Silence speaks louder than words

Silence can sometimes be louder than words. This was the case two weeks ago, as just over 200 WS students participated in the Day of Silence, pledging silence for the whole day to support Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual and Queer (LGBTQ) rights.
“I felt like there was a lack of outward support for LGBTQ. Especially with the things I hear out in the hallway and the fact that people were tearing down our posters. I think these things really validated why I felt like we needed it,” said junior Bennett Shoop, who participated in the Day of Silence.
Shoop was the big man of the event as he led the peer mediation team in planning this school-wide affair. The team made posters to hang around school and Shoop appealed to the masses via social media.
“I made a video and put in on YouTube,” said Shoop, “I also made a Twitter account that I tweeted off of for reminders and updates about the event.”
These initiatives, along with the sign-up table that was available during lunches, helped spread the word about the event. Word clearly got out as a staggering amount of WS students wore red clothing to support the event or pledged their silence. This pledge is especially impressive because school is a chatty place and a lot of classes are even dependent on active participation.
“My AP Government class with Dr. Wigginton is really cooperative and has a lot of discussion. Every time I wanted to blurt something out, I remembered that I couldn’t so I wrote it down on paper and my friend said it,” said senior Ahmed Awad.
The constant struggle and emotion of holding in what they so desperately want to say are the exact results that the initiative hopes participants experienced. The Day of Silence with all the challenges associated with it, is supposed to emulate what the LGBTQ community faces on a daily basis.
“It made me think about how other people have to deal with this in their everyday lives since they don’t feel as though they can talk about their true feelings, which is something I never had to think about,” said senior and Day of Silence participant Katherine Novak.
This message was spread throughout the day and the event’s success was more than Shoop had hoped for, leading to bigger plans for next year.
“I saw a lot of people wearing red and heard a lot of people talking about it. I’m going to try and make it better next year with maybe a pride week with each day being a different color, and Friday being the Day of Silence,” said Shoop. This year’s Day of Silence brought the WS community around an issue growing in the news. However, no matter how controversial or different individual’s opinions may be on the matter, all members of the community are still respected and peers care about one another.
“I have LGBTQ friends, and my friends are special to me,” said Awad, “This issue might not affect me directly, but it’s important to my friends so it’s important to me.”