2007 Stories

I am a really talkative 16-year-old girl. I found it really hard to be quiet. After writing to my teacher about what Oct. 23 was really about, she told me that I would have to talk in class if I were called on. I took a zero for the day because she called on my and I refused to talk. This is a lot more important to me than two daily points.

-- Jennifer

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The day of silence went surprisingly well. i go to a charter school but there is alot of anger towards me about my views, so i expecting the day to not go too well. i was wrong. i had told my princple about it earlier and he completely supported me. in the halls that day he would smile at me and give me a thumbs up. The biggest surprise was my extremely liberal teacher who acctually read the flyer to the whole class. it was amazing. alot of kids were in disbelief after hearing all of the statistics. and the next day i got to answer everyones questions about abortion. i cant wait to do it next year.

-- Olivia

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haha. It rockedd. It seriously spred like wifefire and the whole school was doing it. The teachers hated us. They always tell us to make a stand or change the world but when we try we get yelled at, "take the tape off!!!" haha. so fun.

-- kelli =]

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I participated. My school gave us a little bit of difficulty, but everything got worked out and we were allowed to stay silent. I personally didn't get much from other students, though some friends of mine did. My government teacher was the only one to really make any comments about it. And it was said in jest, thats just the way he is. The comments were mostly about how the duct tape would hurt whenever I pulled it off. And I think he might've been trying to trip me up, but I didn't (that time). It was really cool in my Lifeskills class cause that was the day we were talking about pregnacy and the other options. My teacher described abortion, and really its just sick. So it made the day just that more meaningful for me. It was a great experience though, hopefully I've given you what you need as far as the stories go. Thanks for organizing it.

-- Renee Shaw

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I talked to a 87 year old man on the day of silence. Who told me about his granddaughter. And how she got raped at 18. But still decided to keep the child. And it turned out that the girl got a scholarship that also paid for daycare. Making it alot easier for her to keep the child. I also talked to a girl on myspace who was 18 and pregnant. And after talking to her she decided to keep the baby. My niece and nephews are young but after explaining to them what pro life was they wanted to participate. So we all sat down and made our own t-shirts. Everybody in my family participated that day. It was just a really happy day. I really feel like I made a difference in the world.

-- Karen

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The day began with everyone meeting by my car to recieve duct tape and fliers. We had Christian music playing and it was just really beautiful. It brought a lot of people together. The only problem was this one kid who signed up to participate but spoke the whole day. Not only did he speak, he spoke about being pro-choice. That kind of brought down the day somewhat. I know of one soul that will not be aborted because the mother was so moved by our efforts.My best friend and I had to talk only once, and that was when a girl tried to say that the baby is not alive.

It was a good day, which is weird for me to say because I love to talk and joke around with my friends.

-- Samantha Eades

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when i was silent, a lot of the kids at my school tried to get me to talk, but i only talked once when we were playing softball. Eventually some of the kids started actually reading the fliers and a lot of them said that they wanted to do it next year. Most of the kids were totally rude about it like trying to get me to talk and things like that but i think it really made a difference in my school.

-- Kylie

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I am Pro-Life because i wouldnt be here if someone in my biological mothers life wasnt. I would be just another abortion.

So my day went great. I had a teacher come into my homeroom and take my picture with the flyer. He was very happy that i was doing this.
My friend joined in the second she got there (she had not talked all morning and she just needed the red duck tape) so i gave her a flyer and we went on with our happy day, that was until this girl decided to put a peice of nootbook paper on her chest and wrote Pro-choice on it in highlighter, but we were like God will forgive her. I had many teachers that came up to me and asked me about it and i gave o many flyers out. I could not believe how so many people were happy about what i was doing. Even though i only had class for four hours and only had four teachers that day i saw more that i thought i would. It was so amazing being a part of this!

Haleigh N. Godin
Vegas (turning the city of sin to the city of angels)

-- Haleigh Godin

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I was sent the invitation for the Facebook event about 2 months ago and I've been working fast and furious since. I printed out flyers, got them appoved by the Office of Student Activities, hung them up around campus, and passed them out at the Campus Christian House. I also created a Facebook group. The response was stunning! Everyone who participated said they had never heard of the event, but by the time the 23rd rolled around, we had 50+ people. Granted, on a campus of over 3,000, that's not a huge number, but we got our point across! Hopefully even more people will participate next year!

Thank you for doing all this, it means a lot to a lot of people.

-- Sarah

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My day was awesome. I got most of my friends silent, 1/8 of the 8th grade, and 1 teacher. It was great day and I dont care what Pro Choice says we did good for God

-- Gavin McIlhinney

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The day of silent soliditary was truely amazing for me. I started my day handing out tape to two of my close friends, and by the end of the day over 100 people in my school was participating! IT was shocking how many people where willing to do it.

-- Layla S

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I went completely silent for a full 24 hours. Teachers,friends,family, and so many others tried to get me to speak. I actually lost one of my closest friendships through this process. She always appeared to have no independence and clearly was a follower. Myself, I proved that I stood up for wat I believe and support. So reagradless of haters I just want to say, GO PRO-LIFE!! I HATE ABORTION!

-- Kristie Patterson

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I <3 Pro-Life! Thats all there is! Enough said.

-- Brittney

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This is my SILENCED~~SINCE 01-22-1973 picture. That is the caption that goes with this picture. I love this picture because it shows that I silenced my voice for the ones who never got to have one, and that I am STANDING for THEIR rights to speak!

-- Brittney

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I have this picture as my myspace display picture because I wanted to show everyone that knows me or might even jus cross past my page, what I am about! I thought that it was an artistic enough picture that would grab peoples attention and bring them to my page by their curiousity. Once they enter my page they will see plenty of what I am about , and who I am..and that is PRO-LIFE FOR LIFE!!!

-- Brittney

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This picture is me ready to fight for THEIR rights! NO matter the cost! Pro-Life FOREVER!! This was a very important photo for me because it stood out to others. When they saw my sweatshirt and the logo on it, and the different signs I had on my sweatshirt with the logo it made me stand out! I had my red scarf with "Life" written on it around my wrist and pro life written on my hands, people saw what I stood for. I shared my fliers with many and amazingly enough I had so many adults interested in what I was about? That was amazing to see, because by influencing them--its like double of the influence because they could share it with their OWN children or other children they influence and that they might be around! It was a very enlightened day for me!

-- Brittney

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I am in a contemporary moral issues class at my christian school and at lunch about 12 of our seniors and fellow classmates decided to go sit outside a planned parenthood. We did so and it was really cool to see how all of our cars filled up all of the parking spaces that were usually for the customers. We attracted a lot of attention and hopefully gained a lot of good feedback, i know the nurses weren't very happy... :)
Thank you for the papers to hand out, and the example you lead for all of us.

~brittany

-- Brittany

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My silent day was amazing. Even though i was the only one who did it in my school that i saw i felt like i opened peoples eyes and expanded there mind. Many people thought i was werid until i gave them the flyer and they understood and respected me immediatly. In my second hour i have a culinary class that last for 6 hours cooking for the resturant at our school. As you can tell that the culinary profession requires alot of team work and communication that i wasent apart of which made the day go by really hard. In teh senior class i had some PRO-CHOiCE people while my tape said PRO-LiFE they immediatly picked on me and started to make me mad. Doing everything they could think of to make me talk but i stood my ground. In that class there are 2 guys that where just being rude and decided to pretend like they where going to throw me in the water and ripped my tape off and threw it away . expecting me to talk after that because i lost my roll of duck tape earlier i still stood my ground and managed to find another peice and put it back on showing i was in this till the end . Another girl tried to do it but she wasent true she made many noises under the tape and ended up talking by 5th hour . My english teacher had to read the flyer in order to let me have the tape on my mouth but after that she let me have it on . When i walked into my history class she immediatly told me to take it off and that i was non sense then i gave her the flyer and she said "well i guess its a personal choice i think its silly" i just looked at her like oh well im not taken it off . Many people asked me was i mad and said things to try and make me talk but people who are true and careing where very proud of me this girl came up and told me i was her hero because she could never do it and that made me feel good.Not talking for a day made me realize how much i really use my voice . The following day many people asked me about it and i told them what it was for and told them that it made me feel good knowing i helped somebody else and gave them my voice for the day

-- Jasmine

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I posted this on MySpace, so I thought it could count as my story as well.

I've debated posting this bulletin today, because I'm just so anxious. However, I wanted to wait because I didn't want to break my silence, although I had on many occasions by accident. I wanted to post this really bad to say a few things that I feel are really important to say on my behalf, which is why I am posting it now. So forgive me and please don't take me as a hypocrite, besides this bulletin/blog, there is no other communication taking place over MySpace, AIM, or real life until tomorrow morning.

First, I would like to apologize to anybody who got into any conflict with the duct tape. By second period, I was told by a security guard to remove the tape off of my mouth, then later on during the period I had my tape taken away from the same guard and another faculty staff member, being told that I wasn't allowed to distribute or wear any form of protest, but that I was allowed to have a silent protest. [They were such idiots, they kept asking me for my name... hello? Why did you think I was wearing the tape on my mouth to begin with? I even showed them the flyer! Pfff.] The whole reason/point of the duct tape, was so people would understand why we were doing this silence day. The entire school didn't know about it, hence why we were marking ourselves. Secondly, this wasn't some random day I made up. This was the fourth annual silence day, and the red duct tape was something that the organization came up with, not me. The school has very stupid rules, such as health regulations... but even that I feel is really dumb. I had a friend who had allergic reactions to weird things and stuffy noses, so she didn't wear the tape over her mouth. The people who wore the tape on their mouths were doing it from their choice, it wasn't a forced action nor was it mandatory. It's a symbolization of what we are doing, because again... massive people didn't know about it, and it wasn't THAT public of a thing. I told my friends, told them to tell others, that's how people got involved. And anybody with a brain would know that you cant really suffocate from a PIECE of duct tape on your mouth... for sweat and saliva begins to emerge through your upper lip, and it created creases on the top of the tape, leaving space to breathe. Unless you taped your entire mouth around your head, you were guarenteed to breathe perfectly fine. Besides, what do you think a God made a nose for, anyway? But anyway... I apologize for anybody who got into any trouble, it's really my fault, I hadn't asked permission and I know I was one of the leaders for this thing.

As for me, I took the tape off for two periods and put it back on during class, and off when I walked in the hallways. If I was a bit smarter, I would've thought of that idea eariler, but no harm was done. Most of the people in my classes knew what I was doing. Honestly, I am disappointed in myself slightly, because I had cheated by mouthing words a lot of the day because people were asking about the duct-tape deal [apparently, they took away other protester's tape as well] and I was furious at the time, and when I got home it was even harder. By next year I am going to try my best to do ten times better... I am proud of myself though, for sacraficing a lot of oppertunities to speak but didn't. I just wish I could've done better. But let me just tell you... I was willing to serve any sort of punishment for this protest. Detention, ISS, OSS --- whatever. I wish I hadn't taken the tape off in the first place, to be honest... and it's mainly because of the fact of why I was doing this. It wasn't for you, it wasn't for my peers or my teachers, it was barely even for me. It was for the babies. All of the aborted babies who will never have a voice, all of the 4,000 babies who were killed today due to surgical abortion. I would've been willing to sit in a chair all day long and do schoolwork, or stay at home on my couch in honour of the fact that I refused to be stripped of my protesting rights. Why was I willing to do that? Because I'm one of the lucky ones who is able to do that. I'm able to sit, stand, talk, think, breathe, believe, dream, speak, see, hear... and at least I can sit in that chair or on my couch knowing that I'm doing it for all of the babies who couldn't and never will. Having the knowledge that I'm standing up for not just any silly belief, not just some random thing I believe in... but for people that I will never meet but still love with all of my heart, is something I can't even serve justice for. I give all of the praise to God, because he gave me the strength and bravery to do this.

Today was a beautiful day. Even with all of the drama, it was beautiful to see human beings stand for other human beings. It was nice to see that other people were taking a break from their teenage lives and speaking their minds without speaking. Life is something I never really took for granted, honestly. There are too many times when I want to die, I never realize how much I have. Being a human is having the possibility to change everything around you, and I wish I'd been more grateful for that these past four years of my life. This day was absolutley and completely lovely in every single way, because I saw people stand up straight. Not crooked, lopsided, slouchy... straight. Upright. Confident. Willing. Even the people who caved and spoke anyway; people who fumbled and spoke, mouthed words, cheated, or even gave up after two periods --- it didn't matter to me. Even if they didn't try their absolute best, they tried somewhat. That's enough for me. Giving up your voice for just five minutes for somebody else who won't be able to have it is a great thing, and it's nice to know that there were people who gave up, because it tells me that they tried; even if it was for a minute. No matter how long people were silent for, people saw it. That was one of the purposes of this day.

The most important thing that we were all suppose to do today, more important than being silent the entire day, was to pray. Pray that minds will change, heads will spin, eyes will stare. Pray that abortion ends, that people will think and question and wonder. Pray that great things will happen after this. Pro-Life National Day Of Silent Soliditary was not just a one day thing... take your activism to the next level -- keep abortion in prayer.

I want to thank each and every one of you who did this with me, who commented my LIFE pictures, who gave me compliments, who told friends, who posted bulletins, who tried, who brought in their own tape, who printed their own flyers, who made their own shirts, whoever participated in this day --- I thank you. I apologize for any inconviences, but I thank and appluad you. You are all beautiful and special, and I hope one day things will change. I love you all.

-- Celeste Demarco

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This day of silence was amazing! I attend a Catholic high school, but my principal wasnt to big on the idea of us not talking during school, but she still let us do it(not that she would have stopped me, it's my right to stand up against abortion.)I was surprised when the only negative response i heard was "I'm pro-choice". What bothered me even more were the people that acted like what we were standing up for was no big deal. "it's some abortion thing," they would say. the fact is: ABORTION IS A BIG DEAL! thousands of people die each day from abortions. I was suprised i could stay silent for so long, but when i thought about the cause not talking for one day wasn't that big of a deal. some can never talk. they are permanantly silenced.
My one truly negative story is about my friend. i knew she was pro-choice, but when i showed her the sheet that said i wasnt talking she said i needed to "come to my senses". i dont. i know exactly what i'm doing and i know that ABORTION IS MURDER. she also called people that pray outside abortion clinics freaks. it really hurt me that even on this day she couldn't put her political views aside and tell me that it was okay to stand up for what i believe in, even if she doesnt believe in it.
overall, i think it was a success. i am glad to see and hear about so many people my age protesting abortion. in today's society it isn't easy, and no one said it would be, but at least we can try to change peoples' minds.

-- Emily

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I stood for this day and am very much against abortion. I recently found out that before my oldest sister was born my mom got an abortion. I found out by reading her journal i know i shouldnt have been doing it but i was curious. I cant even look at her the same now and she doesnt even know i found out i havent told anyone except my best friend of course. The night i found out i cried for an hour and fell asleep. I hate it i dont understand why anyone would ever get an abortion with the thousands of women out there that cant even have a baby. Abortion isnt the answer adoption is always there it just makes more sense. I feel bad for invading her privacy but so sad for the brother/sister i'll never know. I didnt know it was possible to miss someone so much when you never even met them they were never even given the option of life. its just not fair. thats why next year im going to make it very clear in my school how wrong abortion is and how against it i am.

-- Anonymous

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Several of my friends and I participated in the day of silence at my school [Lee High]. Two of my friends recieved office referals, and I was sent to retract, or in school suspension. What's funny about my story is, the assistant principal walked into my homeroom and saw me then, but didn't send me to retract until 7th period. So I sat in there for all of thirty minutes. Stupid? I know.

But putting all of that aside, it was a good day. There were more kids to participate than I expected. And once school started a bunch more joined in. I was able to tell people more about it the next day and they seemed to be very interested.

-- Kellie McElvaine

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I participated in the Silent Day of Solidarity and some interesting outcomes came about. I wore the duct tape on my mouth to school and was very proud of my position in the debate. This was a peaceful protest and I handed out the flyers. It is quite funny that my liberal art teacher was perfectly fine with the practice, but my math teacher and science teachers were appalled. Math was first. She told me to take the tape off. I handed her the flyer and the legal papers printed earlier that morning. Instead of talking to me about it further with which I would have complied, she typed an email to the principal and he came up to calm her down. Never was I involved in the conversation. He told her that it was my right and to ignore it if it was such a problem for her. She was so mad. I smiled sadly. The next day I was called out of english to have a meeting with the principal. He told me and my mom that I was perfectly able to do what I had done, but people had complained. He informed me that the main reason my math teacher was worried was that if someone walked past and saw me, they would think she put the tape on my mouth and she would lose her job. Huh? That's a new one. Also, in a school of 1600 kids, I apparently suffered the risk of suffocating in the hallways. In the end, I was not in trouble AT ALL, but the whole ordeal was blown up. Of course, I was the only student at school wearing tape on her mouth with the word life sharpied acrossed it. The principal let me go by telling me to inform him next time before I protest so that he can calm the teachers. Unnessecary action in my opinion. On another note, the things people said to me included things such as "Hey Sam, I EAT babies! What now?" and "Oh God, LIFE LIFE HA HA" I was quite pleased that they noticed so well. Unfortunately I only changed one person's mind about abortion, and frankly I doubt if her conversion will remain after her mother talks to her about feminism again. However, I am just glad that I got people thinking and gave them the neccessary information. i thank God that he lets us stand up for his miracle babies. Thanks be to the King of Kings.

