Westlawn Community Day

The picture above is from Westlawn Middle School’s open house in Huntsville, Alabama.
GLBTAYS attended with a table to promote anti-bullying.


In the morning, Mr. James Robinson picked me up around seven in the morning and we made our way to the school. When we got there, we made name tags and headed outside. It was then that I met Renee, a darling woman that obviously cared about her children. Renee and I began to put up the banner while James prepared the table, but by the time that we finished, we realized it was too hot and moved to a shaded area. It was good that James had decided to move because nobody walked by where we had been before.
We spread a long piece of yellow paper across the table and labelled it, “Westlawn, United Against Bullying.” Through out the day, we called people to the table to sign and, well, unite against bullying. The amount of support and people that felt strongly was amazing. It ranged from a mother calling her son and telling him that he especially needed to sign to a father who thanked us for our support. The father and I talked for a few minutes and he told me about how his son was almost withdrawn from school last year because his front tooth was knocked out by a bully. Not long after he left, another mother came by and told us about how she had withdrawn her child from school. There were many more stories throughout the day about bullied children.
Okay, I know that sounds a little boring. Sitting in the sun and listening to people talk about their children? What does that even have to do with gay pride?
Well, I’ll answer the easiest one first. It had to do with gay pride because we need to stand up in our community and let people know that we’re human and we care to. Besides, it’s also an excellent opportunity to get the organization’s name out to the public and meet like minded people (An openly gay teacher) as well as support a cause that we can relate to. I mean, come on, how many gay kids get bullied?
As for boring, it really wasn’t. I love talking to people and the school offered a variety of things to do, so we weren’t just sitting there all day. As soon as we got there, I went to Zumba, which I failed at so bad but was so much fun. They also had a large variety of entertainment and free food.