Once your Day of Silence event is over make sure that you assess how it went. There are a variety of ways to ask people who participated how it went for them, from having a survey, to having a conversation. You can even do both.
Having a conversation allows people to tell their story in detail. Administering a survey allows you to collect quantitative data. The latter can be good for your school administrators. Both options can help you build upon your DOS activities for next year.
Here is a sample Day of Silence evaluation - download PDF here (1 page).
Friday, April 17, 2009
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I agree that we need peace. But why not push peace for all people rather than magnifying a person's sexuality with the intent of forcing everyone to accept it? A person's sexual orientation is their own business and should be kept to themselves instead of in the public and academic arena. All people should be respected, but to impose your views on others is also wrong. I'm definitely not gay or confused, but if that's what you're into...then that's you're choice(yes I said choice)...but why do you feel the need to flaunt your sexuality? I don't go around saying "yeah I'm straight!...celebrate and acknowledge me!...treat me special because I'm straight!" Let's focus on the real issues at hand...because glbt are not the only ones getting bullied.
The day of silence was something different for me i never knew nothing about it until today. when i at skool today and i seen people had duck tape over their mouth i thought it was stupid until i found put whay it really meant
Even though i think being gay isnt the right way to go i still think people should live their life and if they want to live it in a creative differ way they can thats them
4/17 today was inspiring. I know I made a difference in at couple lives today. Because they know that people are out there that care about them. I’m glad. Maybe it will make a difference in somebody’s life to know that they are not alone. And to know that there are people willing to stand up for them. I'm also happy that i finally got to stand up for what's right and something i strongly believe in. Day of silence ‘09:stand up for what's right.
I think this day is important- I don't consider it as flaunting, and it is not utterly ridiculous. I feel it is freedom of expression- and that when people realize why we aren't speaking, it might open their minds to the reasons why we aren't speaking. It's like standing up for the country, or for the president. The reason this day should be taken into consideration- is because LGBT people everywhere are facing prejudice and discrimination. Straight people don't have to worry about getting jumped after school, or getting kicked out of class for not speaking on this day of silence. It's the same sort of protest whether it's LGBT supporters, or Women's suffrage supporters, African American supporters... Basically the minorities. We need rights too.
Whenever I saw "loud" protests, I thought they were unnecessary or forced.
But after today I think people need to look at problems instead of thinking, "It's somewhere else." I live in an area where people aren't as exposed to people of different sexual orientation so they think safer.
I'm glad I participated today to hopefully wake up people!
before today i had no idea the day of silence thing existed. I was at the college for a forensics meet and i saw the people standing with the duct tape over their mouths and asked what was going on. they told me and me, me straight friend, and my gay friend immediately joined. i am btw straight , not that it really matters. and to anonymous, we should celebrate everyone for their individual qualities gay or straight or whatever
I just found out about this round midnight here.. but today i saw kids at school with duct tape on their mouths, and teachers running after them getting on their case about it. I even know of a couple kids that got suspended for not taking the tape off of their mouths with is total B.S. They aren't hurting anyone, so let them be. I'm not sure if the school is able to do this but i thought i would just leave a comment letting yall know what happened at Centennial High School on this Day of silence.
I just want to say that my high school failed at the day of silence. 1) the day of silence is not a game, i can tell people why im silent without them flipping and saying that i lost the game. 2) the day of silent is about the restraint that GLBTQ people have to deal with, so putting ductape over your mouth and texting your friends the whole day ruins the meaning of the day
aolt of kids in my school were doing it inluding me when i showed my teach he was like that is pathtic and it killed me not to cuse him out but i loved it and i hope we made a stand
yesterday i participated in the day nof silence at my skool me and a lot of my friends. and the thing that made me really mad is that ppl just laughed and made fun of it. and they know that most of the ppl that did it at my skool are GBLT and they just kepy asking questions and stuff lke that. then some of the teachers made us talk wich made alot of us mad. but i think anyone who did this is great because even if they arent GBLT they still suppor those who are.
so thank you to anyone who participated in the day of silence.
This years Day of Silence at my high school was a mix off failure and success. In the morning everyone who was participating was still doing so. But by lunch, many of those people started talking because they thought half a day was good enough. Not very many people made it the whole day. Another thing was that many students who werent participating were mocking and bullying those who were. Even some teachers were mocking students while trying to get them to talk.
My School doesn't want a Gay Strait Alliance, so they made Day of Silence an optional day.
The school atmosphere was horrible. People would laugh if they saw you wearing a badge for it, my own mother wanted to know why I wanted to associate myself with fags. My Orchestra teacher forced my bisexual friend and I to speak in class.
4/17, for me it was a day to make a point because my schools GSA ( gay straight alliance ) group was afraid to do anything me and a friend decided we would take the task on and printed out papers saying what today was and brought Grey and PINK duct tape to school and i found out that most people at my school are against gays... Only 3 people thought what we were doing was a good thing, but thankfully we managed to get well over 30 kids to participate and hopefully mad a lot more notice.
day of silence was a succsess at renton high!there was so much supporters and students believing what that day ment.at first i was scared to do it because i didn't believe in myself.i opened up to my friends.but during dos 09 i felt that i was accepted. i gave pride out and now i go out with my man who is also bi like me.