-- Samantha

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My day of silence was very hard, because I was the only person at my school participating. My friends knew what I was doing, but most people were curious as to why I was silent, and it was very frustrating trying to explain without talking. The hardest time for me was during Creative Writing. I had a lot of classmates who told me that they disagreed with my opinion. However, it was great when they told me that they respected me for standing up for what I believe in. More importantly, they held off their arguments for a day when I could argue my own case. When that day comes, I'll be ready.

-- Sarah Stef

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this year was my first time participating in pro life silent day. my friend told me about it the day before, so i ran around that night getting tape and the things i needed.
i had no idea what to expect going into school that day, because all i knew me and my friend were the only ones in the school doing it. but i faced my fear and walked proudly into school. tons of people were wearing red tape and being silent, but by third period most of them were talking. but i stayed silent and stuck to what i believed. i definantly made a point in my choir and debate classes, and got them all talking about abortion with the flyers i had. i broke my silence at lunch, to talk to a girl in my class that was thinking about getting an abortion. i talked with her the whole lunch period, and convinced her to cancel her appointment. i am so thankful that i heard about this event. and i thank God that he gave me the words to say to her. i hope everyone elses silent day was just as sucessful!

-- Jocelyn

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Throughout the day I wore my life ductape and all my teachers cooperated until the last class of the day, when my principal made us take it off. Although, I don't think he's allowed to tell us to take it off.

-- Brooke Mora

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I didn't find out about this until I had half a day of school left. So I was silent for two and a half days. Everyone aroud me was going crazy, but it was for a good cause they said and respected me for doing it. I'm totally against abortion. I think they should make it illegel. And if the mother dosen't want the child, give it up for adoption. At least it will have a good life.
Peace out!!Lacy Ruzicka

-- Lacy Ruzicka

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I decided months ago I wanted to get my school involved in the Day of Silence. Since I was a freshman I figured that no one would really do it with me, but I was wrong. On October 23 I went up to the third floor of my school and saw a sea of black and red.(we had decided the day before to wear black with red armbands) It was so amazing. It was pretty quiet except for wispers of "Today is going to be quiet" from people not participating. Students chanted pro-choice and tried to get us to talk but it was just a blessing. I can't wait for next year.

-- Grace

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I was only recently informed of the silent day that we had on Tuesday, October 23rd. I didn't have much preperation of letting my teachers know ahead of time. I went along with my plan though. I wore red, and red duct tape over my mouth. I was the only one in my school who participated. And, even though people could see that I had duct tape on my mouth, symbolizing that I couldn't talk, they still proceeded to ask why I had it on my mouth. I would write down the significance of the day, and they would completely blow it off. It angered me a lot. My teachers were fine with me protesting what I believe in, and I appreciated that a lot.

I didn't last the whole day, and I felt awful for that. Our school had caught on fire, and we were needed to speak. I tried my best to keep silent all day long.

-- Cortney

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From the Gardner-Webb University Candlelight Vigil.
Pictures by Marlee Harris.

-- Tyler McCall

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From the Gardner-Webb University Candlelight Vigil.
Pictures by Marlee Harris.

-- Tyler McCall

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From the Gardner-Webb University Candlelight Vigil.
Pictures by Marlee Harris.

-- Tyler McCall

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From the Gardner-Webb University Candlelight Vigil.
Pictures by Marlee Harris.

-- Tyler McCall

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I am a sophomore at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. We held a Candlelight Vigil on the Tuesday night, October 23. We had about 25 in attendance. We then participated in Silent Day on Wednesday the 24 (our fall break didn't end until the night of the 23 so we wanted to wait to participate). All pictures attached were taken by GWU Freshman Marlee Harris.

-- Tyler McCall

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Well I didn't get to talk to anyone about abortion, nor did I really see anyone who was pro choice. But I am looking at it this way, no one in my local highschools did it. But I did and even though I am a home schooler I still saw people. I know of right now 3 people who will be joining me next year. I am saying I "planted the seed" in my town. Not only did I break the ice and show my friends and others it is OK to stand up for what you think is right, I also showed my sisters. I have 4 little sisters and they are 9, 6, 4 and 2 they might not all have quite gotten what I was doing but at least now they will want to do it also. I am very pleased with my first year doing this. I wasn't sure weather or not to do it but I had many signs from God to do it an example being, at night I would hear babys crying and all i could think about was abortion. I think everyong who did this is amazing! I can't wait till next year!!!!!

-- Kyla A.

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The day all in all went great. I had made shirts for people I knew who were participating; about 16 shirts. Well turns out that the kids wanting to participate in the day with us completely out-weighed the shirts I made, or even what I dreamed. Over 30 kids (that I know of) came in the morning as I was giving people fliers and putting duct tape of peoples' mouths. Of course some quit about half way through the day, but we did make a huge impression on campus. I heard as I was in class, or walking, people talking about it and what they thought. We didn't get persecuted as much as I thought (what a relief). I got one girl get right up to my face and yell at me and saying she's pro-choice. I didn't get angry, I just wanted to hug her. I started crying up as she walked away, not because I got yelled at, but because she was blind to life, and what it means to love. I continued to pray that a good opportunity would come during the day for me to talk to someone. The bell rung to leave school and I was kind of disappointed, but as I was walking to my car a guy ran up to my side and starting asking me questions about what we were doing. He asked me what was the difference between pro-life and pro-choice. I explained to him what each was, and the impact abortions can make on peoples’ lives. He looked at me and said “Wow, I never knew.” His friends came up from behind and asked some more questions. I got to talking to them (some Pro-Choice) and they all ended up saying as I was leaving that they were definitely pro-life and that they wanted to participate next year. Praise to the Lord for the opportunities and courage of all the people who helped. Much love.

-- Dana

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well in my school this caused a huge deal because the school officals made us take it off and so we contacted the news and they have now done a huge story on it.... they thretend us with suspension if we did not stop... so we still stayed silent in classes and some of us argued with the principal for almost 3 hours over it and all he could say was its religious.... its pretty huge
thanks for everything...
pro-life for life

-- Alex Woodward

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Two weeks before this event..i went to my princple..he told me he didnt know what he could do. My school hadnt done this before..the day before this event he told me it was good and i could do it. But i couldnt use duck tape ..that was cool with me.i passed out papers about this event and the next day half the school was silent...my teachers,friends,parents and even i was pround of what i had done:]
Morgan

-- Morgan

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When I got to school, I was in shock at how many people were participating. People had big meet ups that morning just to get ready, and silently give eachother their support. It was hard to say silent the whole day. Teachers would be rude, and other students would call you dumb and do anything in their power to get you to talk, I heard some of the worst things on Silent Day.

But despite all that, I strongly think it was worth the torment of others. We had the ENTIRE school talking, and I got to witness people chaninging their minds about abortion, it was amazing to see. People who took the time to talk to us about abortion by the end of the day were being a part of the movement.

Can't wait till next year!
<3

-- Nikki

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Well, this was my first year to do something so life changing. I had heard about this from one of my friends online two days before the 23rd, so I sorta started running around the house looking for duck tape and a red sharpie. So then Tuesday came along and I went to school like usual. I remember being called a 'loser' and 'an idiot' I didn't say anything though. Instead I kept my chin up and took on the day without saying a word to anyone. It was hard though; having the tape ripped right off of my mouth, having people saying that I was a lost cause and that I should stop doing what I was doing, but I ignored them because I knew that somewhere a baby's life was saved because of me.

-- Megan

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This was my first year participating in silent day.
Everyone was trying to get us to talk, especially in first period, when we all walking in with our PRO-LIFE shirts on.
We played a review game for a test the next day. My team consist of myself and two other people participating in silent day. Although we couldn't speak our answers, we still got the most points! It showed that, even though we are silent, we could do anything we set our minds to -- including raising awareness for abortion. This really showed all of the idiots that were trying to make us talk that we weren't going to talk and nothing they could say would make us. We were determined in make an impact.
Out of myclass of about 100, roughly 10 participated in silent day.
I just loved the feeling of knowing I was doing something about what I believed in! It was great feeling!

-- Rebecca

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Pro-life day was so awesome. It was hard to keep quiet but the tape made it so much easier. At first it was just me but then the day before people started calling me asking me what it was all about. Then the next day a whole bunch of people wanted to join me. And at lunch everybody was was asking me for tape. I felt really proud. I got other people to join me! By the end of the day half of the freshman were doing it.

-- Stephanie

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The day was truly amazing. At first I was really nervous walking out of my door. People on campus just kept staring at me, and when they saw the sign I was wearing...they realized what I was doing. One girl chased me down because she wanted to know more about it so I handed her a paper explaining it. Many people thought it was stupid, but several people were proud that I was taking a stand.

-- Amanda

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I didn't really have to minister to any people in my school. I guess thats a good thing. It was an amazing experience though and people were really supportive including my principle. I handed out my pro life paper and got many complements on what I was doing. I'm excited to get more creative with it next year . I am so happy I did it. i wasn't going to after a while.

-- Cailie

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WOW i learned so much about feeling unwanted no one really wanted to talk to me just because i couldnt talk back... they would tell be that i was really great for doing it but it was a diffrent experiance. i also realized that i mostly wanted someone to speak up for me when i couldnt ask a question at school or couldnt say what i wanted or needed to and then i realized that thats what babies wasnt us to do... just to speak up for them and to give them a chance to live. i'm so glad that i did this... i know i couldnt have gone the whole day with out God's strength i prayed for all of you who had the courage to give up your voice.
god bless you and america!

-- Olivia Jarosz

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There were only about 5 people who participated at my school. People asked for tape and fliers, but put the tape on their shirts and talked all day. I took a picture of the one other kid I saw that did it the right way, one of my friends, Ethan. There were a ton of negative reactions received by the two of us, but we feel it was for a good cause and only good can come from it. It was an amazing experience and it just felt good to give up a day of speaking to hopefully save hundreds of children.

-- Jillian

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Pro Life Day was GREAT! A few of us kids at school made a difference in the eyes of others. The guy who told me about Pro Life Day ended jup not staying silent, but instead speaking out for the victims of abortion. We all had homemeade shirts on and I got people who supported our cause to sign my shirt. It was great to see so many supporters

-- breanna

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hi.... umm this was my first year to even do this... i go to a big school... and a lot of the time people are not going to say anything to you about anything... But 10- 23 was a big deal to them... I AM PRO CHOICE i think that is stupid what yall are doing... but all we could do was not talk..
the princple told us no tape on our faces.. and the teachers supported us... ( WEll some of them) anyways ... there was so many people who said that abortions are good because of the supply shortage... and i hate abortions...

PRO LIFE FOR LIFe....

-- ericka

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I heard about the event about a week before it, and the moment I heard about it, I decided that I really wanted to participate in it. On the Thursday and Friday before I talked to friends at school, trying to get as many people as possible to participate. By the day before, I figured that there might be 10 people participating out of the 800 in our school. On Tuesday, I had everything ready, 30' of Duct tape, 400 of the flyers, and I had informed the administrators. The event was truely a miracle! By the end of lunch I had gone through my whole role of Duct Tape, and went through another 30' of another role, just taping bands around students arms. We also handed out 650 of the flyers! An educated guess of how many students participated would close to 50 students! Praise the Lord!

-- Travis P. Halsey

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I recently participated in the Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity, and I had quite a different experience. I attend a fairly small, private Christian college, where the vast majority of people on campus are Pro-lifers. One student asked me, "Who are you trying to convince that abortion is wrong?" I lifted my arms up to my side, and he said, "The whole world?". I nodded my head, and he chuckled. "Well, I have a question. Why are you, and the other young ladies, promoting this on-campus where everyone already agrees with you?" I thought about it for a minute, then took out my post-it notes and wrote this. "We're all Christians here at Asbury, so why do you we talking about the Bible and promoting doctrine? It's to strengthen our faith and keep our minds working in this way so when we go out in the world, our hearts are conditioned and we are more prepared to speak on the topic." That satisfied him, and it was a great thing for me to be thinking about!

BE A VOICE!

-- Mandy Ryan

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I go to a community college in central Illinois where people are very closed minded and don't like people who are different. So when I showed up at school with Red duct tape on my mouth that read "I am silent for my brother or sister aborted in 1981" I turned heads! It was amazing!!!!!! I never had anyone say anything rude to me , but people were very curious and asked a lot of questions. It was awesome and I really think that the few people that participated at my school made an impact!

Also Tuesday night my church had prayer from 6:30-7:30 in which we spent praying for any and everything that had to due with abortion. At the very end we shouted out our prayers for a few minutes and I truly believe that we shook some foundations in our country!

Congratulations to ALL we participated, because I know that we all can't wait to see the fruit that will come from this day!

God Bless you all
Gina Bettner

-- Gina Bettner

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Everyone tried to get the kids who were doing pro-life day to talk. Some were truly jerks, but all of us stuck it out. I'm glad that we spread the word around, and people joined us throughout the day.

-- Kat

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This was my very first year doing this!It was soo amazing!I go to a christian academy down here in Missouri...I just showed it to my teacher and right off the bat she let my run with it!I was over the whole thing...i set it all up....everyone in my school was involved!Even the teachers..it was amazing!It completly changed some of their minds about some things.It was so awesome..I believe we are going to do it every year now.But this was so amazing!I am completly glad i was appart of this!!
Thanks,
Alyssa Garner

-- Alyssa Garner

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Wow. I heard about the silent day for the first time this year, so this was a new experience for me.
My day started off with running my dog to the vet about 8:00am. I was wearing the arm band and the duct tape on my shirt. My mom explained that I was in a silent protest to the vet. I left him a flier.
Our van broke down on the way to school, so I was late that day. I broke the silence a little in the car, I needed to communicate and my parents needed to drive, and couldn't read notes at the moment.
Finally, school. The principal had agreed to the protest, but had said that I couldn't wear duct tape on my mouth. I handed a note asking for a tardy slip to the lady at the office and made my way to class.
Algebra was hard when I didn't understand something and I couldn't just ask like I usually do. Biology, I got by on just doing my work.
Lunch was really cool. I go to a Catholic school, and everyone was interested in the movement. I handed out a lot of duct tape to stick to shirts. I also tried to hand a flyer to each kid that was interested in doing the movement, but I ran out by the end of 6th period. Theater arts was seventh period, and we were supposed to speak, but my teacher supported the movement and let the kids who weren't speaking get away with it.
on the way to get something to eat after school, I broke the silence for the same reason as last time, but told my Dad that i needed to stay silent for the rest of the day.
Then it was back to school. (I had a school play I was in). I stayed silent until 6:30.
I found out after lunch that day that another kid was also doing it on his own and had visited this website. That was really cool.
My friend wasn't supportive of me during the movement, and that made me mad a little, but I got a lot of my other friends to support the movement, so I'm happy.
"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something"- Edward Everett Hale

-- Emily

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This day was truly beautiful. My teachers were very understandable and very encouraging. Though some of my friends were aggravating me trying to take the roll of red duct tape i had to write pro-choice i just walked away because i knew i had made a difference. I was the only one handing out the red duct tape but i got roughly 25 people involved and it made me feel amazing.

-- Esperanza

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Silent Day /07
This was my first year protesting, and i absolutly LOVED it. Though my principle would not allow the tape on my mouth, i stayed silent and wore a shirt saying
"He's a child not a choice, they are people who deserve a voice, you were born and so was i, so why aernt they alive? We got to live, they had to die, your not god so may i ask why?" Many many many people came up to me to read my shirt. Alot of people had no idea what Pro-Life day was, or for that matter, abortions. The kids on my bus yelled at me, called me stupid, mentally retarted and said i had an abortion (kids who had no idea what it was). Many people said what i was doing was stupid, and triede to get me to talk. But what kept me going all day? Was suprisingly, a teacher. My math teacher, whom is very young, wrote down on a piece of paper "between you and me, i like what your doing" I just smiled and mouthed "Thank you" it was probably around the most encouragment i got. I'd had a teacher roll her eyes at me and inform me that i was stupid. I just smield and nodded.

-- Kayla

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My Friend and I Abra, decided to have a shirt made to help support it. I told her about Silentday and we kept spreadin the word to our freinds and so on. Durin lunch we went through a roll of red duct tape. We had random people coming up to us and SILENTLY asking for tape and to write "LIFE" on it. By the end of lunch we had over 20 people that we knew wearing tape and not talking. Just to show, that one or two people can make this huge of a difference.

-- Kristen

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It was really amazing. People got soo mad at us, but I loved standing up for what I believe in. And I hope I made a diffrence.

[:

-- Marrissa

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I'm not good with stories...
but I didnt talk the whole day.
except once during concert band when I said like one word about the music.

