Silent Support

Aug 14, 2003

Having never organized something of this magnitude before, I had no idea what I was in for. After gaining permission from the administration, we started making plans, and assigning jobs about one month before April 9th. The weeks crept up on us, and we were ready to protest after a smooth month of gathering pledges, making t-shirts, and printing speaking cards. We were prepared to take our oath.

As I walked into school on April 9th, 2003, I remember feeling excited about having our goals and dreams come alive. Walking up to the front door of South Salem, I saw a huge sign on the banister of the staircase that had “Day of Silence ’02 -’03” printed on it. It looked really great and was large and bright enough for almost every student walking into the building to take notice. We had a small gathering in our host room to prepare. Then we finished putting our signs up around the hallways. We printed over 200 half-sheets with factual statistics about gay teen suicides, harassment rates, and dropout percentages. These covered any empty wall space by every classroom and doorway in the vast hallways. There were 20 of us wearing printed t-shirts with the same statistics on them, allowing the other students to identify those most involved in planning and remaining silent.

By second period, all of the 110 students who had pledged to be silent had received the pledging packets we had so diligently stuffed a few days earlier. In the packets, they received stickers saying “Screaming on the Inside” and “I support the Day of Silence.” By halfway through the day, most every teacher was wearing a sticker of support, and it seemed every other student walking down the hallway was wearing a support sticker or a t-shirt. With a sea of support in the campaign to end harassment walking by, looking up in the hallway was something to be proud of.

During lunchtime, my advisor contacted me, letting me know there was a reporter at the school who wished to take pictures. For the photos, I sat with our planning group, as we had planned on eating lunch in silence together. We communicated with our hands, devising a plan to re-distribute flyers where some had been torn down in the hallways.

By the end of the day, many of the silent students had given up, realizing how difficult it was to remain silent, and also realizing how difficult it must be to be in a position where one must remain silent about themselves while they are at school.

Most of our GSA attended Willamette University’s Breaking the Silence event as a way to end the protest as a group. At our debriefing meeting the following week, we discussed the impact we had on our community, and the effects of our hard work. We also counted the beads on wristbands we each put together to count the number of homophobic remarks we heard that day. Most students were on either extreme: either having a handful of beads or very few. Although some students experienced harassment during their protest, everyone agreed they had done something great that they were proud of. After receiving a personal letter from the principal, viewing the article in the local newspaper, and seeing the mostly positive reaction from fellow students, we decided we had truly made a difference in our community.

..................... Adam Elwood, 18 South Salem High School– Salem, OR