I think that the day of silence was definitely a success at my school. Many students could not participate during the entire day, but instead were silent in the halls, and during lunches and study halls. It was interesting at how quiet some areas were. But on the other hand, it did intensify the amount of anti-gay slurs, and language used, as students tried to downplay the significance of the day, and to point out the people in order to even further harrass them. It is sad how ignorant and immature that high schoolers can be, especially in a society that is so diverse, it is sad to see how they react to different situations because of how moronic they can seem.
I am a middle school music teacher. Earlier this year two of my students were forced to leave the school based on their perceived identities. I felt even more strongly about making a "loud" statement against bullying and hate of this kind during yesterday's Day of Silence. I conducted the entire day without a word, following lengthy written discussions with my students on the day's significance. There were more students than I expected that were sensitive to the cause and driven to join our efforts to improve young people's behavior on these issues. I am proud of my school, today.
yeah yesterday i had the best day of silance ever when i went 2 skul my friends didnt know about it and niether did my teachers..mi and my friends that did know were being quiet all day and when we were doing this every1 was asking y we wouldnt anser them we would just show them the paper that talked about it and as soon as dey read it they would join the couse and it was great!!!!!
Everything you do, if you are considered in the "norm" is accepted and you get pats on the back from a lot of people who believe the "right" way. This is "magnification" in the extreme.
If, however, you are different from the norm, ... you become a threat to the historical conservatism of the past. Historical conservatism such as shunning those "other" people because of "race, religion, or creed".
I am certain that there are conservative powers at different high schools who will not allow the day of silence. I am sure that some students who try to participate, will be subject to pressure. There will be administrative "bullies" who will give them cold looks and worse. Yet these same administrative people(teachers/coaches/etc.) will be the very ones giving the standard "bullying is bad" speeches.
Good luck to all those who chose to be "heroes" of our constitution.
Day of Silence is something like a holiday. The day involves a celebration of sexual diversity.
I agree that sexuality is something personal that is not meant to be shouted as much as the perfume one uses...
It seems that as young adult someone needs to teach us about what should be public and what should be personal and confidential.ts
I have to admit, last Friday (the 17th) was one of the best days I've had at my high school. For our school, the day of silence was a big deal. Students who wished to participate were loaned T-shirts stating their cause and given slips of paper that would describe why they were doing this. Most of the teachers were supportive and wouldn't call on us or make us talk. I convinced several of my friends to rent T-shirts, and though some gave up halfway through the day (loudmouths) they still had fun trying. There were over a hundred T-shirts loaned out. With that many people doing this, I'm sure that it caused a reaction.
Catholic school = absolutely nothing special.
I believe that the Day Of Silence is a perfect program for anyone who is trying to prevent anti-LGBT.
This day has brought soooo much attention to my school and many LGBT persons in my local area that we support in many ways.
Lots of people think it's not such a grand idea to support these persons because they all think it is either stupid, or pathetic.
I support the many people out there who are being harmed, harrassed, or being called names by the people who really don't care.
I think that everyone should join in and help support the LGBT of our city, town, home, state, country, even people we may know.
The Day of Silence had made a huge impact on me and many people.
Thank you, dayofsilence.org for supporting everyone in every way.
My day of silence was so amasing. I live in a tiny town that is very very anti-LGBTQ which is really odd because there are alot of gay kids and what not at my school almost all of which HAVE to hide who they are me and 2 of my friends were the only 3 doing it at my school...well when the day started...each of us had a paper stateing what we were doing all of the teachers respected it i was in shock then once my frineds read the paper there just like this is really cool and for the rest of the day they did it too...then there friends were just like ya know what i want to do this too and by the time i got to the last class of the day there wasabout 20 people doing it 3 in my class at that moment i didn't even know the kids but for some reason we all seemened to like i don't know like connect for that day i was totally happy and totally a peace ^_^ i couldn't believe how much 3 people could do in a day those 20 kids probably knew 20 more kids who now know about the day of silence because me and 2 friends decieded to do it even though no one else knew ^_^
i can't wait till next year!!!!
My school was against it from day one and the way they treated me friday was horrible they had students totally against it in the same room that they had placed me for "protection" see my comment under wear red to support DOS. Basiclly the school put me in the room with the bad kids becuase of rumors that i was going to be shot. The students in there were terrible towards me. at one point I fell asleep and woke up with spit wads and paper balls thrown at me. the teachers refused to let me use the restroom unless I spoke and I wasn't allowed to speak to requst my lunch. And yeah I'm not sure how the day went for anyone else since I was being held hostage I meaning being so well protected yeah right. I mean since they were throwing people wearing shirts agianst the day and the students were less than happy to see me.
