do you support? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc9k7WkdXlU Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the sound Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 School without speaking is pretty difficult if you think about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bucket Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 Good idea, but I don't know if I could go a whole day without speaking!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllenA07 Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 It's an interesting idea, but I think it's going to be too impractical for most people to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcjaco Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 Why is this just restricted to gays? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeemerBoy Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 Yeah, it doesn't matter what the cause is. It could be in support of KKK members who club baby seals....if it got some of the people around me to shut up for a day, then I'm all for it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcjaco Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 ^ Not quite what I meant. I'm just saying, there's other groups of people that remain silent about tragedies in their lives just like this. Shouldn't they be included too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeemerBoy Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 ^ Yeah, I know. Just kiddin'. I agree with you. There's plenty of others who remain silent as well. The concept is interesting, and I'd have no problem supporting it, and I can easily go a day or more without saying a word to anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moose Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 I don't think an individual can really do this by themselves. I remember back in HS before the whole "Day of silence" came about, we did something similar for Drunk Driving Awareness. THroughout the day a bell would toll (i think hourly or something), and 10 more people would die, have their face painted white and would be unable to speak for the rest of the day. (I could be off on the numbers). The number of white faces started growing throughout the day and had a big visual inpact in the halls, something that simply not speaking does not do. I am all for victim awareness, be it drunk driving victims, domestic violence, or closeted gays. (actually I am least enthusiastic about the last one, and yes, I am gay.) I just don't think how this is done does all that much to raise awareness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeemerBoy Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 I remember back in HS before the whole "Day of silence" came about, we did something similar for Drunk Driving Awareness. THroughout the day a bell would toll (i think hourly or something), and 10 more people would die, have their face painted white and would be unable to speak for the rest of the day. (I could be off on the numbers). The number of white faces started growing throughout the day and had a big visual inpact in the halls, something that simply not speaking does not do. Never heard of this concept. I agree that visuals are much more impactful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frozenflames Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 ^^ I did that exact same thing three years ago in my high school. (Actually, I pretty much single-handedly organized that event). But the whole silence thing makes a great message, even if it is really hard to not talk for a whole day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odene497 Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 I remember back in HS before the whole "Day of silence" came about, we did something similar for Drunk Driving Awareness. THroughout the day a bell would toll (i think hourly or something), and 10 more people would die, have their face painted white and would be unable to speak for the rest of the day. (I could be off on the numbers). The number of white faces started growing throughout the day and had a big visual inpact in the halls, something that simply not speaking does not do. We do this every once in a while in our school. Our SADD club (Students Against Destructive Decisions). And as for Day of Silence, I did it today. We had a meeting two days ago for whoever wanted to, there were only maybe 50 of us. We got stickers and our names on a list so teachers can't get mad when we don't talk to them. It was really hard, but not absolutely horrible. What was harder was, in my American history class, we went over the whole idea of gays. I didn't have much to worry about teacherwise, I'm very close with this teacher and talk to him about everything. So he knows about me being gay, and I've taught him a lot about gays over the year. He would question kids in the class and have them give opinions, and put them in hypothetical situations to see how they'd react to different things. There were times I wanted to jump in, I had written in my notebook and showed him me asking if he'd agree that it's alright to break the silence if it's promoting the cause. He just said if I feel inclined to, and although there were times I wanted to jump in, they just weren't direct enough to make me want to talk. After school, I heard others who were silenced's accounts of things they'd seen and heard, from expected disrespect to a kid having on his bag "Gay people shouldn't talk anyway". Still a long way to go. -Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hercules Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 I don't think an individual can really do this by themselves. I remember back in HS before the whole "Day of silence" came about, we did something similar for Drunk Driving Awareness. THroughout the day a bell would toll (i think hourly or something), and 10 more people would die, have their face painted white and would be unable to speak for the rest of the day. (I could be off on the numbers). The number of white faces started growing throughout the day and had a big visual inpact in the halls, something that simply not speaking does not do. I am all for victim awareness, be it drunk driving victims, domestic violence, or closeted gays. (actually I am least enthusiastic about the last one, and yes, I am gay.) I just don't think how this is done does all that much