On Tuesday, April 23, California Teachers Association Human Rights Department Cadre trainers Katherine Catanzarite and Douglas Marques held a Breaking the Silence training, that was welcome to all students and faculty. Fresno City College’s Teachers of Tomorrow club hosted the event in the Student Lounge.
The Breaking the Silence workshop taught them how to create a safe environment for all students and also promote tolerance on the FCC campus.
“I will love for everyone to come out and get a better understanding about these issue,” said Fresno City College ASG senator Pa Vang.
April 19 marked the national Day of Silence that represents gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual youth, as well as the LGBT community, who are harassed, discriminated against and victims of prejudice. Many issues like these are reported each day where members of the LGBT community are made fun or bullied simply for being who they are.
“There’s so many people I’ve known who have committed suicide because of this, and I would really like for this to be an issue that’s brought up more to openly discuss,” said Vang.
Many educators don’t have much knowledge of such issue, so the Breaking the Silence training will give faculty and students correct information on how to deal with these issues.
“The National Day of Silence is a day of action in which students across the country vow to take a form of silence to call attention to the silencing effect of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment in schools,” according to Day of Silence website.
Both the Day of Silence and Breaking the Silence are are related because they both are ways to rally against harassment and bullying of LGBT students across school campuses worldwide.
“Nearly a fifth of students are physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation and over a tenth because of their gender expression. About two-thirds of LGBT students reported having ever been sexually harassed in school in the past year,” According to pflagnyc.org.
Promoting diversity around campus is a way students can become more open to equality for all no matter what sexuality each individual may be.