The day of silence this year was a total wake up call for me. I hadn't even heard of such a day until one of my friends showed me a slip of paper telling me why she wasn't talking. I, unfortunately, hadn't participated--I wasn't sure whether I could make it throughout the day without blabbing, or whether I could just join in in the midst of the day--but I believe that it had made a difference. As far as I was concerned, the day was a success to inform teens that this does happen. (It certainly informed me.)
My high school isn't a very anti-gay school--in fact, most people embrace everyone's sexual orientation welcomingly--but it does happen. Hearing people put down LGBTs with words like 'queer' and 'fag' just infuriates me to no end. People should just accept others of who they are, no matter what sexuality they are or the other different pointless factors that come into play when bullied.
Though it saddens me that I hadn't heard of the day earlier this year, I am definitely joining in on the movement next year. Go 2010!
I think more people should take stuff like this for what it is. People think they can sign it then scream something like "i love fags" and no one will take offense.Or they just wanted to have a reason not to get called on in class.
Two people got sent to our office because the teacher wouldn't let them not talk. Even i had to pretend to in order to not get in some major trouble.
I think we need to let more people know about this, and do more stuff like it.
I'm was especially excited for The day of silence. Because i came out about a week ago as Bi. And i kinda felt like i was free. I wore a bright red sweat shirt and it just happend to have my name on the back because it was my track jersey and i loved it. People need to realize that there is nothing wrong with it..Since i've came out everyone noticed that i was still the same crazy sophmore that still loved sports and her friends. And to be honest a lot of gay's to get shot down for flaunting it. WHY is it okay that a girl and a guy can make out or even have sex in their front yard and not too maney ppl care, but if 2 gay men are holding hands, Its appauling to people?..and I've never ever bullied someone else reguardless of sexuality, its a part of who they are and even if they are straight..everyone is equal weither ppl like it or not
while many were reluctent to except the fact that we were silent because of gay rights we did catch a lot of peoples attention many asked why ironically and we explaned it without talking the best we could the following Monday there were many questions and we were happy to answer everyone of them.
anonymous says...
it don't matter who or what you are it just matters what you do i agree with the peace i don't think a person's sexuality is anyone's business but their own
The Day of Silence went alright for me. I organized it at my school, and I had a total of 21 people do it. I know you say that it isn't a big number, but at the school i go to, its a big thing. I had people saying "gay is gay, love the straight", others came up to me and told me that my kind of people didn't deserve rights and we should all burn in hell. but you know what? our kind of people? we are no different then they are. The event at my school is going into the newspaper and I'm proud to say that i am a lesbian :).
for us at school
some stayed quiet but others were talkin to give out information to why we we were doin what were doing! there were plenty of people who joined us even some teachers it was really eye opening to students and to the faculty
Oh my god, I did not know April 17 was the Day of Silence. =[ I first heard about DoS just last year and vowed to myself that I would do it every year from thereon. I plan to do a small Day of Silence for myself to hopefully make up for it.
The Day of Silence is something that I would love to the rest of my life. I've learned my lesson from this year that I should look up this day ahead of time and plan for it!
Our school is a k-8. We decided as a community to include the whole school in a day of peace. I love that the whole community discussed it and gave input, however; I think that the 6-8th graders did not get the full impact. I don't think teachers in the upper grades actually promoted the original intent to them even though it was age appropriate for them. I didn't see one uppergrade student with tape over their mouth, or an explanation card. Overall I felt our school was successful because we have community buy in to build on for next year.
today i participated in my school's DoS because we were on break for the 17th. the teachers had no porblem with it, and it was sponsered by the school. there were only a few people in each of my classes who did it, but it was enough. the best part of the day was when i was able to show pople my card sayin why i was silent. most of the people not participating did not know what it was, and having them learn about what the DoS was is really what this whole day is about. this is really my reason for being silent today, so that poeple can learn that the anti-LGBT slang they thoughtless throw around really does affect peopl.
We tried Day of Silence and many of the kids bullied us for it but even worse I had a teacher who did to..and he basically said talk or I'll write you up. I made it most of the day..only slipt once or twice..not to good, but not to bad for me either..sooo
Our Day of Silence was pretty good. We had record participation with over 100 silent participants and over 25 vocal supporters, including ~5 teachers. I know that many more people support the cause and would have participated if not for (insert reason here). My favorite thing about DOS is that so many people participate that I wouldn't have expected, including many allies.
However, our Breaking the Silence event pretty much failed. Very few people came due to (insert reason here). Our school is big (3000 kids), so there's always something else happening, and we didn't advertise our BTS enough. However, we are using this to spark a Safe Space movement.
I must say that my school took day of silence as a complete joke. Students would either make fun of me for not talking or try to force me to talk. My so called best friend even said that it was stupid to be silent for somebody that you don't even know for a whole day when you can just take a moment of silence for them and just keep it moving. Despite all this, I did my best to stay silent for Carl Joesph Walker Hoover. His story really touched my heart so I did what I could to honor him since day of silence was on his b-day this year. What really irritated me was how when I wrote what I had to say to people down on paper, they would respond on the paper instead of just saying it to me. They treated me like a def person honestly. I just hope others had a successful time doing it cause I don't think my school really did.
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