The Alliance Club sponsored the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network's (GLSEN) Day of Silence this past Friday. This is a student-led national event where students and teachers take a vow of silence to highlight the silencing and erasure of LGBTQ+ people at schools. Members of the Holderness community filled hallways and paths dressed in red and silent.

Day of Silence began in 1996 at the University of Virginia with a small group of students and has since spread to hundreds of thousands of participants. Students go through the entire day without speaking and wearing red or stickers of solidarity. They finish the day at a “breaking the silence” rally to draw attention to opportunities to make their school more inclusive and welcoming. The vow of silence symbolizes how LGBTQ students often feel silenced in school -- not seeing themselves in curriculum, feeling afraid, or even being threatened or assaulted. For some students, silence is not an option; it is a means of survival. Day of Silence is an opportunity for allies to experience the day at school as if they were unable to be themselves.

Holderness students have been participating in Day of Silence for many years and as our Director of Equity and Inclusion, Jini Rae Sparkman, reminded her classes on Friday, “our silence is loud!”