Advisor: Our 4th Year Doing the Day of Silence

This is a selected posting from the ADVISORTALK, an unmoderated discussion list for faculty advisors of GSAs to share ideas and information about their GSA work

Hi Vickie!

Glad to hear you are going to participate. This will be our 4th year!

I am a teacher and the GSA club advisor. Ours is a very conservative community also.

This year has been the most advertised Day of Silence. It is on the marquee at the front of our school. There have been letters printed in the opinion section of our local paper (one by the GSA pres at our school!). We have also sent press releases.

We do announcements the week before and put up posters (ASB approved).

This year we are making red t shirts with Lawrence King's picture on the front with his birth and death dates. On the back the date and "Day of Silence". It only cost us 5 dollars to make them and we are selling them for 10. Last year we made $100 profit.

We have announcements the week before to inform the participants to gather in my classroom the morning of the Day of Silence.

We discuss appropriate reactions to any negative situations. Unfortunately, tolerance has become a big issue on our campus. So I have an open door policy (that day) for students to come in and vent. It prevents problems and I find out if they want to file an incident report. They are then able to go the office if they choose to file or back to class (after having blown off some steam).

This year we are planning to have a "breaking the silence" pizza party.

I sincerely hope you will continue participation with this event so that eventually tolerance will be the rule!

Monica O.
California