A group of students will take part in the Day of Silence on Wednesday, May 4, to spread awareness for the bullying of LGBT students in schools everywhere. Diversity director Armando Gilkes and history teacher Thomas Sothers will lead the effort.

“Students who are bullied find the experience of going to school to be miserable and over time they seek to become ‘invisible’; they become silent,” Sothers said. “While the issue of bullying, whether in the corridors of a school, or on-line in social media, is pervasive, LGBT students are especially subject to abuse.”

Participants will experience a life cut off from social interaction; something that many live through every day.

“Your silence will be a sign of solidarity with other students who face the ordeal of bullying at school,” Sothers said. “[It will] draw attention to the fact that bullying is NOT a Spartan value.”