GHS teacher says she’s ready to participate in the gay awareness
day even after receiving a death threat
Gilroy – Months of harassment and even a written death threat have failed to knock Sally Enriquez off her podium.
The Gilroy High School social studies teacher is adamant: when the calendar turns to April 26 she will spend the day participating in Day of Silence, a student-led national demonstration intended to combat the oppression and discrimination gay and lesbian youth experience.
To emulate that environment and to show solidarity with the gay community, students and teachers spend the day in complete silence.
“We’re still gonna do it,” she said.
Enriquez, who is also advisor to the student club Gay Straight Alliance, said Principal Jim Maxwell met with her and the four other teachers who had participated in the Day of Silence, at the beginning of the school year. The educator said Maxwell was very supportive of the crew and their objective to create a harrasment-free high school.
“We want an atmosphere on this campus that is accepting and caring,” she said.
Although this would be the third year that teachers and students have observed the Day of Silence, the issue didn’t cause ripples in Gilroy until last April when teachers sent out memos explaining that they would be participating.
Community members and parents expressed their outrage in the Dispatch, at board meetings, and to the former GHS principal. Parents demanded that the Gilroy Unified School District board take action to halt the observance. Lawyers were called. Accusations of First Amendment rights violations were shouted.
The GUSD board eventually released the district’s legal opinion on the issue quoting Education Code Section 201 which states “California’s public schools have an affirmative obligation to combat racism, sexism and other forms of bias and a responsibility to provide equal educational opportunity,” and “It is intent of the Legislature that each public school undertake educational activities to counter discriminatory incidents on school grounds.”
So the Day of Silence went on.
Maxwell wasn’t around to reflect the rage but he has heard from other teachers that the community was soaked in the controversial issue. The principal said the anger was so red-hot that employees and students didn’t feel safe and that if GHS staffers participate again, the school will be pinpointed as an institution that promotes indoctrination.
“Those that want to believe that about public school teachers will use that as an opportunity to say ‘see,’ ” he said… “I really don’t want what happened last year to happen again. I’m hoping that they (the teachers) don’t take a Day of Silence.”
Still, he said he expects a group of students and teachers to participate. Maxwell said he wants GHS to be a safe school and doesn’t want teachers and students to feel fearful.
Whether the GUSD board will enact a policy that will basically outlaw Day of Silence, such as a resolution declaring that teachers must spend all their time in the classroom teaching, is still up in the air and could be determined at a future board meeting. But Trustee Jim Rogers said he thinks the best approach is to suggest.
“Basically I think we’re going to try to encourage teachers to use all of their ways of teaching including speaking,” he said. “Obviously they have the freedom to use what’s best in their teaching but I think we’re going to encourage that they do speak.”