-- John

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When i got to school all my friends were trying to get me to talk and when they realized that i wasn't laughing and i didn't think it was a joke they backed off, i didn't respond in a mean way, although i felt like it, i just smiled and handed them a paper that said why i was silent. After i got to 3 block, it was jym class, my teachers through out the whole day were supporting me in doing this. Then a teacher from the younger student classes asked me to speak and take the offending words off my pants and shirt. (in my school, words aren't allowed, and i respected that by not wearing a shirt with words, i painted a hand covering a mouth showing that i was silent. But i did wear a peice of cloth that said "i dont want my MTV" and a piece of tape that said LIFE.) I told her in a note that i am wearing this for the 4000 who are killed each year, she would still not allow me to wear my choice in clothing. I tried to be as respectful as possible with my choice of words in my notes to her, but it came down to me saying that God called me to do this and i was going to stand my ground. So i was kicked out of school and i have a detention tomorrow, but in the end i know everything was worth it, as much as i tried to not be rebellious, i was still portrayed to be and sometimes we have to risk social status and grades to do what God wants us to do. I am glad i remained silent.

My friends talked to me later today telling me that they were going to participate in the Day Of Silence next year, which made me happy.

Thanks So Much,
Alyssa Joy

-- Alyssa

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The day was amazing. The silence taught me so much. It was really hard. One of my teachers made me speak but the rest were very supportive. My friends were impressed that I had the willpower not to talk. They also thought it was a great idea. The tape didnt last long on my mouth. I was laughing and smiling so much it wouldnt stick. It was really a thought changing event for those who participate and those who see you.

-- Jocelyn C

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My school wouldnt let me put on an armband instead i put several duct tape pieces on my clothes with pro life sayings. This is a pic of my leg with one of them.

-- Jocelyn C

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For me, it was a non-eventful day in comparison to some other stories I have read. There were a few curious looks from people who wondered what I was doing. I never had the tape on my mouth - I put it around my arm. As far as I know I was the first person at my college to participate, so I wanted it to be low key - I wasn't interested in causing a disturbance - just in expressing my view silently. I'm pretty sure next year I will wear the tape over my mouth... now that I have had a chance to introduce this to my school I will feel more comfortable about it. We, as Canadians, are more reserved than others... and I figured the tape on the mouth was better done next year.

I put up signs a week before (i found out about this event only a couple weeks ago), but I also contacted the principal and had a sit down meeting with her in advance. My principal thanked me for not blindsiding them with it... and as a side benefit she actually emailed the entire population of the school to let them know it was happening. I would definitely recommend giving the people in charge a heads up. It can make your day go smoother... and it's just the right thing to do. There was just myself and one other girl doing this - and we are the two most talkative people in class... so it was definitely noticed.

The only comments I heard... one person kinda mumbling that they were pro-choice, and a few others read my flyer - one gave it back. I heard a couple of comments about the number of abortions that had happened in Canada... they were surprised. No one really hassled me... but I have the advantage of being 38 years old. I totally respect the ones who are younger and doing this in the face of certain peer intolerance. High school can be rough, and I admire their courage.

The most interesting thing that happened - I listened to the very person who said they were not opposed to abortion, involved in a discussion about relatives who had passed away... about how difficult it was... that their life was cut so short. I found that very ironic.

I'm really looking forward to recruiting more participation next year at my school and hopefully making a difference.

Note - I live in New Brunswick. It is the only province that does not use public funds for private abortion clinics. Dr Henry Morgantaler is suing our province because of their refusal to fund abortions at his clinic. We are probably even more conservative here than in the Bible Belt... but there is still plenty of opposition to Pro-Life.

-- G. Michael Hall

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Today went differently then i had thought. I was expecting the people that had agreed to it the day before and that was it i was wrong. Parts of it were really fun getting all sorts of people to join. Not everyone made it to the end of the day though i made it till last period when i didnt understand a project so i had to ask for help. It was weird hearing my voice for the first time all day. One of the girls that was doing it talked because someone hit her and it hurt so she yelled at them she felt really bad about talking she wrote down what happened and with hand gestures i told her not to worry about it and that it wasnt her fault. It was really frustrating how ignorant some of the people were being. Not being able to tell them that they were wrong was the hardest part there plan was just to try and make us talk they didnt understand what we were standing for. A few of them even said that they should wear shirts that said "Keep the population down" in support of abortion. It was really sad. At first my principal said we couldnt do it he said that the superintendant said we werent aloud because of christianity and us being a public school i told him i didnt understand and in the end he said it was ok. i got yelled at for my shirt and bandanna because we have dress code and it had writing on it so i covered it up till the teacher left i didnt take off the bandanna i wasnt done making my point. A lot of people were amazed at what i was doin when a girl asked me why i wasnt talking i showed her the paper and she almost cried. I think the day was a huge success and its goin to be so much bigger next year.
Im gonna make sure more people find out! On top of everything now im writing an article about it and how my school reacted and sending it into the newspaper. Thanks for letting me know about this.

-- Katie Pope

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The 23rd was...well, to put it simply- Awesome. I really feel that it made such an impact at my school...
It started with about four people, and by the end of the day I had over 100 kids wearing tape standing against abortion.
I had kids scream in my face,
I was shoved over,
I was called names,
I was spit on,
A kid stapled Pro-Choice to his head in front of me,
Emotions were flaring all around me...
And they told me I wasnt making a difference...hahaha, then why were they so angry about it?
My teachers were all very warm to the idea, and the staff of the school were all for it.
I would do it everyday of my life if I could.
God is truly doing something great here...all I can do is thank him again and again.

-- sam

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I first heard about the silent day on photobucket, by looking up pro-life pictures to put on my MySpace page,but I didn't know how big it was until I saw that 101 kids from my school registered. When the day came,I put on my white shirt and red tape and was silent the whole day,except to explain to kids why i was silent.I felt so proud to be part of this,and even though kids would be talking about how it was silly to have a SILENT protest,they still heard what we had to say.

-- Marissa

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My passion for the unborn began my senior year in high school. While attending a Pro-life seminar at my high school, I realized what a real tragedy abortion is. Since then I have been researching this issue to better prepare myself to fight for the lives of the unborn. My first semester at Northwest, I decided to prepare an argumentative speech on abortion for my speech class. Researching helped me to explore deeper the facts proving unborn babies are human beings. The more research I did, the more my heart broke for the thousands of babies killed each day.
When I received news that Stand True was organizing the Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity, I was quickly moved to join in. As the day drew near to be silent, doubts began to creep in.
“Why am I doing this? I go to a Christian school; people support pro-life. What point am I trying to get across?”
Instead of letting these influence my commitment, I pressed on for Tuesday. Tuesday arrived. I had no idea how challenging being silent for a day would be. But as the day went on, I couldn’t have been blessed more by this vow of silence. The feeling of red cloth covering my mouth all day kept abortion on my mind constantly. Without being able to speak to people, I used my day to pray, pray, and pray. I printed out a list of abortion clinics in Washington. I began weeping to see how close some of them were to where I am living. Each clinic represented lives taken – from the unborn, from the women, from the doctors. The list was only a page long, but I could not help but imagine the hundreds… no, thousands more throughout the United States. Again, I was reminded of the four thousand babies that lose their lives each day in America. I continued to pray for each clinic, each doctor, each patient. With high numbers of abortions being performed each day, it is so easy to feel hopeless for the cause. But my God is bigger than any law, any choice, any Planned Parenthood. And I just cried out.
“Change their hearts, Lord. I know you can.”
I was playing a worship mix in the background and the song “Hosanna” was playing. During the bridge, they sing:
“Break my heart for what breaks Yours. Everything I am for Your Kingdom’s cause.”
I could not help but cry and cry and cry and cry. God’s heart breaks. His soul is crushed to see His children’s lives being taken away. Each day thousands of lives taken away in the name of choice. Voices silenced.
Throughout my day of silence, I noticed a significant reaction from some of the people around me. Although I was present and involved in a discussion, people did not want to look at me or talk to me. They pretended like I was not there. I found this very fascinating because it is a perfect representation of how many people react to the subject of abortion. They can see the problem but they do not want to look at it or talk about it. The problem is there, but no one wants to face it.
Anyways, I could probably go on forever on this topic, but I’m trying to focus on the happenings of my day of silence. It was definitely a moving experience.

-- Katrina Ong

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I had fun thank yall

-- Amanda

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I enjoyed Silent Day-It was a huge challenge for me not to talk all day, But I did it!!! Alot of people were curious to why I had tape over my mouth but there was normally someone else around me that explained it to them so i wouldnt have to talk. Though I am very much against abortion, there was a girl in one of my classes and even though shes only like 15 she got pregnant because she slept around with a few too many guys, and she got an abortion like a year ago and she got really mad and upset that everyone was against abortion and left the class crying. I felt a little bad, but I wasnt quite sure how to react.

-- Shannon Brown

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Hey guys!

I go to Sumrall High School--Sumrall's a small town in Mississippi. Last year was the first year we had the Day of Silent Solidarity, and it was awesome!

This year, I decided I wanted to do it (since the guy that did it last year graduated). So my friend Jessica and I got together and spoke to our Principal about it to make sure there wouldn't be any problems, and she gave us the go-ahead.

So I went out and bought three rolls of duct tape (wasn't sure how many I would need) and made 300 copies of the fliers (we have 450 students at our High School).

On the morning of the 23rd, it was really rainy, but Jessica and I got there early and set up the table. We immediately got to work cutting out tape and writing LIFE on it. But once we had made 20, we started having people flood in and crowd around the table to get them. Sadly, the bell rang before we were able to get tape made for everyone, but I throughout the day I kept pieces taped to my leg so that I could hand them out to people between and in classes.

By the end of the day, approximately 75-100 people had the tape on. Not bad at all. I think I was probably the only one that actually put it over my mouth though.

The staff was very supportive. We even had some teachers ask to wear it, despite the fact that they weren't supposed to. I had one teacher tell me about how proud she was that we were doing it, and how good it was to see someone taking a stand. Another teacher made the remark that "Everyone should have been Pro-Life today" (indicating the people who hadn't worn the tape). I didn't hear a single negative comment from a staff member. But I do live in a small town in South Mississippi, so I can't say that's a shock.

There were some people that dissapointed me, though. A few people wore the signs because "I want have to answer the teacher's questions!" without even worrying about what it meant. And then there were those who wore the tape, but said "I hate abortion, but I just can't be quiet though! It's too hard!"

One of the most dissapointing things I heard though was at lunch. I chose not to remove the tape from my mouth. Instead of eating lunch, I decided to fast and read my Bible. This guy that I've been friends with (who last year, called himself Pro-Life) looked at me and said "You mean you're not eating?! I'm glad I'm Pro-Choice." He then went on to make jokes like "We should have come with coat hangers today" and dead babies. I really wanted to rip the tape off my mouth, forget my pledge to silence, and tell him off. But instead, I decided to keep my head down, pray, and continue reading my Bible.

I know that not everyone was sincere, but there are plenty of people who were. If I touched just one person, changed just one heart, or saved just one life, then it was all worth it. If not, then it was still worth it to know that I took a day to stand for what was right.

God Bless you for all your hard work, and everyone who participated. I pray that there will be no need for this day next year; Our God is a God of miracles.

-- Ashton Pittman

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it was so much fun but i hated that i could tell ppl why i couldnt talk and some of them didnt understand it but i did explan it the next day i got a lot of people starting it in the middle of the day so next year all my friends are goin to do more than half of the school was talking bout it my friends are the reason to there was only five of us =[ but by the end of the day there was more like 15 i has handing red type out all day cant wait till next year

-- heidi

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today was simply amazing.

my entire school was taped. the teachers didn't care; they loved that we all stood up for something that's worth it. they would have done it also, but they couldn't. some of the guys didn't take today very seriously, but in the end... we were all changed and united for the cause. thank you for creating such a fine day, for such a cruel ruling. <333

-- Yiazelliz Alvarez

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i bought a red hoodie and put duct tape spelling life on it and put question marks all over it... it was hard but i tried not to talk all day and i did slip up and i started crying very hard... this day just ment so much to me and when people found out what i was doing they said the were going to do it but ended up talking 2 minutes after... so except for those three words that i did say i was every good and if i did start to talk i would think about why im being silent and end up almost in tears again today was a very meaningful day <br /><br />and only two of my friends actually did it with me

-- Chelsea

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This was the first year I had participated, or even heard about the Pro-Life Day, and I wasn't sure what to expect.
I was to much of a chicken to wear the tape but I was going to be silent. That morning was pretty hard- the entire day was hard.
And I hate to admit it but, I slipped. And each time I did, I was so dissapointed in myself and wished for the tape [I defenitely reccomend it! I will be wearing it next year].
In my first class, the teacher called me up before the bell rang because of some missing homewok, I showed her a flyer and she smiled and replied "That's a good cause-" that was pretty much the best I got that day.
Alot of my friends-guys mostly-tried to get me to talk, but for the most part, I held my ground. I hated when I talked, because everyone else noticed-except me! My friend even said "Now what happend to not talking?"
and I felt horrible. It was a great experience but i'm already waiting for next year.

-- Stephanie Wise

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OMG it was so amazing yesterday i taped my mouth at school for silent day and i only kew of 3 other people doing it. I was kind of scared because my school has so many people, but i knew that i was doing the right thing. It was so cool. My teachers were fine with it (even in the class where we had an oral project due. I would hear people in the hallway like " what is up with these girls and red duct tape?" i handed out so many flyers. there were some people who would say "pro-choice" and " i love abortion" and things like that but i just stayed quiet and said a little prayer for them. At lunch I had a role of red duct tape and so many people were saying that if the knew about it, they would have done it too, so my friend and i handed out the tape that said "life" on it. i counted about 15-20 people by the end of the day with the tape on. It was so cool to see it go from 3 to 15. I cant wait to do it again next year!!

-- Liz B.

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At school, there were many kids with red arms bands or tape on their mouths. There was a sense of community among us. It was great to be able to express my veiws in a way that no one made fun of me. I was able to communicate via notes about abortion with kids I had never seen before, these kids actually thought about what I wrote. It was very encouraging. I am going to participate in this protest until our goal is accomplished! God Bless :).

-- Jessica Kline

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on silent day some people critized me for supporting pro-life.. after giving them the fliers from this site they said i changed their point of view and inprinted them for life.

-- LEXX

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I participated in the Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity. I made a shirt with sharpies, paint, and plenty of red duct tape. The front said "National Pro-Life Day I gave up my voice..." and the back said
"for the MILLIONS who will never have one."
In addition I wore the a band of red duct tape that said "Life" as well as the tape over my mouth, also bearing the word "Life."

To make the day slightly easier, I carried around a white board and a red marker all day. I used it mostly to communicate with teachers I absolutely had to talk to, and with my other friends who were also participating.

All day I got compliments from students as well as teachers for taking a stand for my beliefs. I even made anyone who wanted one an arm-band of red duct tape saying "Pro-Life." Now, I know they weren't silent, but it still felt good to know I wasn't the only one, and that other people besides my closest friends shared my beliefs. Of course, there were the immature people who laughed and joked about how I looked, but I simply ignored them. They weren't taking me seriously, I wasn't about to take them seriously.

I made it through the whole day silent, except for 3 words. Me and my friend got into a fake fight, and when she went to hit me, she hit herself instead, and I said "you hit yourself!" I quickly covered my mouth, ashamed that I had messed up, and returned to using my white board for the rest of the day to communicate.

All in all, I believe it was a very powerful experience, not only for the cause, but for myself. It takes a lot of guts to stand up for what you believe in, especially if it involved wearing red duct tape over your mouth all day walking through high school halls, but I did it, and I'm very proud of myself, as are others who supported me.

I know that I didn't reach many people, sadly my school is made up of mostly idiots who don't care at all, and were only concerned with making jokes about me, but I know I reached a few people. And in the end, as long as you reach at least one person, doesn't that make the whole day a success?

-- Tara Strepp

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i came into school with a white shirt on about today, the words pro-life on my face, red tape on my mouth, red armband and a handout of why i cant talk today and durin my class i hung out flyers in the halls on the walls...nobody knew it was me, my friend bethany has all red and info and she was just like me everybody noticed so thought it was dumb some thought it was cool so i really dont care what others thing its what i think and kno that matters..

me and bethany had out pic taken for the yrbook that day too so it was an awesome day!

-- Alyssa

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my mom told me not to do this. i didn't care. i disobeyed her because i knew i believed in this. she doesn't think i'm old enough to truly understand...but i think i can. i'm thirteen.

-- Tori :)

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I just want to say that doing this whole silent thing, was amazing, I got alot stairs, but I was standing up for what I believe in. Also I thank God for giving me the stregnth to go out there:]
thanks!

-- Jessica Pham

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my day started off pretty good. i got to school early to print out some flyers and get my duck tape on. my mom isnt exactly pro life (she had an abortion) so the most she would allow me to do was an armband. i used the ducktape on my mouth after she was gone though. after about 3 seconds of being in school my friend John came over and started talking to me. when he asked why i wasnt talking too i handed him a flyer and he hardcore made fun of me for it. i didnt mind to much though because i knew this was the reaction i would get from people. through out the day i got 3 other people to join me. most people who read the flyer would just be like "im pro-choice...". more than anything yesterday i relized this worlds need for christ, a loveing god. i saw so much hate. i was able to stay silent until lunch when this guy was talking about "just punch her in the stomach". that really bothered me because i had a guy do that to me so i broke and went off on him but went back to silence afterwards. all around it was a good day though. thanks for the oppratunity to show my voice.

