I’m currently a student at Mount Si High School and I’m not quite sure what the Coalition to Defend Education, or CoDE, is talking about when they say that teachers are supposedly “touting personal agendas in class” or have “stated their opinion on controversial subjects.”

I know I haven’t had any teacher’s opinon pushed on me when I’ve been in class. If it has happened to anyone, I hope they would be enough of an individual with their own thoughts and ideas to see that it was just that, an opinion.

I disagree with opinions that teachers shouldn’t be sharing their opinons in classrooms. Where do you draw the line at when a teacher is allowed to share their opinions or experiences?

It makes class more interesting when students are exposed to diferent opinions. That’s how life is. There are going to be people that students are going to come across in life that they aren’t going to agree with. Isn’t that what high school is supposed to do for us, prepare us for the adult world?

I’ve always seen high school like that and I would hope other people do as well. There is always going to be controversy in life. I would hope that the CoDE would see that as well, and would see that getting rid of Day of Silence doesn’t mean students won’t participate in the day. Several of my friends are thinking of participating even if Day of Silence is removed from the school calendar. Last year I chose not to participate in Day of Silence and was never harassed by anyone that day. I don’t ever remember classes being disrupted. I do agree, however, with Mrs. McCormick on that Day of Silence isn’t supposed to be political at all. I see Day of Silence as a day of respect to all the students at Mount Si who are gay, or lesbian, or bisexual, or transgendered who are afraid to say that they are gay because of what other students might do or say, rather than a day of the school’s gay community commanding attention to themselves.

Sarah Desroche

Fall City