From the Kenmore Junior High Web site:

This Friday, April 16 is the National Day of Silence. Thousands of students across the country will silently protest the bullying and harassment suffered by gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students. The goal of the Day of Silence is to make schools safer for all students, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression. Students can participate by taking a personal vow of silence for the entire school day on Friday. Students who have chosen to participate are also asked to dress in black and wear a Day of Silence sticker. Stickers are available in the cafeteria at lunch this week, Wednesday and Thursday for anyone who wants to take part. Students can also pick up a card that explains more about the Day of Silence at that time.

From parent Lora Cook, also sent to the Northshore School District superintendent and board of directors and Kenmore Junior High principal, vice principal and participating teacher:

It has come to our attention that Kenmore Junior High is advocating the participation of the silence of students, including classroom time, if they so choose, in order to support the Day of Silence. We feel this type of support for the Day of Silence allows the classroom to be disrupted and politicized at the expense and discomfort of those students who would otherwise oppose supporting gay and lesbian rights.

While we are aware that Kenmore Junior High is painting this as a non-bullying agenda, we feel the unstated goal is to teach our children to think of homosexual and cross-dressing people as an oppressed minority instead of a group of people seeking validation for their particular sort of sexual behavior. It is not necessary to promote homosexuality in order to oppose bullying. No one should be bullied!

We do not feel that the administrative support of the Day of Silence, which not only includes students but also the silence of at least one teacher during classroom instructional time, is an appropriate action by a public school, which should be neutral in its political influences on our students. Allowing students to organize an event during non-instructional time is one thing, but the support during classroom time, as well as promotion of the event through school-generated literature, crosses the line!

Our response to this inappropriate promotion of the Day of Silence is to keep our daughter home from school on Friday, April 16, 2010. Our hope is that the administration of Kenmore Junior High will rethink their future advocacy of this type of event. We further expect that the Northshore School District board of directors will consider developing guidelines around what is an acceptable means of allowing student-driven events as opposed to a particular school promoting such events.