GSA Spirit Week

In celebration of the school year coming to an end many clubs are creating a spirit week relating to their organization. This last week the Gay Straight Alliance Club, GSA, held their spirit week which students were encouraged to participate in. Monday was club shirt day, Tuesday was decades day, Wednesday was rainbow day, Thursday was movie character day, and Friday was day of silence. The spirit week was intended for students to show their appreciation to the club as well as their school spirit. For many spirit weeks, it’s common for kids to dress up, but rather GSA included an action in their spirit week which was the day of silence. The day of silence was an attempt to show how many LGBTQ+ people commit suicide and for students who chose to stay silent, it would represent what school was like if all of those students weren’t here. Abby Barger (23) said, “I thought it was really fun, it was really nice to see teachers showing their support by wearing rainbow pins and it was nice to see a couple of people do day of silence. I think overall it went alright, and I’m glad that it happened despite push back from the community.” Barger mentions push back from the community because guardians and faculty members were questioning the day of silence. The push back came from the Eaton Community Facebook page in which a coach commented, “Suck it up buttercup! Kids have been babied so much they don’t have a backbone anymore! Teach kids to toughen up, the world is NOT fair to anyone.” Though everyone is entitled to their opinion, the community Facebook page is not the proper place to bring up complaints. Rather than GSA spirit week being just a spirit week, it turned into something controversial among the town. Hopefully in years to come the community will welcome all and school will be a safe place for every student.