Last week Jackson High celebrated the Day of Silence with a spirit week and the selling of T-shirts in support of the day. As a concerned student, I feel obligated to let people know that this day does not sit well with many students attending Jackson High School. With this day, we see Jackson students who don’t support the cause getting singled out. Also, you see students being taught something they don’t necessarily believe in. This is also very offensive to many religions such as Christianity, which states that the practice of homosexuality is forbidden in the eyes of the Lord.
I realize that the school claims for this day to support anti-bullying but when looking it up on the Internet you find the official Day of Silence web page that specifically states that this day was created to support lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people. I was led to believe that the school was supposed to stay out of political and religious matters and remain non-biased to promote a healthy learning environment at the school. This is clearly not being done here as many students became distracted by the day and learned very little in class by not talking in support of the day.
In order to correct the issue, the school should stop T-shirt sales and the spirit week in the future. However, I see no problem in letting students independently support the day if that is what they believe in. I do not think that the school should advertise it and support the day because that leads many students feeling uncomfortable at school and creating a bad learning environment for them and many others. Many students I have talked to also feel somewhat betrayed by the school because the day is not what it was advertised to be. They found that the real purpose was supporting something that they may not even believe in.
I support freedom of religion and freedom of speech, but the school system should not influence teenagers’ opinions because they can be swayed very easily. Teenagers need to be able to form their own opinions through their life experiences. We need to keep the learning environment clean and non-biased so students can get an education and become successful in life.
Blake Martin
Mill Creek
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