-- Chelsea

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I decided to participate in this event out of pure curiosity. I really didn't know what it would mean or do to me. I have been strongly prolife since my baptism in June and felt that this would be a good way of protesting abortion. It ended up being so much more than that. I prayed all day. I grew closer to God. More importantly, I got a point across to others who may have never thought of abortion as murder. I handed out the fliers whenever someone asked me about the tape and I gladly handed over my message. I got plenty of "Good for you"'s and some "Oh wow, I never knew that." Every time I heard one of the two, I felt like I was doing something useful; something beneficial to those around me. This opened my eyes to what an important issue abortion is. It's murder. But I remember before my encounter with God believing that an unborn baby was a human but not really caring what happened to them. After my experience yesterday, I believe that prolife and saving those who could potentially never have a voice is one of the most important causes in our world. I couldn't imagine that ever happening to a family member of mine or someone close to me. What if they had been aborted? What if they had been killed before birth? I just am very greatful for the experience and will not be including pregnant women, unborn babies, and the doctors involved in abortion in my prayers everyday. "Abortion is a complex issue. Life is not." - Anonymous.

-- Danielle

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so i went into silent day not knowing quite what to expect.
as i walked onto campus i otived the looks i was getting, but kept walking to met my friends.
when i got there we distributed the tape and flyers.
in first period, people joined, i was stoked! i mean, it was only a few, but help is help.
then, in second, HALF MY CLASS JOINED IN..
i couldnt believe we were getting so much support.
i went onto third where a few wanted to, but didnt have the strength to not speak, and my teacher gave us extra credti because we were standing up for something and not many will stick to it.
in fourth we had a sub.he was okay with me not speaking, but a few kids around me wanted me to crack.
i didnt though their efforts werent weak.
at lunch it was difficult to not talk, i felt like a mime.
in sixth i had a few people interested in it, but the day was almost over at that point.
in seventh i was terribly relieved to be in my last class of the day.
when i got home i just sat down and relaxed.
i was kind of afraid to speak.
and when i did i was shockedat my voice.
this sielnt day was amazing and i was so glad to participate nad open so many eyes.

-- elaina

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The silent day for me was amazing. This was my first time participating. I, as well as other participants at my school, got harassed and yelled at when I walked down the halls, and that was hard. It was difficult not to talk, especially when people would comment on what we were doing in a negative fashion. There was a girl in my choir class who tried to sit there and tell me that I was going to be forced to sing, even though I talked to my choir teacher the previous day and she supported what I was doing and told me I wouldn't have to sing as long as I was an active listener. Then she told me that she, as well, was pro-life, but thought what we were doing was pointless and it wouldn't help anything. It took all I had in me to keep my tape on and not take it off and explain to her what we were doing. I thought to myself that what we were doing wasn't necessarily a protest. I thought of it as a day long version of our daily 30 seconds of silence we have after the Pledge of Allegiance at our school. I used the silent time to pray to God for Him to help us find answers and solutions to stop abortion. I hope everyone who is a believer and participated did the same. But it just really frustrated me that she saw it as a protest. We were simply expressing what we believe and support and staying silent in rememberance of aborted children.

I did, however, get positive comments. This one kid in my economics class said that he was pro-choice, but thought that what we were doing was cool because we were standing up for what we believe in and that we had guts for doing it. I had some people coming up to me and asking me for duct tape to wear and support Pro-Life.

I'll admit, I spoke at lunch because my best friend was home from college and it was the only time I could see her while she was home, but after lunch, the tape immediately came back on. My 8th period English class had an in-class graded discussion and I had to participate or risk getting a zero. But I thought I did rather well, otherwise.

It really pushed my buttons when I saw kids at school wearing the duct tape over their mouths and they were talking through the duct tape. They were basically defeating the whole purpose.

I hope we got our point across and helped people understand why we believe what we believe. Columbus sure needed it, and so does the rest of our country.

<3Jessica McLean
Columbus, IN

-- Jessica McLean

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Well it so awesome yesterday!!! This was my first time to do it and I was sooo pumped! I ended up getting like 12 people to join me-three different schools!!!! I only said one word..."yes" to my brother. I didn't mean to, but I had taken off the ductape because I kept sneezing (and it made my ears pop) and I accidentally talked! I was so mad. But after school, me and the rest of my homeschooled friends met up and went all around town passing out flyers. We passed out like 200-250! My friend's mom is a writer, so she interviewed me and took lots of pictures, and she's getting to put an article in the paper!I thought that was cool, but I was getting kinda discouraged because most people didn't really pay much attention to us...they just took a flyer and walked on. But then this lady came out of the store with tears in her eyes and she was like "I am really proud of ya'll for doing this. I read your flyer and this is really gonna change some lives." So that's my story for Silent Day. It was so cool to get to be a part of this and to be able to make a positive difference in the lives of the people around us.

-- Paige

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Yesterday was interesting to say the least my first hour was World Religions and the teacher is Pro-life however I received a lot of flak from my classmates of whom most were pro-choice ( that was a trend I saw throughout the day)however I got another student to join me in silence for the day. next hour was Gym and I am usually quiet in that class any ways and it was in this class that i saw another participant besides me and he was wearing red duct tape on his arm the teacher in this hour is also Pro-life. My next hour was math and Lunch where I had 10 other people become Non silent supporters( They wore the tape but could imagine going without talking for a day)lunch was interesting but I kept my silence.next hour was English but all we were doing was going to the library and typing but I slipped this hour because "I" had to call my mom to finalize plans for that night I was disapointed but no one else would call for me. My next and final hour was Library Aid and suprisingly I was allowed to be silent even though the librarian was pro-choice. Fianlly the school day was over But not my silence I then proceeded to go to my Robotics team meeting where we worked on the robot for a while then the group me included went to Little Ceasers for a team fundraiser it was interesting trying "ask" questions when I was silent but in the end it worked out and I ended up learning how to read body language better. I finally got home around 8 and continued my silence until technically today when I woke up So 24 hours without talking. 19 hours minus time sleeping slipping only once. I will be posting pictures later

-- James Emberton

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Yesterday, I posted a story about Silence Day at my school.
Now, I'll post one about the support I got outside of school.

For the entire day, I was silent, along with many others. Last night, when I got home, I posted a blog on my Myspace about it. I was surprised at how quickly I recieved comments about how they thought what we were doing was awesome. Eventhough I was trying to avoid texting, I couldn't resist. My inbox is now full of people asking me questions about it and giving support to me. A lot of kids were upset because they had not heard about it. Because of that, they were unable to participate.
Next year, I plan on making it a huge deal.
Two weeks in advance, I'll print out fliers and hand them out. I'll post bulletins on my Myspace and get more people involved. I'm really happy so many people are standing up against abortion and I hope next year we can multiply the number of supporters. =)

--Lorie.

-- Lorie

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Yesterday was awesome. It started out just me and my friend, but i think altogether 15 people in my school did it. I was excited. I got really mad when people would read my flyer and say "thats dumb" or "why would you do that." School went ok though I did have a lot of people who tryed to make me talk. I only sliped like 5 times which isn't too bad. I als had quite a few people tell me that they looked up to me or they thought what i was doing was cool. I had soccer practice and I was so suprised that a lot of them didn't know what abortion was and that was kind of sad to me. The few people who did thought it was a good idea so they told everybody else what i was doing. A lot of them also said it was dumb and pointless. One even asked, "You're not one of the babies.Why do you care?" It was an overall good day even with the people who thought i was crazy.

-- JennaM

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it was pretty awsome i got alot of people to do it to, shocked many and got piked on by few, and prolly made a big difference. well god bless,

-- brandon

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I just heard about pro life day a few days ago so it was a hassle to get people to do it. i posted myspace bulletins like crazy, sent text messages and made phone calls. I printed PLENTY of fliers and got one roll of red duct tape, well, it wasnt enough. as soon as i got to school the fliers and the duct tape were gone, and in every class it was so quiet. i even got called to the principals office because people were putting it on thier mouths, so when i took mine off my mouth, i had brought my bright red lipstick because i knew that it was going to happen. i've got a few pictures on my camera of my friends and myself with out fliers and tape on. we almost made the news paper too! im sure we at least made the shcool news paper, well it was a good day, there were so many people doing it im proud of my school and my friends. im pretty sure our voices were heard through silence.

-- hannah castanon

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My story-

I'm sorry that this is going to be so lengthy, but I just have a lot to say. =]

Today I went to school totally and completely pumped. I had eight or nine other people doing it with me, so I came totally decked out in duct tape, including a roll on my arm. We met in my school's band room, and we passed out everything. I came especially equipped with blue wristbands for people that supported the cause but couldn't stay silent all day, but most people took red. My boyfriend, Jeb Hodges, originally took a blue and a red, because he didn’t think he was going to be able to stay silent the entire day.
On my way to first hour, I found out that it had gotten to my principal about the duct tape over our mouths. He told all of the teachers and helpers to have us take it off, which was perfectly fine with me. But a helper that I had never even seen before practically ripped it off of my mouth before I had the chance to. After it was off, she made me talk to tell her why I was doing "such a dumb thing".
Right before I got to my first hour, I met up with an old teacher from sixth grade. (I'm in eighth.) She told me and one of my friends how proud she was of us that we were exercise our rights, and we went on our way.
In first hour on the morning "news", Mr. Arave (our principal), came on and he was holding a "Why I Am Silent" flyer. He said that we were allowed to wear them anywhere on our clothes or skin, besides our faces.
My first hour teacher was cool with us bending the rules in his class, so we kept the tape on. The only difficulties I had in that class was playing charades to borrow a pencil for our test, and getting a pass to go get picture retakes.
When I went to get my picture retakes in the library, the librarian told me that I had to go to the principal to get a special pass to wear more than one piece of tape on my body. (She was referring to the three pieces of tape on my back that said "I am a survivor of the abortion holocaust"). After my retakes, I went back to my first hour to round up my other participating friends, and went headed to the office.
On the way there, we had four or five girls ask us for tape. After hooking them up, we continued on our way.
Once in the office, the office people just looked at us weird and kept working. It was only after one of our student helper friends walked in that we got help. He told us that apparently Mr. Arave was busy with a student and their parents, and then he had to go answer a phone. The secretary, Mrs. Haws, asked us what we needed. We said that we needed to see Mr. Arave about getting a pass for wearing more than one piece of tape. She then proceeded to tell us that "We weren't supposed to be wearing tape anyway". At this point, my friends knew that I was getting mad, so they backed up and continued to stay quiet, leaving me to do all of the talking. I told Mrs. Haws that I understood that we weren't allowed to wear it on our faces, but by law Mr. Arave had no right to prevent us from wearing it on any other part of our bodies. She started to scream at me saying that before I started quoting the law, I should get my facts straight. Another administrator, Mrs. Immel, happened to be walking by, and Mrs. Haws called her over so she could “apply her expertise to the situation”. Mrs. Immel began yelling at me with the same argument as Mrs. Haws.
Now up this point, I had remained respectful, talking in a normal tone. But I'm not one to sit back and have people yell at me, so I yelled back. I said that Mr. Arave had no right to tell us that we couldn't wear it on our clothing, and Mrs. Immel said he could because he's the principal. She then told us to go back to class.
Once we were back in the hallway, Mrs. Haws screamed at me to come back in, but sent the other two back because they weren’t the “problem children”. Then she sent me to Mrs. Immel’s office.
Mrs. Immel stood behind her desk, Mrs. Haws stood behind me, and they then called in the resource officer, who sat down at Mrs. Immel’s desk. Mrs. Ramona, (the resource officer), asked me what the problem was. I said that they were telling me that I had no right to wear the tape anywhere on my body (even though Mr. Arave said it was okay in the first place.) The adults that I was arguing with before then tried to say that I was trying to tell them that Mr. Arave had no right to make us take the tape off of our faces. Naturally, Officer Ramona believed them over me. She said that I could also be suspended or more likely expelled because of “Disorderly Conduct” on my part. From yelling at the staff.
Officer Ramona left, and then Mrs. Haws did too. Mrs. Immel sat down at her desk, and then Mr. Arave walked in. I explained the situation, and he believed them, too. He said that I wasn’t allowed to wear it on my face. I told him that I completely understood that, and that I had told the office ladies that. He just looked at me weird, told Mrs. Immel that she could give me either a detention or a referral (suspension), then walked back out.
Mrs. Immel asked for my last name, and then she yelled at me because I didn’t know that I had to spell it for her. She brought my name up, and told me that because she was “such a nice person” (a direct quote), she was going to let me off with a warning because I’ve never gotten even a detention in my entire life. She read my shirt, laughed mockingly, and then made me write an apology letter to the secretary that I yelled at. I, being the avid writer that I am, worded it so that it wasn’t actually an apology letter. I gave it to the secretary, and headed to my second hour; Honor Band.
Once there, I was greeted by one of my band peers who told me that what I “did in the office was great.” After mouthing thank you, I sat down with my saxophone, waiting for the sure announcement by Mr. Arave. Sure enough, he came over the intercom, saying that we had the right to wear it anywhere but on our faces. He also said that he didn’t want to see any more protesting girls in his office the rest of the day. A few people in my class, who knew that “protesting girl” was me, started clapping for me.
In transition from my second to third hours, I saw more and more people with red tape (provided by one of the girls that went to the office with me: Melanie Rodriguez.) I saw her, and she broke her silence to tell me that Mr. Arave took her tape and he was going to take any rolls of duct tape that he could find. I shook my head, and we walked to our third hour together.
In our third hour, things started off good. Until, that is, one of my female protestor friends, Ashleigh Imus, had to use the restroom. She wrote my teacher, Mr. Bahre, a note, asking to go to the restroom. He looked at it, ignored her, and kept walking. My friends and I looked at each other in amazement. Ashleigh then put her hand in the air, and started kicking her legs and whining. She finally had to go bad enough that she broke her silence, and went to the restroom. The minute she left the room, Mr. Bahre told us that he wasn’t fond of the “pointless stunt” that we were “trying to pull”, and that we would talk weather we liked it or not. One of my friends took his blue wristbands off, and then put a red one on. Mr. Bahre knew the significance of the colors. The only person he really didn’t give trouble was me, because he knew that I was the most serious, and that I was the one that fought it out in the office, even while being threatened with suspension.
In between my third and fourth hours, I only saw like 20 people without some sort of pro-life symbol on. I also found out that my boyfriend had decided to take the vow of silence in second hour because he too knew that I was the “protesting girl”. In my fourth hour, I didn’t have a spot of trouble.
After fourth hour was lunch. Once there, I saw countless people with “Pro-Life” written on a piece of paper taped to either their fronts or backs. I didn’t even have a chance to eat because I had so many people ask me for red tape. What a sight I bet it was for the cafeteria workers who got to watch one person ask for tape with their hands and me replying with my hands. After lunch, I felt like an honorary mime.
My fifth hour was okay. The only problem I had was a kid coming up to me telling me how dumb I was to be protesting for life. I just sat there and he eventually left me alone.
My Sixth hour was awesome. Mr. Oestmann, the teacher I expected to have the most trouble with, let us have a free day because he didn’t want us protesters to have to sit there while everyone else read out loud. Then during an assembly we had that hour about police and their narcotics dogs, I stood in the back by the stage so I wouldn’t be called on to speak. I stood in front of my boyfriend who was sitting on the stage, and he barely leaned on me when Mrs. Immel, who happened to be right there, began to scream at me because “I was getting too touchy feely and “she had already let me off once” and “I was just trying to make all sorts of trouble today”.
Then we went back to class, and we had like, 50 minutes left. I and my friends spent our time playing Speed, and I only broke my silence to say “speed” when I won. I say “I only broke” because most of my friends couldn’t stand being silent any longer. In the end, the only one of my close friends that were still taking the vow of silence was my boyfriend.
On the way to my locker, I realized that it was becoming something of a fashion-statement to have a Pro-Life symbol on you. But I didn’t care. Although I live in a small town, and I only reached one school of people, I know that I made a huge lasting impact, and I felt awesome. I will defiantly be doing this next year. And Melanie and I will be school starting a club for it.
=]
Thanks for the wonderful idea for a day.
Kirstin Fottrell

-- Kirstin Fottrell

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I think only about 3 students in my whole school participated. I hope next year will be a better turn out.

-- Ariel Meyer

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When I woke up today I didn't even know it was Pro- Life day. I acutally did't find out till after secound period. I found out beause I was talking to my friend and she wasn't responding. So I asked why arn't you talking and she showed me this paper that said
I am not talking because I am being silent for the day. I am giving up my voice to those who never got the chance. It's pro-life day!!
www.silentday.com
Pro-Life=Anti-Abortion
P.S. The first amendment lets us do this.

