For Immediate Release: March 15, 2010
Media Contacts: Linda Harvey, 614-442-7998 & Laurie Higgins, 847-948-7889

Tinley Park, IL – A national coalition of organizations committed to preserving parental rights in public education, restoring academic integrity to public education, and removing partisan political protests from the classroom is urging parents to call their children out of school on the Day of Silence if their school is permitting students to refuse to speak in class. This year’s Day of Silence is scheduled to take place in most schools on Friday, April 16th.

The Day of Silence is a political protest sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) that exploits taxpayer-funded schools to normalize homosexuality and Gender Identity Disorder by asking students to refuse to speak in class.

The purported goals of the Day of Silence are to draw attention to and stop the bullying of students who self-identify as homosexual or who experience gender confusion. What GLSEN fails to acknowledge is that the means by which they seek to end bullying is by compelling public affirmation of homosexual acts and cross-dressing as normal and moral behaviors.

According to the Day of Silence website, “Hundreds of thousands of students at more than 8,000 schools” participate, including increasing numbers of middle schools.

Although the Day of Silence Walkout coalition supports the goal of ending all bullying, we do not support any effort to end bullying that involves normalizing disordered and dangerous behaviors.

We also oppose any efforts to allow divisive, partisan political action into the classroom.

The Day of Silence is just one of many contexts in which students are exposed to homosexuality-affirming ideas in public schools. And while public schools expose students to resources that affirm homosexuality, they engage in absolute censorship of all resources that espouse dissenting views.

The Day of Silence Walkout is one of the few efforts parents have available to express their unequivocal opposition to both the means and the message of the Day of Silence.

The coalition urges parents to call their children’s schools and ask the administration one question: Are students and/or teachers permitted to refuse to speak in class on the Day of Silence?

If the answer is “yes”, parents should call their children out of school.

For more information and a list of coalition members, visit www.doswalkout.net.