The WBC Comes to Canton
About a month ago the Westboro Baptist Church announced that they would be picketing Canton High School, where I work, as part of their day of protests in and around Boston. They chose to picket Canton High because our theatre club is putting on The Laramie Project as the winter/spring play. As soon as the announcement was made, students began to respond by making plans for how to counter-protest and started designing shirts to wear. Almost immediately it became clear to me that this WBC protest would be a good thing for the school. Today was the culmination of all of the excitement because today was the day of the protest and is also opening night for the play.
Whenever the school is doing a play they always have an assembly the morning of opening night so the student body can have a short preview of the play. Typically they perform two or three short scenes for all the students. The Laramie Project opens tonight, so this morning was the preview assembly. However, this assembly was more than just a play preview because there was also going to be some talk about the protest in the afternoon and the general topic of tolerance, particularly with regards to homosexuality.
Now I've been to five of these play preview assemblies before (fall musical and winter/spring play every year) and the students in the audience are generally polite. They sit pretty quietly during the scenes and they clap nicely at the end. This one was different. As soon as the director came on stage to introduce the play, the student audience became incredibly enthusiastic. The director got huge applause, and then when the lights went down there was huge applause and hoots and hollers. During the scene everyone was quieter than I've ever seen the student body be, and then when the scene was over there was applause like you wouldn't believe and more hooting and hollering. Just in general, everyone was really really into it. I know the theatre club has never gotten a response like that before.
Then a bunch of chairs were set up on stage and about 10 students came and sat in them. Then two people from PFLAG who had run a student leadership summit a couple weeks ago came out to get things going. The woman from PFLAG had people stand up if they knew any gay people, and of course every single person in the auditorium stood up, and then she talked very briefly about how it can be difficult for homosexual people to be open about who they are, especially if they are in an environment where people use derogatory language about gay people. The man from PFLAG, who was a former Canton High student, talked briefly about his experience as a closeted gay student in high school and what it was like for him to come out after high school.
Then the students began to speak. A couple of the students talked about how we tend to think of ourselves as a very tolerant and open as a group, and yet somehow it remains acceptable for people to use phrases like "that's so gay" or, more rare but still not uncommon, "what a fag" to describe things or people we don't like. I think some people know that this sort of language has been driving me nuts for a long time, and I've been known to give a whole class a lecture when I hear "gay" used that way by a student. One of the few times I ever lost my temper with a class was when a student called another student a faggot. I was so glad to have a couple of students talking to the whole student body about how damaging that language can be, because even if you genuinely have no problem with gay people, when you use the word in that way it just creates an environment in which gay people feel they are not respected and not liked and cannot be open about who they are. I think it was particularly great that two of the students who addressed the topics were highly respected members of the school community--one of the captains of the football team, and one of the captains of the cross country and baseball team.
Some of the students shared some stories and feelings about their personal experiences being an out gay student or, in one case, being the child of gay parents. The speeches were all short--no more than a few minutes each--and they were all truly excellent. Heart felt and full of purpose. And every student speaker received an extremely warm round of applause after speaking. And when all the speeches were over, the student body rose in a standing ovation for the speakers and the actors in the play. This was done with no prompting, and I could not have been more proud. I have never seen the student body come together so well and respond so positively to anything.
After the short speeches the principal came on to tell us all the plan for the afternoon. The WBC people were going to be standing by the main driveway into the school. A large group of students and faculty were going to create a Wall of Silence between the WBC and the school. This group had met previously and was organized and knew the plan. Another group was organizing a little rally in front of the school with music and some reading of poetry and speeches, and anyone who was not involved in the Wall of Silence was invited to join that rally.
After school at 1:50 I headed on out to the front of the school. The Wall of Silence got set up pretty quickly, and there were a good 80-100 people in that group. There was another huge group right out front for the rally. There were not only students and faculty, but some alumni had come for the event and some parents and a couple of the gay teachers had their partners come. It was a really great group of people. The rally went on for a while with music and poetry, and eventually around 2:10 the rally ended and that group went to join the Wall of Silence. At that point I think there were probably about two hundred people gathered in a (mostly) silent group right across from the small group of WBC protesters. Cars driving by would sometimes honk and yell out the window in support of the school, and when the middle school buses came by those students were cheering out their windows. We stood there as a group until the WBC people left--a little early, actually, since they were scheduled until 2:30 but left around 2:20--and then gradually started to disperse.