to raise awareness. Yup, I participated in that back in high school. It was kind of stupid because nobody really knew what was going on with it, or the entire student body would try to get us to talk and didn't take it seriously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holyblakbelt Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 Our school did DoS today (I did not do it however). Our principal almost banned it for today because of it to be a "distraction". A couple of my friends from youth group decided to join anyways. Even though that I'm straight, I commend those who participated and those who have to be silent for theie sexual orientation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Benvenuto Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 Wow I got offended at people pointing out this was difficult....I have friends and closer friends who's family members are bi-Lesbian-Gay. I did it today, I found it a noble enough cause. Look people, if you have negative or obvious things to say in here. Don't say it, I got really pissed at some people in the first posts who thought it was difficult. What, just because you can't shut up for a minute makes it hard? WOW. I'm done with my two cents. EDIT: edited a word out, sorry.....I just had enough crap today with people trying to make me talk today and I'm just very upset right now, feel me you know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcjaco Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 ^ I don't see where anyone said this was pointless. Just difficult to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrakenKing Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 I used this in school as an excuse to not have to talk.. worked especially well one time during speech day when I wasn't ready But no, I'm going to be loud and proud instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 In my world communication in key in expressing a point of view. Wouldn't more attention be called to an adverse situation by constructively talking about it versus everyone saying nothing at all for a day. On a side note I agree with Matt - I wish lot of a people would just shut up for a day. They should also learn a little common courtesy when it comes to cell phone usage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBird Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 I participated in it. I ended up being harrassed and bullied the whole day though, more than normal. I'm not openly bi, but a lot of people think I'm gay anyways. A few kids were going to jump me about it too, but that didn't happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steel Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 I did this last year. Apparently, one of the English classes got extra credit for staying silent (which is crap, because I have that teacher this year and she won't give extra credit for anything). I got mad at my Chemistry teacher because he threatened to actually take away points for not participating in class. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkd804 Posted April 26, 2008 Author Share Posted April 26, 2008 I was too bullied and harassed for being gay during 1st block. I had a t-shirt I made that everyone signed. They were throwing stuff at me during study block and calling me names. I ignored them as best as I could. I can't believe these people. Some person who I didn't know reported it to the office as they witnessed I was being bullied and harassed by about 6-8 people. So I was called down to the office during 4th block to talk to the assistant principal. My friends were all so upset about it this morning. The office will get them on Monday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmicha Posted April 26, 2008 Share Posted April 26, 2008 I personally am not really a big fan of the whole day-of-silence thing. I am openly gay (made the decision to come out once I got to college) now, but was not throughout high school, even to my best friends. I, however, think that it would be better to openly talk about it rather than making those who are still in the closet stand out and have the potential to be bullied by others who are too ignorant to realize that there are people different from them in this world. Discussing being gay or bisexual could potentially help others that don't understand to see both sides and possibly change their opinions. Silence cannot do this. One of the largest problems I always encountered in any discussion about homosexuality in school was when people that support homosexuality but are not gay saying that it is our choice. I, for one, never made a choice, and I make sure people realize this. It is not as if I woke up one day and went, "I think I'm going to be gay from now on." If I were to remain silent during a discussion about homosexuality, I would never be able to state my side on this very important matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chmilo24 Posted April 26, 2008 Share Posted April 26, 2008 I think the whole idea is stupid. I remember when they did this in high school and it just gave people an excuse to bully them. At my school, there were a lot of gay-lesbian-bi people, only nobody knew who they were, until... So when the DoS came up, every one knew who those people were. And for the rest of the school year, those kids were harassed so bad, there lives were hell. So on the next year, we had a Gay-Straight Alliance to loosen things up. So when the DoS came, Gays, Bis, Lesbians, and Straights all joined. But the day turned out bad. Half the school protested their protest. Kids were walking around with shirts saying,"GAY IS NOT OKAY" to mach the "GAY IS OKAY" worn by the protesters. Some got bad like,"ITS ADAM AND EVE, NOT ADAM AND STEVE" and "MY PEERS ARE NOT QUEERS". It was horrible. There was 52 suspensions and 11 expulsions. If any school still does this, they better be careful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DATman Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 We did it at my school with our GSA (and I participated) and all of the students were actually really respectful towards everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kennywood!007 Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 It's pretty dumb, and I don't see how it would mean anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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