Broward schools allow Day of Silence against bullying of gay students

By Akilah Johnson

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

11:21 PM EDT, April 24, 2008

Some Broward County students are silent today to speak out against the name-calling, bullying and harassment their gay classmates endure.

But the activism of teenagers in about 30 middle and high schools created controversy when district administrators received angry phone calls and e-mails from parents upset that the school system is allowing students to participate in a national event known as the Day of Silence.

"How dare the district try to instill this unmoral behavior on its students," read one e-mail the School Board received. "My son will be absent this day."

District spokesman Keith Bromery said several parents threatened to do the same, which prompted him to tell principals that the district is not officially participating in nor sanctioning the event.

What followed was a series of misunderstandings that caused schools to quash their activities — only to put them back after district officials issued a follow-up memo Monday that said participation is left to the principal's discretion. As long as Day of Silence events don't disrupt the school day, it said, students can take part.

"Schools cannot restrict this or we would be violating the students' rights," School Board member Stephanie Kraft wrote to one angry parent. "Regardless of your opinions about homosexuality... all students are entitled to be free from harassment, and that is the message that the Day of Silence is intended to promote."

To Karyn Dalton, of Sunrise, that sounds like a statement of support. Her son, who is a junior at Piper High, won't be at school today.

"If the Day of Silence was in support of all kids that get bullied, we would support it 100 percent," she said. "I am keeping my son home as a statement that I do not think the schools should be condoning/supporting homosexuality."

For Bryan Cardenas, a senior at Cypress Bay High School in Weston and the president of Gay/Straight Alliance, the ordeal was "really uncool. It made it seem like we were being attacked."

The day is about tolerance, not disruption, he said.

During the Day of Silence, which is sponsored nationally by the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, students vow not to speak to call attention to the harassment experienced by gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students and their friends, who are often afraid to speak out.

At Cypress Bay, students will wear "silence stickers" and plan to pass out cards that explain their participation. Some campuses, such as Western High School in Davie, plan to put triangles on classroom doors, indicating a bully-free zone.

This year's day is in memory of Lawrence King, a California teen who was shot and killed this year by a classmate because he was gay. Some local activists said South Florida had its own Lawrence King experience with the death of Simmie Williams Jr., an openly gay 17-year-old who was murdered on a corner known for transgender prostitutes.

Williams' mother said her son, who wore his hair in long braids, was taunted at school. The name-calling got worse and his mother pulled him out of Hollywood Hills High School in 2007.

"This was a youth who was yanked from the school by his mother... because he was being bullied," Michael Rajner, who sits on the district's diversity committee.

Parents opposed to children standing up for themselves and their friends by speaking out against violence "should be ashamed of themselves," he said. "Those people are acting out of fear, hate and ignorance. I really feel sorry for them."