When I read that I was like let me copy. So for the rest of the day I kept silent, well except for when I forgot. That's when we all decied to write on our hands the message. Some said Life, another said Pro- Life Day, and mine said don't talk 4 life.Most of my teachers were for it except for one.He joke around when we were trying to communicate to him. One joke was "what i can't hear you." like he was trying to get us to talk. I remembered that my math teacher was giving us thumbs up and everything. My classmates were kind of in to it. Some were like why are you silent and so we showed them our papers and they were like ohhhhh.Some tried it but then gave up beacuse it was "too" hard for them to keep silent.I remember that my friend was like i support you guys but then im not.So we wrote down Why? and she said that sometimes girls have no choice.[note: friend isn't pregnate just kinda supports abortion :(] So we told her there is adoption and that it was better then KILLING! She was really non talkitive after that. Some of the guys were trying to get us to talk by pretending to ask us out but we didn't give in. When I left school I still kept going but then my mom made me talk because I had to get a physical at the doctors. I don't know how my friends did but all I know is that we arn't going to wait till next year. Which means were going to not talk tommorrow and maybe even the next day! <3
Go Pro-Life Day!

-- Jessica Darder

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I recently switch to a public school from being at a christian private school for the past few years so it was awesome to know that I was brave enough to stand up for what I believe in and see how many people relized it's not that scarey to...It also gave me a chance to now speak infront of my whole history class on Thursday because a lot of the kids were asking questions...and I relized how aweful society is since just because my friend and I were wearing the duct tape they ask us to leave wal mart while we were shopping...sad but over all I think we made a great impact and I'm so excited for next year!

-- Danielle

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I told my math teacher that i was doing this and he forgot. He would ask me a question and i would try to tell him it without saying anything. He just did not seem to understand what was going on. Then one question he asked me i wrote the answer on paper and the girl next to me goes, "oh yeah, she is doing a day of silence. She told you that before." Then all the other times i would right that and he would kind of make fun of me for writing everything. Yet i think he was happy that i was still participating. So over all my day was not that bad, and no one really said anything to me but i did get some weird looks.

-- Brandi Heller

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I gave up my voice, so that people could hear my silent scream due to this out cry. I talk a lot, I'll admit it, and because I was so silent a lot of people took noticed and understood my cause. They would clap me on the back or give me a smile. I think even if it was for only one day, I may have helped in my own small way.

-- Megan Farthing

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So my day began at 5:30 in the morning. i printed out about, eh... 100 flyers? which were all gone by the end of the day.
i got to school and met up with some friends who were also doing it and needed some tape. so i gave them tape. and to many other Pro- Lifers in my school.
During 1st period a lot of kids were confused why it said Silenced on my shirt and 01-22-73, i admit i was afraid what their reaction was going to be when i gave the paper saying why i was silent. but they really didnt have a reaction. Which deffinatly made me feel more confidant in passing the flyer out.
walking to 2nd period was tough. a lot of people were calling out, asking why it said silenced. and why so many people had tape on their mouths. i would have given them the flyers, but i recently broke my glasses and couldnt tell who was saying it...
in 2rd period a whole debate broke out on abortion. and i got to give another girl at my school tape, who was i think the only person who did it last year.
3rd period a lot of freshies came up to me towards the end of class and i gave them the flyers they thought it was really cool and they decided they wanted to do it to. i gave out a lot of red life tape then. =]
4th period someone thought it was for gay rights. they were soon corrected as i got up as my teacher was talking and gave them the paper... luckily the teacher wasnt that mad. but she was frustrated when she couldnt talk to me about the book we were reading and i was the only one that read the entire thing.
5th period a lot of kids were betting they could get me to talk. guess who lost their bets? =]
Then was lunch. i gave out soooo much tape and flyers then. sucess much?
6th period more bets that they could get me to talk. ok i accidently said something in this class but no one heard me. which i was glad for.
7th was chorus. i didnt talk but i did sing. oh and another person thought i was doing Day of Silent Solidarity. Hm, oblivious much? I most deffinatly had Life written on tape across my mouth, which then was transfered to me pants when we started singing.

The bus ride home was almost the same as always... until the bus driver started to drive past my stop. had to tell her to stop for that one.

I slipped 3 three times. but you know what im glad i could keep silent for even that because thats what count that i could be silent.

At my school i was really surprised that there weren't a lot of girls for abortions, and that the people for it were guys.
did anyone else get that feed back?

I'm glad i was able to participate in this. many people thought they couldnt. and many people didnt want to be bashed. but its ok. people called it stupid and pointless. but i want to point out we got their attention. and calling names is what you use when you dont have an arguement to go agaisnt us.

Actions speak louder than words.

God Bless,
Joanie

-- Joan Hebert

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It started today. I was silent for 7 whole hours (except for a neccessary moment which will be explained later) I was silent and for once let my silence do the talking. I wore Red Tape with the Words Pro-Life on it. and with a handmade badge that procalimed a plea for the stop to the cleansing of our generation. I was hassled yes, and called a "freak" a "Fascist" and many other things. But this did not stop me. It all went great until 6th hour. 4 kids ganged up on me and began to tear down my beliefs with insults and i did nothing but stare at them and let my card and flyers do the talking for me. If so many of our generation are against a "needless" war in Iraq, and proclaim outrage over 3,000 deaths where is the outrage for the millions of humans who are exterminated in the name of "choice"? I hate that word. Choice. It is not a choice to extinguish an innocent human life because its inconvienient for you. Its murder. and yes, you are a MURDERER if you choose this "option". You proclaim saving the lives of whales, those in darfur, and an end to a "needless war", yet you will stand for the "right" to murder millions? How can you say Hitler was evil and Nazis are terrible people if you support the extermination of millions more than Hitler burned? I weep for your hypocrisy and your gall to call me a "murderer" and a "fascist" and a "freak" when i support the War, Support my God, and Support all that is right. For in the End, you will see, that all your attempts to hide your sin, are for naught, because what you hide in darkenss, God will reveal in light.

-- Ryan Simpson

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Two of my friends participated with me. Throughout the day we looked at each other and began smiling and giggling uncontrollably. I know lives lost is a serious issue, but the joy of being alive is infectious! Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

-- Margaret Kittok

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I am a Core member for my lifeteen program at my church, and one of the girls in my group informed me that she was told that was not allowed to wear her tshirt and remain silent for the day because it was offending others in the school. please pray for her and one of the other core members that will be going to speak with her asst. principal tomorrow. we have told her that through her persecution, God is sending many graces upon her. please just pray that all goes well and calm.
thank you,
God BLESS!!!

-- Valerie

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Well, I'm older than most of the people who took part in this event. I will be 25 on Sunday and I really wish this would have been going on when I was in school. I run an online group for pro-life and I'm highly educated in all aspects of abortion. I went to Walmart today with my husband and our 7 month old daughter, and let me tell you, I got some looks. However, there was a young girl who seriously wanted to talk to me because she had found out she was pregnant very recently. Her parents were outraged and wanted her to have an abortion. Her boyfriend had left her and accused her of cheating on him and she saw a shirt that I wearing about being pro-life and was asking about the duct tape. I had to talk to her in hopes of talking her out of having an abortion. She was very naive about the whole process, which I have come to find out, that most women are. I told her about some websites where she could research abortion and I explained it to her myself. I also gave her my phone number, and she just called me!! She was crying and told me there was no way she could ever do that to her baby and she was going to keep it! I couldn't believe it. Never in my life has anything like that happened.

-- Natasha Martin

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So I'm in the middle school and I was the only one in my entire school who wore duct tape on their mouth. I was made fun of by every kid that saw me till I showed them the flyer. When my principal found out he freaked. He called me to his office and yelled at me to take it off. I did, he told me i had to participate in class, so I did. I desided that I would talk. And I told as many people as I could about how he yelled at me and how babies are effected every day. I think I effected a lot of people today. Throughout the day I had a bunch of kids joining the silence and if they didn't they still stood up for me and everyone who was participating. I'm really excited for next year when I'm in the high school.

-- Abbie Strouse

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Hey guys... My day was pretty succesful.. I heard about this about 3 weeks ago and along with three people started recruiting a bunch of pro-life friends to help.. we probably had about 150 people participating and I dont know how many stayed true to the silence all day. But I know we all got a lot of crap from people who were pro-choice, or just didnt care and wanted to mess with us... we got made fun of, harassed, mocked... many many people tried to make us talk(I even got hit in the back of the head at lunch lol). the phrase I heard most all day was "If you're not gay say no"... pretty lame really and some people got sent to the dean but kept their head... but hey, we took it in stride and I think we got the point across... as much as I dont want their to be a next year for this, cuz hopefully we made our point.. I know there are still many people at my school who are pro-choice or just dont care after today... one very interesting story I have from today.... I had a friend... who was participating today and was silent most of the morning but being the way she is lol that faded... but as i was standing in line at taco bell contemplating if the cashier could read my handwriting or understand my hand signals that friend of mine came up behind me, saw what I had attempted to right down and ordered for me and even stuck up for me against other people... kind of ironic, she was sticking up for me, sticking up for someone else. That made every harsh comment dissapear....
I hope you all had just as much success... peace, love, and chocolate milk AnDy B.

And please keep us(in columbus) in your prayers a bunch of pro-choice kids are uniting in protest against us. they harrassed us all day and we were fine, this move will make it hard for us to keep our heads cool, we need strength from God in this one.. your prayers WILL help, thank you

-- Andy Barker

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today at school, me and three other friends of mine decided to partake in silent solidarity. we came to school with a red armband and the words "I am silent to end abortion" written on our hands. it was cool to know that we were some of the only one's at our school who knew what the day was. people'd ask why i wasn't talking, and id show them the flyer, and they'd be shocked. to be blatant, im so proud of myself. i was determined to stay true to my vow of silence.
and i did just that :D

-- kelsey

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Today, I had 5 friends participate in the day of silence with me. People kept asking why we had red tape on our arms and clothing and we would hand out flyers explaining it. People were really touched and influenced by it and at the end of the day, what started as 5 of us, turned into about 25.

-- Nikki R.

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- here is an additional photo.

-- Matt Bailey

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Today was great. This was my second year participating, and this year was just so much smoother. I participated alone last year. And it was so stressful. I had so much anxiety. And this year I prayed that I would get some support within my school. So i did a little advertising through my myspace. And within the month of October, 12 kids wanted to join me. I was astonished. All I know is that God answered a prayer. I printed out 300 double sided fliers and gave them to the participants. All of them were given out today. It was just so great. For the most part, none of us had any problems. Of course some people responded negatively. A few kids yelled at and taunted me, shooting gross comments at me, mocking abortion. It was appauling to see how many people follow that kind of mindset.

But all in all, I feel accomplished. I know that I have done God's will, and that's all that matters to me. I jsut kept reminding myself "God will not lead me where His grace will not protect me." It worked.

I am just praying that I have helped at least someone out. I hope that I have done some justice to the millions of children lost.

Thanks so much, Stand True
And God Bless.

-- Matt Bailey

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I participated in Silent Day this year for the first time. I had a few of my friends with me for support, but a lot of the kids at my school were really mean. I got harrased all day. People said really mean things about abortion, but I tried my hardest to ignore them and remember why I was doing this and in the end I was really glad that I did. The kids that said things were just being immature, and I'm happy I took a stand for what I beleived in. And throughout the day there were even some kids who said they would have done it if they would have known. I'm really glad I got a chance to participate.

-- Jamie Rabaut

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Today was my first silent day. Everything was going great until second period, when our principal came on the PA.

"I hear there is some sort of event about a silent day...and it has not been run through the school. Everyone must take off their tape and you must participate in class."

That was weird, because our school, East Brunswick High, was on the list of registered schools.

I kept my tape on until before third period, when two hall monitors forced me to take it off.

Later on, a group of about 20 kids went to the main office to argue - They talked to the vice principal and the principal himself. He said that, even though the school was registered, he did not register it himself and would not allow the day of silence.

Tomorrow, a few of us may go back to fight for our rights. What do we do now?

-- Chrissey C

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Today turned out to be a huge success, at least in my classes. I was online chatting with my friends last night, and got about 2 or 3 to join me in the events today. I was happy with just that! But i brought red duck tape today [just in case], and in every class i had about 10 or 15 people join me. Now, I don't know if they really understood why they were doing it, but they did it. Some didn't think that they could stop talking for one day, so ther wore arm bands and bracelets that we made saying "LIFE" and "PRO LIFE". And seeing that made other students in classes want to join in, and the word got spread around like wildfire; like a domino effect. Today opened my eyes to so many different things, and I'm so glad i took part in the Silent Solidarty today.

-- Kyle

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i was in my first period class when i noticed someone with duck tape on their mouth i asked why and he gave me a flyer that explaned what he was doing it ment so much that other people want to stop abortion to i didn't know about the day of silence until today october 23rd but i will participate in it the next time it comes around

-- ashley

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today.everyone kept saying i'm gonna make you talk by the end of this block.and telling me that i had tape on my back.this kid tyler said that it was stupid and matt said it was immature and my english teacher stood up for me.she said that it wasn't stupid and that i was brave enough to stand on something.and then one of my *friends* said that it was stupid and i will have a few words for her tomorrow.but it was hard for me to not talk.i had my friends help me out.they wrote silenced in red marker on both of there arms...but we are all HUGE talkers...and it was very hard for us.i only talked once...and that was to aske my spanish teacher what we were supposed to do.i'm glad i took a stand on something i believe in and will be doing it every year from now on.

-- Jess Slater

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my friend told me about this just two days ago. she handed me a flier and i thought it was amazing. i was all for it. we thought we were going to be the only two doing it, but when we got to school and people asked why we had red tape we showed them the fliers and they all wanted to do it to. so we put some duck tape on and by the end of the day i had about 20 people with tape on =]! some people were rude about it, and were poking me or making rude comments. i thought that was pretty immature considering the kind of cause i was doing it for. other people, when i showed them the flier would say "sweet can i do it?" and i thought they were serious, so i would pul out the red duck tape and then here them go "yes now i dont have to participate in class of talk to my parents!" once again, thats pretty immature. but besides that this was amazing. and i hope we made a difference.

-- liss.

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MAN THE DAYS NOT OVER YET BUT ALREADY I HAV GOTTEN INTO SOO MUCH STUFF IT STARTED WHEN I WALKED INTO SCHOOL AND THE VICE PRINCIPAL CALLED EVERY 1 WHO WAS SILENT INTO THE LIBRARY AND TOLD US WE COULD NOT WEAR TAPE NOR COULD WE PASS OUT FLIERS AND THE BANDANAS HAD 2 COME OFF BECAUSE ITS "FLYING COLORS" SOO ALL DAY AFTER THAT KIDS HAVE BEEN TRYING TO MAKE US TALK...TRYING 2 BREAK US DOWN AND MY FRIEND WHO WAS REALLY UPSET HE WAS CRYING AND BY ACCIDENT LIKE SERIOUSLY I DIDNT EVEN REALIZE I DID IT I BROKE AND ASKED HIM IF HE WAS OK AND HE THOUGHT THAT WAS REALLY KOOL THE I BROKE FOR HIM...FOR HIS PROBLEMS SOO IT HELPED HIM...SOO IM KINDA GLAD I BROKE BECAUSE IT HELPED HIM BUT YEA LIKE I SED THE DAYS NOT OVER YET

-- justin ludwick

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Today at school I walked around with the tape on my mouth and had people ask me what I was doing. The fliers got peoples attention and I even had a couple join me in the protest.

-- Mae

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this day was bigger than i thought it would be. God heard the cries of my heart and of others and he answered my prayers. He used me to get about 32 other people to wear the tape =).

"Jesus i plead your blood over my sins and
the sins of my nation. End abortion, send revival to America"

According to your mercry save souls God.

-- Trisha

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I was so ecstatic about today I didn't sleep well. But I woke up and I could feel it in the air I could feel God's presence all around me.
When I got to school people looked at me as if they didn't know what planet I was from, because yes, I did wear the duck tape with the word life on it. And I did write the words pro-life on my arm. And I did write she's not a choice on my hands. Some people even gawked at me and then started laughing as they were walking away. But it didn't bother me that much. I could hear whispers behind me as I walked to my seat and continuing during class even, and yes people still stared that wide eyed stare.
But that still didn't bother me I just passed out my fliers and nodded the head nod and went on with it. Well my third period this guy said over his shoulder "That if i was all about life then why the heck did i have duck tape on my mouth?" So I handed him the flier and he was like "thats really awesome and it makes a lot more sense now." Well that left me happier because the girls who were next to me would look at me laugh and talk to themselves.
Also in my third were these girls and they were looking at me in the strangest way and suddenly it just looked like something clicked and she asked me if was doing that gay thing. I and I could not help but laugh but i shook my head and handed her the paper. And she actually looked up and smiled at me, and she said that she was happy i was standing up for what I believe in.
Though there people in that class who were trying to get me to talk, and I just wouldn't.
*fast forwards to 5th period*
So first all im in an ap english class but my teacher is totally pro-choice so I didnt know how this class would go. But she actually came up to me and told me that she was proud of me for doing what I was doing, and that she didn't that any one else in the class room would have guts enough to do what I was doing. Standing up for the things I believe in when every one else pretty much is against me.
I was just so shocked but it had made me happy. And I did get asked about the tape a lot and why I had the words on my hands like I did. And I gladly gave them a paper. Well then our class had some free time and so i just sat there smiling to myself when I over heard Chelsey( a fellow Christian) talking about how its not a right or its the mothers choice. And I feel bad for what i did, but then again I don't.
I went over and started listening to their conversation and she turns on me and starts to confront me so i whip out my pen and paper and starting writing furiously answering her questions and then responding with mine. And it was so HARD no to just rip the tape off my mouth and start a real debate with her, but by the grace of God I didn't.
But just insult after insult and just being all in my face the bell rand and I realized I want to weep for my generation because I eventually got ganged up on because I wasn't really saying anything so they all told me their opinions. And it just makes me want to weep to think of things my generation thinks is okay.And I felt that a tear had rolled down my cheek and one of the girls who was in the conversation turned to me and said" I don't know how you accomplished that Carolyn. I would have ripped the tape off my mouth and stated my opinion...and you just sat there letting them insult you and your belief.. I couldn't have done it."
What she said made me think about things, and even though I really didn't talk to anyone important I might have some how made a imprint on some else so that they might stand up for our beliefs, and to show them that they are not alone.
Thank you, and God bless

-- Carolyn

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The first time i say something on myspace about silence day, i knew i had to do it. i talked to my mom and my teachers about it and they were all ok with it, and they all supported my opinion, a few days later i started posting stuff on myspace about it and i got about 15 people to do it with me. When i went to school, many people asked me what i was doing, and i handed out many flyers. a lot more people that didnt know about it, but saw my tape, asked if they could have some tape too. more and more people started doing it with me. sadly i only lasted 11 hours and i wish i lasted longer. also, about 10 of the people that did it with my had alergic reactions from duct tape and they had to go to the nurse. but im still very glad i got so many people to do it with me. i think we got our point across to many more people!

