Students at SDA participated in the annual Day of Silence, a national event that brings awareness to the problem of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment in schools. The official date of the Day of Silence was April 15; however, SDA students chose to hold it one day early on April 14, due to the fact that many participating students would be out of town on April 15 for various speech and debate and journalism events.

Students who chose to participate picked up signs at the beginning of the school day that they could wear, stating their motive for being silent. They were then silent for the rest of the day, and fellow students and teachers were informed and able to respect this.

Junior Blake Stoner-Osborne, who helped plan this day, said, “The Day of Silence is a day to willingly be silent to show your support for those who feel silenced for being who they are daily.”

Stoner-Osborne said that a lot of people showed interest, but not a lot of people actually carried it out.

“Overall, [this day] was pretty successful because people saw it and the issue was brought to their attention,” said Stoner-Osborne.
Regarding plans of next year’s Day of Silence, Stoner-Osborne added, “In the future, I think we should promote a little more awareness in advance about this day.”

“It’s a really nice idea but it wasn’t endorsed as much as it should have been so it wasn’t as helpful or meaningful as it could be for all it stands for. Not many people knew what was going on and when it was going to happen. It just happened,” said junior Arturo Diaz.