AFA of PA ACTION ALERT April 11 2014 DOS

April 7, 2014

Issue

Is Your Child’s School Allowing Silence During the Day of Silence

Details

Friday, April 11th is the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network’s (GLSEN) Day of Silence.  (NOTE:  This is the official day, however some schools may hold it a different day because of scheduling conflicts.) It is a day set aside when “students from middle school to college take a vow of silence in an effort to encourage schools and classmates to address the problem of anti-LGBT behavior by illustrating the silencing effect of bullying and harassment on LGBT students and those perceived to be LGBT.”

However, the ultimate goal is to normalize homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderism.  GLSEN’s claim that students who identify as LGBT are bullied more than any other student is based upon their own online School Climate Survey.  Linda Harvey of Mission America points out the troublesome design of this survey:

  1. It’s designed, conducted and evaluated by internal GLSEN staff, not an independent firm.
  2. It’s mostly an online survey. Anyone can take it, even those pretending to be “gay youth.” Could adults sympathetic to GLSEN’s goals or GLSEN’s own staff, take the survey to obtain the desired results? Absolutely.
  3. Many participants were recruited from homosexual student groups and networks, another red flag that these are biased, manipulated results.

The fact is a new report finds that children with disabilities are at about four times the risk of becoming victims of violence compared with children who don’t have disabilities.

This is GLSEN’s biggest day of student activism.  It is supposedly student-led, but GLSEN encourages them to register, provides an activity guide, speaking cards that they hand to those asking why they are silent, Day of Silence stickers, posters,  a pledge form (make sure to check out the small print on the bottom of the form), and a letter from the ACLU in case a student feels like someone is giving him or her a hard time.   Of course GLSEN plans on making some money off all this by selling Day of Silence merchandise.  But, of course, this is all student led!

So . . . is your local school allowing silence during the Day of Silence?  If your child’s school has a Gay Straight Alliance club, there is a high likelihood that they will be participating in the Day of Silence.

Action Steps

1.)  Listen to my interview with Laurie Higgins concerning the upcoming Day of Silence.

2.)  GLSEN is so proud of this day, they no longer publicize the list of participating schools!  So you will have to contact your local middle and high school and ask one specific question:  “Will you allow students or teachers to remain silent during instructional time on the Day of Silence?”  If the answer is ‘Yes,” then keep your child/children home that day.

3.)  The AFA of PA is part of the Day of Silence Walkout Coalition and the website has additional information including a DOS Walkout letter to give to your child’s school administrators explaining why you are keeping your child home on the Day of Silence.

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