-- Kristina

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Today was a day of many opportunities for me. An opportunity to show what I stand for. I broke my silence once, to all the people who were telling me how stupid I was for doing this, that no one would recognize me and this wouldn't change anyones mine. Surprisingly to prove them wrong, One little girl came up to me asking about abortion, I gave her the flier, and she was for abortion, after she read the flier and I simply described to her, she turned against abortion and gave up her voice. Tonight is the night of my High Schools Homecoming, people put away the excitement of the later night, and during the school day gave up there voice. After people bombarding me all between classes for the red duct tape and the fliers, some just wearing it to support, some giving there voice up no matter what, it made me feel good knowing what I was doing was for a good cause. Through all the people saying "your entitled to your own opinion" telling me I shouldn't be doing this, we are entitled to. This is just a good way to express how we feel about abortion. After today, this day has drawn me closer to my bestfriend showing me we can stand up together, and support each other through everything as well as supporting a good cause.

Today was a good experience that I will never forget, and im looking forward to next year.

-- Lauren Oquendo

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Today was absolutely amazing! I had no idea being silent for 24 hours could be so cool!! I'd heard about the pro-life silent day two days ago, and I brought the idea to school to see who would do it. I got 6 people to be silent all day!! Then on the bus this morning, 4 more people joined!! We all wore red armbands with "LIFE" on them. In homeroom, some people asked why we were wearing the armbands, and we gave them the flyers. After they read them, they were saying, "Wow, that's so cool!" "I would totally do that!" "I could never do that; it would be too hard." It was hard to stay silent, but when we thought about the 4,000 babies who lost their voices forever today, it made silence a little easier. We're definitely participating next year- unless abortion is gone by then (which we hope it will!) On behalf of all the babies, thanks to all who participated!! :)

-- anonymous

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Today was so awesome! Some people made fun of me but most of the kids were curiouse about what I was doing and even a couple of teachers! I am really glad i did this to show people how wrong abortion can be.

-- Kay

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Ok, so today was the day of silence.
I was all excited and had my red tape and armband on.
I get to school and see the other people with their red tape on.
A couple of them even decided to post some fliers around the school on the free post boards.
So at the beginning of the day, every thing was going good until some other kids started being really mean about it,
they started tearing of peoples tape and trying to make us talk, they even kicked one of my friends until he said "stop". The sad thing is, most of them are our friends. They just didn't understand that we really cared about what we where doing. If that wasn't bad enough, our school, Sequoyah High School , wouldn't allow us to do it. They took away our red duck tape, tore down the fliers, and even sent the kids involved to student services to get in trouble. I feel incredibly upset about all of this, and I think it is wrong that we don't have the right to stand up for what we believe in.

Some of the teachers were nice about it and even thought what we were doing was amazing, and most of the kids actually joined in with us.

But it was the Administration, and a handful of kids who tried to ruin every thing.

All in all, today made me see how sad this world is coming to, especially when a student can't even have freedom of speech, or no-speech, anymore.

With love,

-- Anonymous

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today was the silent day. i actually was the one who registered my school on this website, but when i went to school today, i was SO shocked.
at least eight people had tape over their mouths, and a good thirty more had arm bands or anti-abortion tape on them. it was really an amazing day to experience. even the yearbook teacher came and got us out of class to get pictures of the main ones of us to put in the yearbook and share what this was about.
it was really just a great day for god and children and pregnant mothers, and i hope we made a difference.

-- Sarah

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It made me realize how much we are missing by those children not being here. Simply because I was silent, other people in my classes had to pick up the slack for when I was supposed to speak, by either having to read more verses in my bible class b/c 4 of us weren't speaking, or my friend having to talk twice as much b/c she read my answers in spanish class.
Even a little change of not speaking today made a big difference... imagine the "huge beyond imagination" things that we are missing because 4000 kids are silenced each day.
We only had 5 people participate at our college, but by God's will the message got out there. Somehow tons of people knew what we were doing, even without prior advertising. All we did was be silent and put fliers around. God is pretty amazing to say the least.

-- Stefanie Peter

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It was awesome today. Two of my teachers were totally for the whole prolife silent day thing. One person asked if I was goth or emo becuase I was wearing the pro life shirt (black) and a black headband. An emo girl said she liked my shirt though, so good job people who made the official silent day shirt. Another person said they thought i looked punk. I guess because of the black shirt, headband, and red bandanna armband. I can't wait till next year, but at the same time I hope it won't come and people would stop doing abortion altogether...

-- Sarah

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I hope this link will work. Today was fabulous. By the end of the day the entire school knew our cause. Half of my 6th hour class was silent.
Here's a link to pictures I took today during school. It doesn't even represent a fraction of the students that participated at Richmond High School.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v519/ForbiddenTears/Pro%20Life%20Day/

-- Lauren Rossi

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i brought the idea of the protest in to my school about a week before it actually took place. at first noone seemed intrested, im in middle school and by oct. 23 i had almost the entire 8th grade participating.

-- ary

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It went soooo well today, it was amazing!!

I got over 1/2 the kids at my school to wear the red duct tape armbands and make signs for their lockers and write "life" and "pro life" on their agenda books, passes, and homework.
They're all excited to do it again next year!

A couple kids got angry for us "shoving it in their faces" and made posters and signs about their pride in pro choice and started getting angry at me,
because I'm the one that bought all the ducttape and started it at my school,
but all the kids with the armbands and stuff who were standing up for pro life had my back.

It was epic and I can't wait to do it again next year.

I'm even considering talking to the school board/principal to see if we can put it in announcements and on the school website so more kids know when it's coming up and how to celebrate it.

Brittney Jo

-- Brittney Jo

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So this is my first year participating, and since September I've been looking forward to this day.
Well when i got to school this morning a got tons of strange looks. And whats the point? Well for a while until lunch people kinda just didnt pay much attention. At lunch Tons of jokes were made. It was abnoxious what some people said. I go to a Christian School so i was surprised w/ the attitudes i saw. But i had like 7 people do it, and i got a 6th grader to do it. Many of the upper class men made fun of us.
People tried to get us to talk.
Ill admit I talked when they asked what it was about and when lochner and the other guys were putting all of us down about it. I stood up, and today did go pretty good. I learned things personally, and made an impact in a few peoples lives.
Wellll God Bless.

-- Kyla Seaman

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So I went to the public library yesterday to print some of fliers off. For some reason the computers wouldn’t go to the site and I was really frustrated. I ended up having to go to standtrue.com instead. I think the fliers still turned out super fantastic and I was really excited about wearing the tape and the sign I made that said, “ASK ME WHY I’M SILENT.” I had asked my friends to do it with me, but it was either they didn’t care, didn’t want to have to be quiet all day, or were Pro-Choice. So it was just me.

In the morning, I came early at seven with fliers, tape on my lips, and my little sign stuck to my shirt. I was totally confident that I was going to change people’s lives. At first, people weren’t asking me why, just giving me a lot of weird looks. I expected that, but eventually, people who either were trying to be funny or just curious went over and got some fliers from me. I was kind of upset that a lot of people were throwing them away like right next to me and saying, “Have fun being gay!” The fliers were gone very soon.

I got a lot of rude comments today, as well as hearing people whispering about the tape on my face. The one that especially ticked me off was the one I got passing our lunch-duty-guy who I knew really detested me.
“It’s a good look for you!” even though that’s like the worst insult for a person wearing tape, it was still very rude especially coming from a member of the faculty.

Most of the putdowns really got to me at first, especially since I felt really alone in all of it. But despite the bad stuff, I did get a lot of, “it’s really great that you’re doing this,” and some thumbs up. My math teacher ended up writing me a little note that she was really inspired by my dedication.

I had a lot of fun and plan on doing it next year!

-- Allison Shubitowski

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Today was an awesome day!
I put my pro life shirt and ducttape on and went on the bus.
i cheated a lot with the talking but got tons of people to join and not talk just on the bus,
when i got to school
me and one of my friends went over to the flag pole, there were already about ten people there. and we got in a circle and prayed.
we had passed out the flyers the day before.
and throughout the day more and more people had asked for ducttape which i had a roll of.
other people had their own opinions
\but overall it was a very sucsessful day and i thhink we made an impact on a lot of people

-- Brittany

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Well, I guess I wasn't as strict in my silence as wanted. I made humming noises to say yes/no, accidently said a few words [what?! I accidently dropped my candy bar in the trash! D:], said hi to my cat, wrote notes- all that jazz. BUT I got my point across and stood up for the silenced which is what counts.

I taped 'life' and other prolife quotes/messages on my jeans with the red duck tape.

Before I thought it'd be so hard and everyone would make fun of me but about 15-20 decided to join me and told me they felt the same way. Most didn't keep the silence the rest of the day but a bunch took some red 'life' tape. The hardest part was not joining in the discussion about abortion/Christianity with a prochoice kid at my lunch table.

I've heard so many times about how public schools are 'so' horrible because all the teachers are so libral and anything to do with Christianity is considered 'unacceptable'. I had THREE of my seven teachers verbally tell me in school that it was great what we were doing and they are very prolife also.

I don't think I affected any new mother directly today but I hope that if anyone is thinking abortion, they'll remember our stand.

-Lindsey

-- Lindsey

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Today was really successful. As soon as I walked into my school there were a bunch of people trying to get tape from me, and find out what was going on. Once they did, they silenced theirselves too. There were a lot of people who couldn't last the whole day without talking, but I still think it's good to know that they believe in something.

A lot of my friends supported me in this. I told them about it last night and they decided after a conversation we had about it last night, that this was the right thing to do. They all decided to do it with me. Although, the ones who usually are closest to me, didn't seem to support what I was doing all that much. I don't care though, it was still a great feeling. I think conversations I had with some people last night really changed their opinions on this particular topic and I'm glad. Next year I think this will just get stronger, as I'm sure it will every year to come.

There were a lot of people today yelling at me and some of my friends doing it with me. They yelled things like "Kill the babies" and "fuck being pro-life." I even had one of my close friends telling me that what I was doing was "a few steps away from terrorism." People in my geometry class were the biggest assholes ever about it. This one boy made a big sign that said DEATH on it, and taped it to his shirt. He got right up in my face and started talking to me, saying how his "movement" was better because he was able to talk. Even with all the things people said to me, I didn't give up. I stayed silent for the whole day and I plan to until tomorrow morning when I wake up.

This honestly has been one of the most eventful days in the past few weeks for me, and I'm loving every minute of it. I really do find it funny how people always think that they'll get a reaction out of me. Lots of them just might have a different view of me by tomorrow.

All my teachers talked about how they didn't think I would be able to make it, because usually I like to make a comment about everything. I think they were really surprised to see that I believed in something so much, but I'm glad. It was a great experience.

I really cannot wait until next year. I think this is one of the most amazing organizations I've ever been a part of, and I plan on doing this every year from now on. Thank you so much for coming up with this, it really is a great ministry.

-- Sara Koga

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First, let me say that this is my third year participating in the Day of Silent Solidarity. The past two years, I have merely worn an armband (and, of course, I was silent), but because I am naturally a very quiet person, very few people noticed. So this year, I decided I would wear red duct tape on my mouth, because I wanted people to notice what I was doing. I also wore all black to signify mourning (unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to get a pro-life t-shirt).

My first class of the day is German. The day before, I had forgotten to tell my teacher that I was participating, so I gave her a note this morning and she was, thankfully, fine with it. When the rest of the class arrived, most of them glanced at me in surprise, and one or two stared outright. One girl said she had wanted to participate, but she didn’t have any tape, so she just wore red. I was both pleased to find someone else who was pro-life, and disappointed that she felt she couldn’t participate just because she didn’t have any tape. One of the guys in my class started to tease me, saying things like, “Hey, I can’t hear you!” or “Sorry, what’d you say? I can’t read lips,” when, of course, I wasn’t saying anything. I just smiled (or at least, tried to smile – the duct tape complicated matters) and shrugged it off, because I knew he didn’t mean any harm. The rest of the class passed without incident.

I don’t actually have a first period (German is Zero Period, by the way), so instead I help out in the Counseling Center, delivering slips and fetching students and the like. I only had two slips to deliver today. When I went to get my hall pass, three of the counselors gave me funny looks. One of them said to the others, “I think it’s for abortion. Pro-choice, isn’t it?” I started to nod before I realized what she had said, at which point I shook my head rather frantically and pointed to my duct tape, where the word LIFE was written. Another of the counselors said, “Pro-life, alright!” and pumped her fists in the air. I handed them a flyer to read, and when they had finished, they each said they supported me. It was unexpectedly touching.

My second period class is very small, and no one said anything. The two people I know in that class have seen me do this before, and the others probably didn’t feel comfortable asking me, which was a little sad. But on the way to third period, two people that I didn’t even know asked me about the tape. The first was a guy who kept staring at me; when I made eye contact, he looked away immediately, but a moment later he had caught up to walk beside me and was staring again. As I was about to go down the stairs, he stopped me and said, rather shyly, “Um, what’s the tape for?” I gave him a flyer and a smile; he thanked me and we went our separate ways. And then, as I was heading up the stairs in the Cafeteria Building, a girl said, “I don’t get it, why does it say ‘life’? I mean, it would make sense if it were ‘lies’ or something…” I’ll admit, I didn’t exactly know what she meant by this, but I handed her a flyer, and she read it as we walked up the stairs. At the top, she turned around and said, “That’s really cool, I support you.”

As I walked into third period, one of my friends gave me a really peculiar look that nearly made me laugh at loud. I gave her a flyer and sat down. The guy who sits across from me, who I’ve known for about four years but I’m not exactly friends with, came over to my desk and just stared at me with an exaggeratedly bemused look. I gave him a flyer, and two other people gathered around to read it too. The girl who sits next to me asked if she could see a flyer as well. Some of them said they thought it was cool; the others just handed the flyers back without a word (for some reason, almost everyone felt the need to give the flyers back, and I wasn’t exactly in a position to say, “No, you can keep them!”) We were watching a movie in third period, and some people had brought food, so I took off the tape in order to eat. Because I had lunch next, I just threw the tape away – I had brought more so I could put it on again after lunch.

Almost everyone that I eat lunch with supported me, even if they didn’t necessarily agree. My friend Mary said she wanted to do it, but she didn’t think she could last (she’s very talkative). One or two people thought I was participating in the day of silence for homosexuality, despite the fact that that day is in the spring and I’m not exactly pro-homosexuality, until my other friends set them straight. I also saw one of my friends from my old church, who was wearing the “she’s a child, not a choice,” shirt; she’s also one of those very talkative people, so I was impressed that she had decided to do it. She was one of the few other people who I saw participating.

Fourth period is choir, so I left the tape off for that. I always make an exception for choir, as much as I hate to, because it would hurt my grade if I didn’t sing. I still didn’t talk, though, and a lot of people in that class said they supported me. My friend Olivia even wrote on the board, “Sarah can’t talk – she’s standing up for her beliefs about abortion” in order to let everyone know. After that class, I went to the bathroom to put more tape on.

In my fifth period class, I handed out several flyers. There was also another girl in the class taking part – she had an armband on. I was surprised, but really happy, because it’s just awesome to find other people making the same statement. Near the end of class, when we were supposed to be reading but no one really was, two of the guys got into a debate about abortion, with the other Silent Day participant writing little notes every now and then. I was very tempted to join in verbally, except that the pro-life guy, Robert, actually said everything that I wanted to say. I don’t think Brant (who was pro-choice) was convinced, but he did give up after awhile.

My sixth period teacher’s reaction was one of my favorite – he looked at me, grinned and said, “Nice!” Like the rest of my teachers, he was very accommodating, though at one point he called on me as a joke (right away, he said, “Just kidding, no disrespect intended,” so I just smiled and shrugged). A couple of people in that class aid they supported me; one girl said she wished that I had mentioned it before, so she could’ve done it too (which was very surprising, because she’s one of the most liberal people I know). The guy who sits next to me said that he would get me to talk by the end of the period, to which someone else pointed out, “She’s got tape on her mouth, she can’t talk!” I guess the guy decided it wasn’t worth it, because he actually didn’t try to make me talk. Actually, he handed out a couple flyers for me when his friends asked him about it (I guess they didn’t feel comfortable asking me directly).

