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Call to Action for Safer Schools
On Friday, April 25th, thousands of students across the United States will participate in 'National Day of Silence'.
Now in its 12th year, the 'Day of Silence' event was first held in 1996, to bring attention to the name-calling, bullying, and harassment suffered by gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and trans-gender students on college and university campuses. University of Virgina student Maria Pulzetti, then 18 years of age, was inspired to create the event after writing a paper on nonviolent protest and grass-roots organizing.
In 1997, Pulzetti and Jessie Gilliam developed the project to be used in schools nationwide and renamed it 'National Day of Silence'. In 1998, students in high schools joined the event, and to date approximately 5,000 schools will participate nation-wide.
This year's national demonstration is also in honor of Lawrence King, the 15 year-old youth brutally murdered in February at E. O. Green Junior High School by a 14 year-old classmate. Lawrence was allegedly murdered for his sexual orientation and gender identity expression.
More information on 'National Day of Silence' can be obtained at http://www.dayofsilence.org/content/news.html
Cross-Reference NP Articles: http://www.nowpublic.com/world/brain-dead-another-child-dies-hands-school-violence
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/activists-alarmed-demand-better-protection-gay-youth
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/stop-bullies-new-york-state-schools
April 20, 2008 at 10:24 pm by Rhonda J Mangus, 333 views, 2 comments
Crowd Power
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Rhonda J Mangus
North Tonawanda, New York, United States







Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (2)
at 09:34 on April 21st, 2008
Rhonda J Mangus, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 10:47 on April 21st, 2008
moonwolf - many thanks for the "GS"! The rights of GLBT persons (and as a separate culture) is a very challenging issue to bring to the public's attention. Nevertheless, change has to begin somewhere to move toward tolerance and respect for the right to freedom of sexual orientation, the right to be free from harassment and bullying, and the right to be free from living in fear and intimidation. Thanks again!