Through the whole event I was extremely impressed with the behavior of the Canton High students. I think most people know that teenagers are not exactly known for controlling their impulses, but everyone acted in a very mature manner. I was really glad to see how many students were actively involved in the event. So many people--some that I would expect, but others I never would have--were helping set up the rally, or were part of the Wall of Silence, or were reading some poetry. And even just looking around and seeing how many students were wearing the t-shirts that read "Hate Is Not a Canton Value" was really great. Right now I'm feeling very happy about my school.
Whenever the school is doing a play they always have an assembly the morning of opening night so the student body can have a short preview of the play. Typically they perform two or three short scenes for all the students. The Laramie Project opens tonight, so this morning was the preview assembly. However, this assembly was more than just a play preview because there was also going to be some talk about the protest in the afternoon and the general topic of tolerance, particularly with regards to homosexuality.
Now I've been to five of these play preview assemblies before (fall musical and winter/spring play every year) and the students in the audience are generally polite. They sit pretty quietly during the scenes and they clap nicely at the end. This one was different. As soon as the director came on stage to introduce the play, the student audience became incredibly enthusiastic. The director got huge applause, and then when the lights went down there was huge applause and hoots and hollers. During the scene everyone was quieter than I've ever seen the student body be, and then when the scene was over there was applause like you wouldn't believe and more hooting and hollering. Just in general, everyone was really really into it. I know the theatre club has never gotten a response like that before.
Then a bunch of chairs were set up on stage and about 10 students came and sat in them. Then two people from PFLAG who had run a student leadership summit a couple weeks ago came out to get things going. The woman from PFLAG had people stand up if they knew any gay people, and of course every single person in the auditorium stood up, and then she talked very briefly about how it can be difficult for homosexual people to be open about who they are, especially if they are in an environment where people use derogatory language about gay people. The man from PFLAG, who was a former Canton High student, talked briefly about his experience as a closeted gay student in high school and what it was like for him to come out after high school.
Then the students began to speak. A couple of the students talked about how we tend to think of ourselves as a very tolerant and open as a group, and yet somehow it remains acceptable for people to use phrases like "that's so gay" or, more rare but still not uncommon, "what a fag" to describe things or people we don't like. I think some people know that this sort of language has been driving me nuts for a long time, and I've been known to give a whole class a lecture when I hear "gay" used that way by a student. One of the few times I ever lost my temper with a class was when a student called another student a faggot. I was so glad to have a couple of students talking to the whole student body about how damaging that language can be, because even if you genuinely have no problem with gay people, when you use the word in that way it just creates an environment in which gay people feel they are not respected and not liked and cannot be open about who they are. I think it was particularly great that two of the students who addressed the topics were highly respected members of the school community--one of the captains of the football team, and one of the captains of the cross country and baseball team.
Some of the students shared some stories and feelings about their personal experiences being an out gay student or, in one case, being the child of gay parents. The speeches were all short--no more than a few minutes each--and they were all truly excellent. Heart felt and full of purpose. And every student speaker received an extremely warm round of applause after speaking. And when all the speeches were over, the student body rose in a standing ovation for the speakers and the actors in the play. This was done with no prompting, and I could not have been more proud. I have never seen the student body come together so well and respond so positively to anything.
After the short speeches the principal came on to tell us all the plan for the afternoon. The WBC people were going to be standing by the main driveway into the school. A large group of students and faculty were going to create a Wall of Silence between the WBC and the school. This group had met previously and was organized and knew the plan. Another group was organizing a little rally in front of the school with music and some reading of poetry and speeches, and anyone who was not involved in the Wall of Silence was invited to join that rally.
After school at 1:50 I headed on out to the front of the school. The Wall of Silence got set up pretty quickly, and there were a good 80-100 people in that group. There was another huge group right out front for the rally. There were not only students and faculty, but some alumni had come for the event and some parents and a couple of the gay teachers had their partners come. It was a really great group of people. The rally went on for a while with music and poetry, and eventually around 2:10 the rally ended and that group went to join the Wall of Silence. At that point I think there were probably about two hundred people gathered in a (mostly) silent group right across from the small group of WBC protesters. Cars driving by would sometimes honk and yell out the window in support of the school, and when the middle school buses came by those students were cheering out their windows. We stood there as a group until the WBC people left--a little early, actually, since they were scheduled until 2:30 but left around 2:20--and then gradually started to disperse.
Through the whole event I was extremely impressed with the behavior of the Canton High students. I think most people know that teenagers are not exactly known for controlling their impulses, but everyone acted in a very mature manner. I was really glad to see how many students were actively involved in the event. So many people--some that I would expect, but others I never would have--were helping set up the rally, or were part of the Wall of Silence, or were reading some poetry. And even just looking around and seeing how many students were wearing the t-shirts that read "Hate Is Not a Canton Value" was really great. Right now I'm feeling very happy about my school.