A week of student and faculty activism began on Saturday, with Environmental Day. Students spend the morning watching the Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which they then discussed in small groups afterwards. Many students and faculty signed the "Step It Up Maine" petition which was then delivered to Maine's governor at the Augusta Step It Up rally at the statehouse, one of many such rallies in the nation. Several students went with Environmental Studies Coordinator Matthew Moore to the rally.
Students of Color Conference: At the same time, 10 students left with two faculty members for Rhode Island for an AISNE Student of Color Conference at Moses Brown School. They planned to spend the weekend participating in discussion groups and listening to speakers address the many issues surrounding this topic.
National Day of Silence: On Wednesday, April 18
th, 25-30 students, members of the Gay-Straight Alliance and other interested students, will participate in the nationwide Day of Silence. They will be quiet all day to protest the discrimination, harassment and abuse—in effect, the silencing—faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students and their allies in schools.
The Day of Silence, a project of GLSEN, takes place on campuses all over the country during school hours. Hundreds of thousands of students are expected to participate on April 18, wearing stickers and handing out ‘speaking cards’ that read:
"Please understand my reasons for not speaking today. I am participating in the Day of Silence, a national youth movement protesting the silence faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their allies in schools. My deliberate silence echoes that silence, which is caused by harassment, prejudice, and discrimination. I believe that ending the silence is the first step toward fighting these injustices. Think about the voices you are not hearing today. What are you going to do to end the silence?" (http://www.dayofsilence.org/content/news.html)
Get On The Bus: six Amnesty International students, accompanied by their faculty advisor, will “Get On The Bus for Human Rights” on Friday, April 20th, 2007, to travel to New York City for the 12th Annual Day of Human Rights Action in New York City. They will join other Maine high school students on a charter bus out of Portland to travel together to New York City for a day of activism and education about specific Amnesty cases and human rights issues.
Last year this event was attended by over 1200 students and volunteers in what has become the largest volunteer-run Amnesty International USA event. This year’s actions include:
- Darfur – protesting the killings and displacement of millions in Darfur
- Guatemala – working to bring the former Guatemalan dictator General Efrain Rios Montt to justice
- U.S./Guantanamo – protesting the U.S. Government’s use of torture against detainees at Guantanamo Bay
- Bhopal – targeting TIAA-CREF to pressure Dow Chemical to address the health, environmental and social concerns of the people of Bhopal, India, 22 years after the massive gas leak.
Kents Hill School has an active chapter of Amnesty International. They have conducted letter-signing campaigns on campus, and have campaigned to close Guantanamo Bay Prison. Earlier in the year they met with Olympia Snowe’s Chief of Staff in Augusta, to urge the Senator to sign a “Dear Colleague” letter about ending the genocide in Darfur. Senator Snowe did sign the letter, the first she has ever signed.
