On April 23rd, 2021, several FHS students participated in the National Day of Silence protest, led by Makiah Wyatt and Heather Black. Makiah Wyatt is the President of the Embrace Equality organization and Mrs. Black is one of the high school’s ELA teachers as well as the sponsor for Embrace Equality. The National Day of Silence is a protest on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community, where members and allies take a vow of silence for the day. At the end of the day, all those who participated come together and break their silence as a group, representative of all those who have had the bravery and courage to come out as part of the LGBTQ+ community. The sharing experience is extremely personal as each participant describes their hardships and high points from the day and their journey. Some describe heinous comments and violent actions while others can share positive experiences of acceptance and support. When asked, Makiah Wyatt had this to say about the Day of Silence, “The Day of Silence is a student-led protest in which students take a day-long vow of silence to protest and imitate the silencing effect of bullying towards LGBTQ+ kids. I walked into this thinking it would be something small & it’d just be me participating, but I was proved wrong. the feedback, good and bad, was astronomical. I wanted to bring this to FHS to give people an eye-opener and to make people think. I wanted to show people that homophobia & transphobia are still very prominent in today’s world. Many kids tried to combat it, some said negative things online, but this just made me want to push harder. Next year, I have high hopes the turnout will be even bigger and I cannot wait to see where Embrace Equality goes from here.”