“Please understand my reason for not speaking today,” read a sign pinned to junior Michelle Grifka’s chest. She was one of the many Community High students who participated in the Day of Silence, a national youth movement bringing attention to the silence faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) students and their allies.

Those who participate in the Day of Silence do not speak during school that day. Instead, they carry around “speaking cards”, which explain the Day of Silence and why they are participating.

“I’m participating [in the Day of Silence] because I support the rights of all LGBT [people],” Erin Baughn, a CHS freshman, wrote on a scrap piece of paper. “I think it’s the right thing to do to help make a change.”

The Day of Silence began in 1996 at the University of Virginia, and has since grown to become one of the largest single student-led actions against anti-LGBTQ bullying and harassment.

In 2008, Riot Youth — an LGBTQ and allied youth program run out of the Neutral Zone — conducted a school climate survey of the Ann Arbor Public Schools. According to that survey, 94% of non-LGBTQ students felt safe at school, while only 62% of LGBTQ students felt safe.

The Day of Silence is one of the many ways students are trying to change those statistics.

For more information, visit www.dayofsilence.org or www.glsen.org.