As many of you may know, this past
Friday was recognized by many as a Day of Silence, which was created
by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). This
Day of Silence was intended as a way to acknowledge the bullying that
LGBT students regularly endure; its observance was to be made by
students remaining silent for all or a portion of the school day. In
my mind there could be no more passive, peaceful, or effective way to
bring attention to some of the most disgraceful behaviors exhibited
in our modern society against many of its most vulnerable members.
I am very ashamed to say that, at one
local school, this attempt failed due to what I can only suggest is a
lack of leadership – and that is in fact the kindest term I can
fathom.
At this high school, located just south
of Greensboro, students had intended to recognize this day by making
a single table available in the cafeteria, through all three lunch
periods, at which any student who desired to show support and
solidarity with their LGBT peers could sit in silence. This was not
an unreasonable thing to request, and the administration could so
easily have accommodated it. What actually happened was several
things, the first of which was that at least one student
misunderstood the observance of this event to be that all students
would be required to participate in some period of silence. This
student posted a rather vindictive polemic on social media which
quickly turned into volleys of accusations, criticisms, and
diatribes. Some of these were thoughtful and some were crass. The
most hurtful came from those whose opinions were strongly opposed to
even the existence of such an event, and whose prose was predictably
couched in terms either religious or pseudo-scientific.
.
It is ironic in the extreme that an
event which was designed to illuminate the problem of LGBT
students being the recipients of bullying and abuse in fact brought
about more of those same behaviors, for what occurred was
nothing less than a cloud of threats and intimidation. And, I'm sad
to say, the bigots and religious bullies won the day, for there was
no table in the cafeteria, no overt support shown by the
administration or the school system to these students, who, I must
reiterate, are among the most vulnerable, abused, and neglected among
us; these students were left, as usual, twisting in the howling winds
of hate-speech. What makes this doubly shameful is that there were
also a number of parents involved in shouting down this undeniably
peaceful observance.
We must ask the leadership at that
school: do they dare to call themselves leaders if they are incapable
of lifting up the least among us? I have said many times, very
publicly in speech and in writing, that this school makes a strength
of its diversity; I now feel somewhat naive and foolish having said
that, for it seems plain to me that, to some, this term only applies
to certain categories of diversity. When it comes to the tougher
cases, those classes of our fellow humans who are vulnerable
physically, mentally, and politically, it seems far less
important to ensure that they are supported by the system, much less
recognized. For my part, I am very much ashamed that this school
could not summon the courage to support this worthwhile, peaceful,
non-threatening, and entirely positive event. It is shameful both in
terms of a failure of leadership, and also in the sense that the
school should be reflective of the entirety of its community,
not merely those with the loudest mouths or the biggest cudgels.
The school system provides buildings,
meticulously-manicured fields, uniforms, and literally tens of
thousands of dollars to support its sporting teams and other clubs
and groups, but it can't even provide one single table for
otherwise voiceless students during one single day of lunch?
Just let that sink in for a minute – if you don't see an absurdity
of epic proportions, then your senses of justice and fairness are
sorely mis-calibrated.
The very silence of the polity. as evinced by their lack of positive support, spoke the loudest on that day - what a sad irony!
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