1. You DO have a right to participate in Day of Silence and other expressions of your opinion at a public school during non-instructional time: the breaks between classes, before and after the school day, lunchtime, and any other free times during your day. If your principal or a teacher tells you otherwise, you should contact the ACLU national office or GLSEN national headquarters at GLSEN.ORG.
2. You do NOT have a right to remain silent during class time if a teacher asks you to speak. If you want to stay quiet during class on Day of Silence, we recommend that you talk to your teachers ahead of time, tell them what you plan to do, and ask them if it would be okay for you to communicate on that day in writing. Most teachers will probably say yes.
3. Your school is NOT required to "sponsor" Day of Silence. A lot of schools this year are announcing that they aren’t sponsoring Day of Silence due to pressure from national anti-gay groups. But Day of Silence is rarely a school-sponsored activity to begin with — it’s almost always an activity led by students. So don’t be confused — just because your school is saying that the school won’t officially sponsor or participate in Day of Silence doesn’t mean that it’s saying you can’t participate.
4. Students who oppose Day of Silence DO have the right to express their views, too. Like you, they must do so in a civil, peaceful way and they must limit their expression to non-instructional time. They do NOT have a right to skip school on Day of Silence without any consequences, just as you don’t have a right to skip school just because you don’t like what they think or say.
Lambda Legal also provides these tips: click here for PDF.
13 comments:
one thing on right #4 last year i was kick punched and spit on by a one of my class mates just because i was apart of dos and even after that i did not say a word for the hole day.
i understand that schools dont have to support DOS but
is it legal for a school district to not allow a students participation in it at all?
our school districts superintendent is telling us that our district is not allowing it and is punishable just by participating...
the teachers and officials at my school have been surprisingly supportive. our gsa has been respected as a club and we have been participating in d.o.s. since i've been at my school. as a senior, this year has caused the most controvercy. we have gotten so much support from people i've never even seen before and i appreciate it sooo much. i wish they all knew how much i respected their bravery in participating.
Going to an all girls bording school is tough but when your bisexual it can get harder. I told my friends that I was being a part of the day of silence and they are all doing it with me! I told my Dean and she said I couldnt but shes away and Im doing it anyways.
Ok,
So the D.O.S is over kinda
at least the school part
Congrads everyone, i have two questions though:
1)My school sorta sponsered it, and it wasnt a hassel with any of my teachers and not really even anyone who wasnt participating. But after school this girl came up to me and told me that since I wasnt gay or Lesbian I couldnt participate and then continued to harras me, so my first question is: Was the D.O.S only for Gay/Lesbian students or was it for anyone who wanted to support and
2)How exactly is being silent protesting not saying anything about Harrasment? My friend asked me about that and i couldnt think of an answer. i mean im sure there is one i just couldnt think of it
Thanks :)
<3 Harley
#3 is incorrect. The word "required" should instead read, It is PROHIBITED for a school to sponsor a day of silence. It is illegal and will be challenged in a court of law. Just like a school cannot sponsor a "Christian" day, it cannot sponsor any "group's" special interests. If one door is opened, ALL doors must be opened---including a school sponsored day of protest against the gay agenda.
Yeah, they can SAY whatever they want about it in a professional manner... Really, I have friends who oppose it! But they know I'm bi and respect my freedom to express that, too.
But when they are VERBALLY HARASSING us, and yelling "God hates queers" or "Hey, fags!" every time we walk by, that in itself is derogatory and unacceptable. And what's MORE, when they're throwing ROCKS at people, like they did to my lesbian friend last year... Uncalled for!
The anonymous poster suggesting that sponsoring DoS would require sponsoring all religious events is likely mistaken - before taking that advice I'd ask an expert at GLSEN, LambdaLegal, or the ACLU.
There's good legal info here:
http://www.lambdalegal.org/publications/articles/national-day-of-silence.html
It's a shame that hateful groups such as these, which want to restrict the rights of others (such as marriage) and promote intolerance so that they can freely persecute others are dictating school boards. How can these anti-gay groups be allowed to post advertisements of discrimination? Would a group be allowed to post a video against race or Black History month?
thanks so much for this. i go to an all-girls catholic school, and the nuns are NOT happy about the amount of students doing the DOS... i guess since it's a private school they can technically tell us we have to talk in class, but i'm not saying one word in the halls or lunchroom.
Harley-
1) The Day of Silence is open to anyone who wants to participate and knows that anti-LGBT harassment in our schools is wrong. It's completely not cool that that girl talked to you like that, but just brush her off. She was misinformed. =D
2) We're being silent to draw attention to the fact that we're silenced in smaller ways every day. I know that I'm afraid to ever mention my orientation because verbal bullying is a big problem at my school. Also, protesting is more likely to be met with resistance from staff. Being silent doesn't hurt anyone and calls attention to the fact that we can't ignore the problem.
Hope that answered your questions. <3
Kayla
I really only have one class where i need to speak and that is choir, but if we aren't doing anything im not talking in that class either..:)
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