The 2008 Day of Silence was dedicated to Lawrence King, a California eighth-grader who was shot on Feb. 12 allegedly by a classmate in a schoolroom. The day before this killing, several students, including the defendant, reportedly had a verbal confrontation with King concerning King’s gay sexual orientation.
Dave Enslow’s letter, “Teacher’s views must be kept out of lessons” (Mailbag, April 25) suggests that teaching tolerance and civil behavior toward all people is an inappropriate personal view, which does not belong in a high school classroom. Enslow compares advocating tolerance with advocating Nazism or terrorism. Perhaps in Enslow’s view of the world, tolerance of all groups is, indeed, a frightening concept.
Bravo to the students — gay and straight — at Glendale High, Hoover and more than 7,500 other schools who had the courage to silently protest bullying and violence against this minority group (“Speaking out with silence,” Saturday). Bravo to Armenian students who participated, even though some Armenian parents stridently opposed the Day of Silence — ironically at the time we commemorate the murder and deportation of the Armenian minority group in the Ottoman Empire.
NANCY BURNET KENT
Glendale
Being gay is not a news-flash situation
Earth to Linda Sheffield (“‘Silence’ event promotes lifestyle,” Mailbag, Wednesday). Homosexuals have always been and always will be. Next subject.
BECKER DANSON
Glendale
City must stop massive salaries
Our fiscal disaster in government is being met with ways to raise more money to pay the bills instead of how to cut expenses.