Every year, I expect to be harassed or insulted, but so far it hasn’t happened. I’m not sure I really reached out to anyone today, but I think I at least got a few people thinking, and who knows? Maybe next year, all those people who said they wanted to will actually participate.

-- Sarah Shope

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Today was such an amazing day! I am thankful that I was able to take part in the Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity. For the past few weeks I had been explaining to people about Silent Day and why I was pro-life. When I arrived at school this morning, I was so happy to see that other people had taken my thoughts into consideration and had decided to join me in remaining silent through out the day. Remaining quiet all day was harder than I had thought, but it helped me to know what I was making a difference and taking a stand along with the thousands of others who took part in this event nationwide. I handed out the fliers explaning why I was being silent and I could tell that most people had never realized how horrible the abortion holocaust really is. Many people came up to me to ask for red duct tape wanting to show their support for being pro-life. I was excited to see so many people showing encouragement! It was a really awesome event! I was lucky to have teachers who supported me in what I was doing. Though my biology teacher had seemed pro-choice at the time I had asked her for permission to take part in the event it seemed she had had a change of heart. She canceled her plans for what we were supposed to do in class today and spent the whole class period talking about the horrors of abortion. I am very glad that my classmates are now more informed about abortion and many of them have decided to be pro-life. I truly believe that God changed my teachers heart and He touched the hearts of many of my peers. I give all the glory to God because He made this day a success! =)

-- Morgan Stout

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Today in my school alot of us showed ourselfs as pro-life. we wore red shirts we made that said Be Pro-Life! Stop Abortion! and red ducktapre over our mouths.
Me and a friend we called into the office becuase we were the first to be seen with it we were told to change and take the red ducktape off of our mouths or be suspended. we chose to be suspended. they always tell us to stand for what we believe in for whats right, but when we do the result is to be suspended. so for the next week i wont be in school i will be across the street staying Pro-Life with me and my friends.

-- Krissy Brooks

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Today was a really hard day for me to stay quiet. It is my cousins 18th birthday and i couldnt sing to her, but she understood.

I got about 3 other girls to join me in my class to be silent for the day, but only me and my friend Angi were able to do it. People tried to get us to talk but it wouldnt work. I may have slipped once or twice but i remained silent. My friends and I were having a conversation the other day about the whole Day of Silence and we had different views of it. By the end of lunch we were still talking about it. My friend is pregnant but she would never get an abortion even though she is only 17.

This year was my 2nd year doing this and im sure ill be doing it for years to come. I know i dont have the most interesting story for this year but im sure it would be a lot more interesting if I was around a lot more people around me. I go to a technical school all day so im not really around a lot of people at my regular school.

I hope all of you had an amazing time.

-- Kaytlyn

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Devon Mott & I attend the same school, basically the same story - I just think it's insane how so many people can judge you the way they did. Didn't hurt me at all though. All during the day, i saw the red tape with 'life' on it add up. More & More students started participating. Greatday (:

-- Bradleigh Carter

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Today went pretty well for me. A didn't have duct tape on my mouth, but i did wear a red wrist band. Alot of my friends tried to make me talk while others joined me in silence. As for my teachers, all of them were fine with my not talking, but my SS teacher gave me a really disgusted look when i handed her the flyer. =/

-- Dana

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I heard about Pro-life Day of Silent Solidarity at the Awakening Fest in September. I knew it'd be something "simple" I could do to show my support for pro-life. It was definitely harder than I thought it would be, mostly because I'm so used to talking all the time, but I was determined and commited to being silent. It amazed me how judgemental people were today. Most people not even willing to ask why i think abortion is wrong. Murder is obviously illegal... well isn't abortion murder? I guess some people will never understand and we can only pray that others will gain the knowledge we have. It was very empowering to be able to show my support without saying one word. I have cheerleading practice tonight which, for the benefit of my team (considering we compete this saturday), i will be talking... but only when necessary. Besides that, I will remain silent for a full 24 hours!

-- Emmy Borgie

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During first period, I went to talk to my friend Angel, and she wouldn't talk back. I figured out it was a vow of silence, but I wasn't sure why. So I went through the rest of the day as normal. At lunch, I went to talk to my friend Sarah, and realized right there that she wasn't talking. I asked why, and she showed me a notebook that she was carrying around that said "ABORTION." As soon as I saw that, I vowed my silence. Many people think I couldn't do it, and others thought I could because it was such a good cause. I had my friend call my mother at work telling her I wouldn't be talking today. My mom then called me an hour later. I answered through coughs - 1 for yes, 2 for no. Although she admitted that she hated what I was doing, she respected it. I don't think I've ever been so determined to do something, and it feels great.

-- Kimberly Loughman

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today was really cool. a lot of people asked me what i was doing, and i told them. they thought it was really cool for me to stand up for what i believe in. It kind of upset me though that people were actually TRYING to make me slip up and talk. it amazed me to see how many people were pro-choice in my class, and how many people support and know what they actually do to babies to have an abortion. they actually made signs to go against the pro-life people. besides that it was an awesome day.
everyone respected me and my friends for doing it.

-- Raymond Wright

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Hello. I've started this Event here, at my school. It was good. We had like 50 kids.. BUT I FORGOT THE CAMERA!! oh well, next year will be bigger!

-- Josh

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I walked to the bus stop with my best friend, life tape covering our mouths. As soon as we got onto to buys, the ridicule started; students badgering us, calling us dumb or stupid or retarded for wearing the tape. A few people asked us about the tape, and I willingly handed over one of my flyers; I had sixty. As we got into the school, more and more people started to bother us. I never thought people could be cold enough to look at us the way they did. Our first class of the day, I was told that I could wear my tape, but if I passed out any of the fliers I had, that I would be suspended. I ignored the threat and continued passing out papers inbetween classes to anyone who seemed curious enough. In the halls between classes, students would walk past me, yelling 'Pro-chice' and insulting me, many wore tape on their stomachs of butts that said "PRO-CHOICE." My next two classes were more ridicule, with very few approvals, even a teacher poked fun at me for the tape at one point. My last class of the day was lunch, which was the worst by far. People stared at my lunch table, yelling profanities at us, calling us names, and advertising Pro-Choice, claiming that we were stupid and immature for the way we expresed our beliefs. One boy even approached my other friend and I, looked us in the faces, and said, "I support abortion." We nodded in acknowledgement. He then continued, "If your little sister was raped by a retard, would you still want her to keep the baby?" I locked arms with my friend, as we just stared at him. He laughed and walked away. Walking home from school with my best friend, random people would lean out the windows of their cars to yell things at us, as would people on the street.

The whole day, I watched people with pro-life tape, including myself, get torn down and messed with. But I'm above all of that. We all are. Go ahead and be ignorant, try and bring us down. It won't work. I spent the day gettig ridiculed, as did my best friends,
and I'm happy, because no matter what they said, I'm still silent until midnight. I'm still standing up for what I believe in. and I'm still strong.

They won't break me.

-- Devon Mott

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my teacher tried to tell me that i couldn't wear the tape over my mouth with an X on it.
(even though it wasn't the right kind i still tried)
My teacher told me that i MADE UP this thing just so i didn't have to participate.
Whatever.
Not cool.
Seriously.
Like she told all my teachers to try to make me talkk && call on me a lot in class.
I ended up taking off the tape but it's backk on my mouth now && i didn't talk all day.
If they don't deserve life,
I don't deserve my voice.
and for one day i CAN give it up!

-- Jessie

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I took responsibility for organizing it at my school.. i supplied red duct tape and the sharpie. it was great! on the back of my shirt i wrote [ask me why im silent] and i had little papers to hand out.. i had a teacher come up to me at lunch and tell me that the news or a paper should know about it; that was a great feeling.
there were some heated discussions but i just made sure i wasnt shoving my opinion on anyone....
it was deffinetly an amazing day; not many did it, but we deffinetly got our point out;

-- Cailin

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Hey I'm Sam AuBuchon. Today was an awesome day at my High School. I only knew of like 5 other kids that gave up their voice besides me. It was because all of my teachers and some of my friends supported me all day long. It was awesome to see kids ask my why, and I got the chance to tell them why and it was a really good feeling. During the day I think like around 5 people that didn't know about until we told them gave up their voices for the rest of the day. It was awesome to see this happen. I can't wait until next year. Sam AuBuchon

-- Sam AuBuchon

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ok so i would say today was really good. at first nobody was doing it, and by probably 3rd period there were TONS of people doing it. in my 1st period this guy tried to argue with me and i was answering by writing on a sheet of paper, and after a while he seriously ran out of questions. alot of people got sent to the deans. they didnt get in trouble, but we had to take it off our mouths. they told us we could put it anywhere else though. i was going to go to the deans, but i thought about it, and i didnt want to come off as disrespectful so i put my duct tape on my shirt, but i still didnt talk. i would have gone the dean if they wanted me to talk though. there were people that stole my duct tape and told me to tell them what i wanted, i didnt say anything, and thankfully somebody got it and gave it back. there were people that came up to me and im sure the other people too and said some pretty bad stuff to me, but i just walked away and prayed. there were people that would walk by me in the hall and start yelling "abortion abortion!" but there were also some really supportive people and people that were asking me for duct tape so they could do the same thing. so i would say it was good day. one guy i know said "who are you helping? no one." i wrote down on a piece of paper that we were creating awareness, and then he didnt know what to say and just dropped the subject. so i think what we were doing really made some people think =D

-- Jessica Beck

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had the best day today do this
we had to fight a silent balte with are teachers because they thought i was childless and in the end the students that where supporting pro-life day won in the end we made a huge poster and had 100 smaller ones and hung them up all around are school and took them down and made a hug poster with them all and covered areselfs in duck-tape and red and black maker with quotes and all we have about 6 or 7 pictuse from one camra i hope you injoy beacause we sure did :)

-- alyssa

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had the best day today do this
we had to fight a silent balte with are teachers because they thought i was childless and in the end the students that where supporting pro-life day won in the end we made a huge poster and had 100 smaller ones and hung them up all around are school and took them down and made a hug poster with them all and covered areselfs in duck-tape and red and black maker with quotes and all we have about 6 or 7 pictuse from one camra i hope you injoy beacause we sure did :)

-- alyssa

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had the best day today do this
we had to fight a silent balte with are teachers because they thought i was childless and in the end the students that where supporting pro-life day won in the end we made a huge poster and had 100 smaller ones and hung them up all around are school and took them down and made a hug poster with them all and covered areselfs in duck-tape and red and black maker with quotes and all we have about 6 or 7 pictuse from one camra i hope you injoy beacause we sure did :)

-- alyssa

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had the best day today do this
we had to fight a silent balte with are teachers because they thought i was childless and in the end the students that where supporting pro-life day won in the end we made a huge poster and had 100 smaller ones and hung them up all around are school and took them down and made a hug poster with them all and covered areselfs in duck-tape and red and black maker with quotes and all we have about 6 or 7 pictuse from one camra i hope you injoy beacause we sure did :)

-- alyssa

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had the best day today do this
we had to fight a silent balte with are teachers because they thought i was childless and in the end the students that where supporting pro-life day won in the end we made a huge poster and had 100 smaller ones and hung them up all around are school and took them down and made a hug poster with them all and covered areselfs in duck-tape and red and black maker with quotes and all we have about 6 or 7 pictuse from one camra i hope you injoy beacause we sure did :)

-- alyssa

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had the best day today do this
we had to fight a silent balte with are teachers because they thought i was childless and in the end the students that where supporting pro-life day won in the end we made a huge poster and had 100 smaller ones and hung them up all around are school and took them down and made a hug poster with them all and covered areselfs in duck-tape and red and black maker with quotes and all we have about 6 or 7 pictuse from one camra i hope you injoy beacause we sure did :)

-- alyssa

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I'll straight up and say it: I am Atheist. And I'm Pro-life.

This morning I got up and quickly cut strips of cloth out of an old shirt for my red arm bands. I had one on each arm. My mom got really mad because I wasnt speaking to her (Not like I talk to her much anyway)

Skool was uneventful. My boyfriend didnt even come to skool, so I really had no reason to even BE at skool. (He's the reason why I havent dropped out) Everyone understood why I wouldnt speak to anyone.

In science, we were doing a lab and I was supposed to call out every 10 seconds, I held out a peice of paper saying why I cant talk (Didnt have time to print flyers), and the group leader had someone else call out every 10 seconds.

However in speech class, some kids were baking cakes and cookies for their Demonstrative Speeches, and I got really thirsty and asked to get a drink. I felt really dirty for asking, but... My throat was REALLY dry and it was starting to hurt to swallow my cake. .__.

During lunch my friend asked why I wouldn't talk to her. I showed her the paper, and she immediately pulled out paper and said she'd be silent too. I felt so proud she was participating.

I actualyl had alot of fun. I didnt have to put up with anyone bothing me, after I showed them that paper. <3
If anyone wants, they can talk to me on msn about what happened today.
hdenning@charter.net
-Crypto!-

-- Crypto

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Today was both good and bad. A lot of kids at my school participated in being silent today for those who have been silenced forever. Many of the people asked me about what we were doing and I gave them a flier to read. Throughout the day, I noticed more and more students having LIFE on duct tape on different parts of their bodies. Although not everyone was silent, many still showed their support towards us and the cause.
However, some of the people weren't so supportive. Some of the supporters actually were made fun of. One teacher made someone cry because she made negetive comments about how none of us should be doing this and that it doesn't effect anyone.
i found that to be untrue. With the increased number of teen pregnancies, I'm sure at least one girl in our school had been through that. Maybe someone's parents, friend, or relative decided upon abortion. I think that we really made a difference today and I'm glad that so many kids supported the cause.

-Lorie.

-- Lorie

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My name is Justin Waters. I first heard about this from my girlfriend Hallie. I thought about it and looked up some stuff and I thought I should join in. So I went a whole day of silence letting people read a flyer. Everyone thought it was a great idea. The one in this picture is Shayne. He is the first person I talked to and he was the first person to join us in the school. We started out with only three people. At the end of the day, we had most of the school. I will have pictures of some of the students on www.myspace.com/sbhsbutterz under the album "Silence" very soon. Be sure to check it out!

-- Justin Waters

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Today was really successful. As soon as I walked into my school there were a bunch of people trying to get tape from me, and find out what was going on. Once they did, they silenced theirselves too. There were a lot of people who couldn't last the whole day without talking, but I still think it's good to know that they believe in something.

There were so many people today yelling things at us about how abortion was a good thing, and I even had one of my close friends telling me that what I was doing was "a few steps away from terrorism." No matter what anyone said, we all had our hearts put into this and we didn't let it bother us.

I really cannot wait until next year. I think this is one of the most amazing organizations I've ever been a part of, and I plan on doing this every year from now on. Thank you so much for coming up with this, it really is a great ministry.

-- Sara Koga

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So i started off the day wearing a white shirt with tape across it tht said ask me why im silent and i carried around the flyers for when people asked in my algebra class only one girl knew about it and wen someone asked me about it i would give it to them but oncce they knew they started bothering me about and saying you cant do it all day talk talk talk some boys started poking me and made odd noises in my ear i jusst sat their in silence and the teacer did nothing about it when one of the girls asked me for some tape and said she wanted to do it to i took out the duct tape and the teacher started yelling at me though it was free time and we could do w/e we wanted and he was saying put tht away and stop handing out those papers the girl was lik she has the right to free speech he said i dont care put it away now but then next peroid alot of my friends asked more for tape and copies of the paper so we went to libary and copied more no body in the hall asked me about it but i had so many friends talking to me it was actually hard to not talk either but i stuck to my guns in history this boy took on of my papers read it and said this is dumb and threw it at me and another boy said this is soo stupid why are you being quite for a bunch of dead babies there is no point to it your dumb you should go die i didnt say a word and in lunch a whole lot of girls came to my table as soon as i knew it so many people were in red tape it was amazing but boys next to my table started throwing things at us which was not kool and harrsed us to make us talk also in the hall people were screaming out pro-life or pro-choice when i got back home people IMed me saying how everybody was fighting in school today about it.....but im glad tht my friends and i raised awarness and it was worth hopefully we changed someones mind today

-- Mikaela

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My name is Sara Sparks i attend Pennfield Senior high school in Michigan. At first the shcool shoook their head no but i didnt give up. Finally they allowed us to do Pro-life day and i was the"leader" for it. It was pretty AMAZING!!!
it was a totalk hit!!!
im so excited!!!
I think we deffinetly got our point across. HOpefully the result will be even bigger next year!!!
cant wait!!!
I got kids from all different groups in the school to understand what what going on and they wanted the bands and were wiling to pay for one if they had to. I was not accepting donations though. Next eyar i hope to have it set up soon enough so that we can take donations to help stop abortions!!
Well hope all was a success!!!
-sara sparks

-- -sara sparks

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Today the first thing we did is go to breakfast at a place called Richards. Its a restaurant where a lot of retired and older people go to eat. Me and my Girlfriend (Stephanie Spry)usually eat here cause its good food for cheap but today I felt on display almost as soon as we walked in everyone looked up at us and just kinda watched us till we sat down. It was kind of intimidating, but I realize this is supposed to be hard.

