Some Gilroy High School students, no teachers participate in
national silent protest
Gilroy – Decked out in a diagonally-cut, striped skirt worn over a pair of jeans, Vincent Aguilar summed up, with dramatic flair, why he couldn’t stop chatting even though he believes in the Day of Silence cause.
“I was trying the silent thing but it’s too hard for me because I’m too talkative,” said the 14-year-old freshman.
Aguilar was one of more than a handful of Gilroy High School students who either tried or succeeded in keeping their mouths shut tight on Wednesday to symbolize and protest the oppression, or silencing, of gays and lesbians. Some students roamed the campus wearing black T-shirts with emblazoned with a rainbow and the phrase “It’s A-okay to be Gay. Okay.”
The aftermath of this year’s Day of Silence will pale in comparison to last years, when a small group of teachers chose to participate. District officials weren’t sure how or if they could bar the educators from remaining silent, so the teachers went ahead with their plan to not speak.
Months of rage ensued. Letters flowed into the Dispatch, some requesting the teachers be fired, many saying the board should bar them from participating this year.
Last year, the board tweaked a board policy regarding classroom interruption that prevents teachers from not speaking while working. And Gilroy High administrators were right: none of the educators ignored the mandate.
But teens took advantage of their freedom of expression as students.
“Yeah, there are definitely kids wearing black and not talking,” Principal James Maxwell said.
The months leading up to the event were quite contentious but after the superintendent announced in March that teachers would not be able to participate, the issue faded. Actually, that today was the day didn’t dawn on Maxwell until he visited a classroom and was given a written response to a question posed to a student.
But Mia Obeso, garbed in her black T-shirt, obviously didn’t forget. The high school sophomore said she participated in the silent demonstration because a friend of a friend was killed for his orientation and she often hears gay slurs on campus.
Unlike some students at San Benito High School who chose to communicate with a reporter via notebook, Obeso, 16, said she didn’t refrain from talking all day long. She spoke during an interview and in class when necessary.
“It’s not like a game,” the high school sophomore said.
While most of the teens who participated in Wednesday’s protest, including Obeso, are members of the high school’s Gay Straight Alliance club, they all agreed that there aren’t a whole slew of openly gay students scattered across Gilroy’s campus.
But there are definitely gay students who aren’t afraid to announce their orientation when pressed.
“They don’t go prancing around and say ‘I’m gay,'” said Obeso, who is bisexual.
The students also said the assertion that gay kids aren’t harassed at Gilroy High or that the bullying is akin to all adolescent teasing, isn’t true. They said they often hear the words “gay” and “fag” on campus, although they’re not necessarily directed at gay or perceived-to-be homosexuals.
That administrators have cracked down on the phrase “that’s so gay,” slang for something that’s lame, has only exasperated the problem. Now that the words have been declared taboo, teens are invoking them more often, they said.
GHS senior Tim Card, who attempted to keep quiet but was told by a teacher that he’d end up in the discipline office if he didn’t answer when called upon, said he doesn’t understand why gays face discrimination.
“I just don’t see why people treat ’em different,” he said. “They’re the same people, they just do different things.”
Card said he rarely hears students being teased about their weight, class or race. The group all agreed that gay slurs and taunts top the list at Gilroy High.
Across the nation, at universities, colleges and high schools, individuals broadcasted their support of the gay community by remaining silent. Today, students throughout the U.S. are expected to participate in a counter protest called Day of Truth.
Students who participate in the Christian-based demonstration, sponsored by the Alliance Defense Fund, will pass out cards and wear T-shirts asserting their disapproval of homosexuality.
