Not a sound echoes through the halls of Pascack Valley. Students, adorned in rainbow colored hearts and holding note cards walk to their next class.

On Friday, May 4, PV students observed the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network’s Day of Silence. The members of PV’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance had been working for weeks to put together the event that they are hoping will make a lasting mark on the school and community.

The Day of Silence is an annual event held in high schools all over the country. The event itself consists of students taking a vow of silence for one day to stand with LGBT students who feel erasure or silenced in schools. Students were encouraged to stay silent for the majority of the day, but also still participate in class, according to an email sent by PV Principal Tom DeMaio. Staying silent is a way to show empathy for students who feel out of place in their communities.

The Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) is a club ran by PV sophomores Alycia Gilb who is the president, Gus Koeniges, Isabella Tjan, and Hannah Epstein, and supervised by many teachers, including Jeff Jasper. The club is full of students on the LGBT spectrum as well as students who are not. The club allows a safe place for students of all genders and sexualities to come together and talk about different aspects of their lives.

The Day of Silence was open to any students who were interested. GSA members stood at the entrances of the school on Friday morning to hand out stickers to acknowledge participation, and also note cards, so people would know why a student was remaining silent.

“I definitely have struggled and still struggle with a sense of internalized homophobia,” Emily McAuliffe, PV junior and a member of the club, said. “Having a sense of pride in the school has meant a lot to help me overcome that, and I feel like the Day of Silence is acknowledging the importance of a community.”

According to GLSEN’s website, nearly nine in 10 LGBT students experience a form of verbal harassment in their school careers. Club members believe that participating in this event was a way to stand up for themselves and their peers who do not feel like their voices are being heard.

“The Day of Silence to me is representing students who go to schools that aren’t as accepting as PV and people who feel like they can’t be open about their sexuality,” Gilb said. “Also, it raises awareness of the bullying of LGBT students.”

Members of the club hope that participating in this event will bring more awareness to LGBT issues. Koenigs hopes that people at PV will become more supportive of their LGBT peers.

“Walking through the hallways, you hear certain terms and words that shouldn’t be used in 2018,” Koenigs said. “So I just hope that people start realizing that there are issues and we’re here.”

If you want to learn more about this event and how you can support your LGBT peers in other ways, check out https://www.glsen.org/ for more information.