I am just glad I can get the word out. I have been looking for this day for quite some time now. This is my first time participating and definitely not my last time.

Thank you for giving me the chance to do something to help change peoples lives.

Sincerely,
Mitchell Bumgardner

-- Mitchell Bumgardner

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Today I really do think was a big success. As soon as I got into the school I had a TON of people looking for me, whether it was to get tape or to figure out what was going on. At the beginning of the day, I honestly thought it was going to be harder than it sounded, but the day went fine.

There were a lot of people around the school, once everone knew what was going on, yelling hateful things about today at us. They said things like "Kill babies" and "Screw pro-life". I even had one of my close friends tell me that what we were doing was "a few steps away from terrorism." No matter what they said though, I only talked once to explain to a girl what was going on. She didn't seem to understand what I was saying when I wrote it down, so that was the only time I talked. She was against us doing it in school, but I do think that I got her opinion on things to change a little bit.

All my teachers talked about how they didn't think I would be able to make it, because usually I like to make a comment about everything. I think they were really surprised to see that I believed in something so much, but I'm glad. It was a great experience.

I can't wait till next year, this has been such an amazing day. I have people in my house constantly trying to make me talk, but I'm not gonna let them get to me.

Thank you for today, StandTrue Ministries. This is such a great idea, and I'm so proud to have been a part of it.

-- Sara Koga

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My name is Erica and I go to Holtville High School. I came to school today being the only one wearing tape over my mouth and fighting for the Pro-Life cause, however as the day went on, more and more people (most I didn't even know) were coming up to me inbetween class and during class, asking for tape and fliers. It was so beautiful to see so many people supporting the demonstration, despite the many different races, religions, and opinions. For the most part, everyone was respectful towards those with beliefs in Pro-Life, and it broke my heart to read about the cruel treatment that others recieved across this world and had to endure. I just pray that those looked down upon for expressing their morals will strive through it all and continue on this journey to an abortion-free world.

With love and admiration,
Erica Thornburg.

-- Erica Thornburg

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Today was an amazing day. I saw the bulletin on MySpace for this Day of Silence and I thought that it would be awesome if I could get a few people from my school to participate. Monday, I talked to quite a few people that had agreed, but today, I didn't expect too many people to stick with it. There were 13 silent people on my bus ALONE. We all had our red duct tape and bandannas. When I got to school, I probably handed pieces of duct tape to over 20 people. Then you have to count all the people that my friends on the bus gave tape to, and the people that those people gave tape too. I saw red going down the hallways all day today. It was amazing! But of course, there were some people that were jerks about the whole thing. Saying that what we were doing was stupid and pointless. It's not a baby, it's just a fetus. One person even had a button that said, "I hope the fetus you saved is gay." There was negativity from the principles as well. They didn't want us to have tape over our mouths because it was a "distraction" but many of us just put the tape back on as soon as we got into our classrooms. I'm very proud of how involved people in my school were. I am making a list of all the people that participated, and I may post it on here so they can be recognized. There's just so many of them... lol. A friend and I started spreading the word only yesterday. I feel like I've really done something good. I'm proud of myself, and I think we've all been heard.

-- Jessica West

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All I can say is wow. God truly blessed this day in so many ways. It started out just me and my two friends. It eventually spread to tons of kids; from 7th, 8th, and 9th grade. (I'm in 9th). It was awesome to see people unafraid of what their friends might think, and just wearing the duct tape in protest of the abortion holocaust. Almost all of my teachers were extremely supportive, and though we had some stong protest, we held our heads high. It was so hard not talking all day (even with duct tape), but Psalm 139: 13-16 helped me through the day. I was able to share these verses with a few people which was also awesome. It was also great being able to pray for the abortion clinics, mothers, and babies. This was my first year doing it, and I definitely plan on doing it every year from now on. =)

-- Danielle

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Today was an interesting experience for me. I woke up thinking that not many people in my school, besides myself and maybe 2 other that I know closely, was going to participate in this day. Well, I was wrong. I had printed out letters for my teachers stating the reason I was being silent. Most of these letters ended up being given to various students who decided to join in the day of Silent Solidarity. Without even speaking, I influenced about 8 others to be silent for the day. This caused much controversey with students in the school, and some people said rather rude things. I did slip a few times, and say some things- but for the most part I was silent. My day started at 5:45 a.m and is still going strong now, at 3:47 p.m. I plan on continuing my silence until 12 o'clock p.m. My silence cause awareness in my school, I believe, and I had many of my non participating friends tell me how proud they were of me, and how much they respected me for doing what I was. Many people told me they appreciated what I was doing, and one of my teachers even showed his appreciation by "pounding" me. Overall, I felt that this day couldn't have been any more amazing, and I look forward to doing it next year, with many more followers ! I'm sure that other Sayreville War Memorial High School students participated too, and if they're reading this: Good job ! That's about how my day went. =]

-- Alison Van Orden

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I decided to break the silence after school, but I managed to stay strong the entire day. I don't know if I was the only one participating, or not...but I may have been.

I wore the tape, but I was told to take it off after I was sent to the office. My astronomy teacher (who taught us that we are children of the stars) said he was not going to put up with it. The office was not really sure how to handle it, but I wrote "if you allow students to participate in the day of silence for homosexual rights, then what makes this any different?" The office claimed it was not any different, but I was still asked to remove the tape. Not because of safety reasons, but because it was "too bold." They did not want any complaints because I was being offensive to my liberal, pro-choice classmates (which are the majority). I know this because a student wore tape on his mouth for the other day of silence during the past school year, and he was permitted to do so.

The office said I could still remain silent, but the arm band and tape on my shirt made enough of a statement. My teacher still would not allow me to be silent, and tried to send me to the office again. I knew that I should've spoken and not sacrificed my project grade, but I go to a very liberal school. If I spoke even to do a presentation it would be over. I wrote on a piece of paper that I was given permission to be silent by the office, and I knew that I was taking a risk. I got a 0 on the project, and I did not even stand up for myself when my group said they did not have my work, when I was not even included in the group.

My other teachers were understanding of it however. I got no problems from anybody else, aside from students bugging me and giving me weird looks. My first and second period class (double period) was really harassing me about it, but for the most part the day went semi-well.

-- Lissa J

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Today was an amazing day! I made T-shirts for the four others and myself who really organized the event at my school. On the front, they say "Silend for the Silenced" I covered my baby sisters hand in red paint and added it to the tee-shirts, and red paint dripping off of the "silenced", along with red smears all over. On the back, it had "LIFE" written with the red duct tape, and below it, it said "Everyday, 4,000 children are killed in the name of CHOICE." We had a HUGE roll of red duct tape and red cloth for bracelets and leg bands.

I was late for every class today becuase whenever I would go to walk, I was mobbed by at least 15 people or so asking for tape. Many vowed silence, but those who couldn't would ask for red arm bands and leg bands that said "LIFE" to still show support. We passed out the pieces of paper and really left a huge impression on the faculty and our peers. We are also being covered by the school newspaper, who would randomly take pictures of us.

Good job to everyone else so far, The day is not over yet!!!

~Kate

-- Kate

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Today went really well I have to admitt. I thought that I wouldnt be able to make a difference at all in the school, since mine is so large. But once people found out that I wasn't talking and wondered why I was wearing a piece of duct tape on my arm that said LIFE, and why I was wearing a red arm band they talked to people who knew, and eventually they found out my true reason why I didnt. I also decided to not to eat during the school day to prove that unborn children cannot eat, let alone SPEAK. I brought a roll of duct tape with me and handed it out all day. I only had problems with 3 teachers, who refused to belive that I was strong in my opnion and position. They tried to make me talk, but all I did was give them a blank stare back. I did get support from some of my teachers also, they said "Thank you, Wow okay, Stay Strong, ect" Everytime I handed out a piece of tape to someone i kept a talley mark in my notebook. I have to admitt I lost count sometimes by forgetting to mark it since I also did it in the halls, but I eventually had about 25 people at least wearing the tape. 2 of which decided not to speak with me. I am also staying away from the internet (except for posting my progress on here since I am not talking directly) I will not go on Myspace, AIM, email, and I even turned off my phone. I refused to talk to ANYONE until Midnight, in which I will be sleeping. By the end of the school day I tried to get pictures of everyone who wore the duct tape, but I didnt succede in that very well since they were all gone. Instead I went up to more people and had someone ask them if they would wear the tape since I could not speak. So I took a picture of them and I will be making a collage to post on here shortly. So far this is my day and I'm content with it, I just wish I had more notice to get more people to wear red arm bands considering I had less than 24 hours to spead the word.

never.stop.a.beating.heart.

Thank you,
Samantha Anne Seasword.

-- Samantha Anne Seasword

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I participated this year. It was hard at times, but it felt great to stand for something I believed in. People and the school were great about it. I think they respected me and what I was doing. Another great thing was seeing other people I didn't even know were participating participate. People also started joining in during the day as they found about it from the flyers. Overall, a great day.

-- Josh

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It was going really well this morning when I got to school. As I expected, some of the kids thought being silent for the day was somewhat dumb. In my Gym class it was hard for me to keep quiet and accidentally talked a little. Then in the locker room this kid called me stupid for it, but I just blew that off because I knew something like that would happen. Kids were also teasing me and trying to trick me out of remaining silent the whole day. There was something that really bothered me though. This kid was wearing a paper on his shirt that said "Pro-Choice," I thought that was really disrespectful and I prayed for him. As a lot of people have said, "Prayer is the strongest thing that we have."

-- Drew

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today i admit i slipped around 5 times. but i had to go to a dentist appt today and even my own teacher was harassing me. The tape was almost ripped off my face by at least 4 different people, i had the roll with me, so it didn't matter. Despite the now very chapped lips and the stinging from the ripping, i still had an AWEOMSE day today! One kid asked about abortions and hes pro-choice, i made him change his mind i think though, personally today was the best day ever, if i could, i'd do it again. NEXT YEAR FOR SURE!

neverstopabeatingheart<3

-- kimberly soles

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i had red duct tape over my mouth to show that i was pro-life and i was silent.
so these guys in band were walking behind me chanting pro-choice.
and i looked back at them and shrugged, cause i respect peoples opinions on touchy subjects like this.
so anyway, they kept doing it right to my face the entire period. so at the end of band, i wrote on a piece of paper "i respect you opinion. why cant you respect mine?" and they were like "wow, i guess so. im sorry."
but this one kid [in my grade] was just like
"no, im not respecting your opinion. its stupid." and he just kept bashing it.
he didnt even give good reasons, he just said it was stupid & gay and stuff.
so yeah, if your gunna try & bash someones beliefs, have something intelligent to say. if you are just gunna say its stupid, its not gunna affect what anyone else thinks, and just makes you look retarded.
and then today, some kid comes up to me on the bus and he was like "so your against abortion?" and i nodded. then he was like "would you still be against abortion if the condom broke?" and i just nodded and glared. it made me angry how close minded people are. im really glad i participated in this today. not only did we get negative feedback and kind of get made fun of, but we got some positive feedback too.
some random kid came up to me in the hallway and was like "pro-life?" and i nodded. and he was like "thats a really great cause, i support it 100 percent" and gave me a hug. [this is someone iv never seen in my life]
so yeah. i mostly got people who thought i was dumb for doing this. but there actually were a few who supported it. and i deffinatly brought awareness. my english teacher let a girl read my flyer to the class. and everyone was like "wow i never realized that" and we talked like the entire period about it. and we actually changed some veiws on the subject. and in math class, i was the only one in that class who was doing it, so everyone wanted to see my paper. and one girl was like crying because she read the paper. and then my entire math class was talking about it. it felt really good to make people aware of this issue. i feel like i actually helped make a difference

-- Tracie Haiko

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wow,
so today was insane.
my bestfriend ariana and i made a TON of bracelets/armbands last night.
by, folding the duct tape over, so it didnt stick to you.
i was so excited to see, just about like everyone i was friends with, and more walking with the red bracelets.
this morning, my hallways were almost silent.
we printed/handed out flyers aso.

all in all, it was absolutly AMAZING.
=DDDDDDDD

-- alexandra.

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My friend Sarah had told me about this, and I looked into it. I thought this was a very good cause, and agreed with what it stood for. We then started spreading it around the school, quite a few of our friends wanted to accompany us. We told them that we would talk to the principal about it, and get fliers and everything. We asked our principal and he said that it would be fine, and that we did the right thing talking to him first. So, today we came to school wearing our red shirts, bandannas, wristbands, and whatever else we could find. We handed our fliers to our teachers at the beginning of each class, and were not asked to speak, answer questions, or participate in class. All of our teachers were very supportive of it. There were some of the students in our school who didn't support our cause, but we didn't let them bother us. There were the kids who disagreed with us, the ones who told us that we weren't going to make a difference, and the ones who just got frustrated with the fact that we weren't talked. I had a few random kids I didn't know even walk up to me and ask me for a flier so they could participate. They were a little late, but every little bit counts. Next year, we hope to have more people help us, and decide to partake in Silent Solidarity with us.

-- Ronna

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I helped promote and get more students involved in this years silent day. We all had fun and got the chance to talk about our cause in our classes at Long Reach High School. I talked to 3 students one had an abortion over the summer and she joined in our silent "protest" saying if she had the chance she would go back in time and she would've had the baby instead. Another individual said he would have had a younger sibbling but his mom had an abortion and he hadn't thought much about abotion untill then and now he is Pro-Life. And another who said she wanted an abortion so i spoke to her and tried to sway her choice alitte by telling her other alternative options if she could not care for the baby and she changed her mind and is going to have the baby and give it to a family who cannot have a child of their own for what ever reason. My day was awsome and according to the others who particapated their day went good to.

-- Mellissa Morris

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I walked into school silent as could be, with red duct tape on my wrist that read the letters "life". After many questions from my fellow peers in first period i told them what it was for and how they could join in too. I ended up making 5 bracelets for other kids that period. In second period I made 23 more bracelets for the kids in my class. By the lunch time i had over 50 kids ask for a bracelet. i went through 2 rolls of red duct tape, and it still wasn't enough. It's crazy how one little person, like me, can make such a difference in a school, like mine. My camera died after taking some pictures, so pictures will be on the way soon =D

-- Hannah Myers

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It's only 2:13p and I've spoken... I think I did a really good job earlier though. I handed out almost 100 flyers at school and I was the only one there participating (that I know of). I hand made the flyers last night because my printer hasn't been working. I have always felt in my heart that abortion wasn't right and I would argue my beliefs with people i know. I knew they were wrong and wanted them to believe what I thought. After all, these people, ny family and friends, are sitting here telling me that it's okay to kill a baby. I don't understand how they could think such a horrible thing. I always wished for a way to really convince them of that.
I was on MySpace on afternoon and I saw a buletin someone had reposted showing very graphic photos of babies who were aborted, accompanied by music. At the top was a Pro-Life Day poster. I followed it to this site and almost cried. I saw how many people were with me all around the world and it was the most amazing feeling. I told EVERYONE!
Last night I was so excited and kind of nervous. My almost-boyfriend told me that it was stupid. "How can you speak up for something without saying anything? That's so stupid." That hurt my feelings and I almost decided to back out. I thought about why I had first wanted to participate and I made my final decision. I quickly made posters and bands, making sure I wasn't sleeping until after midnight so I could practice staying quiet. (I like to sleep with the music on and sing while I'm lying down LOL)
When I woke up my brothers were staying silent, too. They're twelve. That was encouraging. I was off to school earlier than normal because I was so excited. I passed out as many flyers as I could and my teacher thought it was a "good cause". A board member, I think, sat in to take notes about how our classroom is ran told me that I was doing such a good thing and to keep it up. That made me smile.
All of my schoolwork is done on a computer at school so I had a chance to read stories about other peoples' experiences from past years. The stories were so touching. I tried not to cry. I could just feel the grace of God shining down on me.
In the hall while I was passing out flyers I was thinking that I could be handing these papers to pregnant girls who are scared and unsure. I knew I could have been helping them to make the right decision. That was the best part.
I got a lot of time to think. To pray. To thank God I was blessed. The day I found out about this Silent Day I knew this is what God put me here for. I told my friends I will do this every year until our voices are heard (or lack there of). I know abortion will be stopped. And I now know that I can help to rush that process.
Thank you for reading my story.

-- Ashley Goodwin

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This year was my first year participating in the Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity, and it was great. I had a great day at school and so many kids we're interested in what I was doing! One girl in my second block class even decided to take the vow today for the rest of the day even though she had already talked. I feel great about making a stand and spreading the word to so many people. It was definately worth every weird look I got for having duct tape over my mouth!

-- Kate R.

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Today has been hard to be silent ...but I'm still here, silent, and praying for the end for abortion. I have been preparing for this day for months. I'm going to be fifteen in one month, and my parents are just proud of the how commited I am to this and making a stand to end abortion. I've got about 2 other friends who are doing it, and they have gotten about 10 other people to do it. This is great!

In his love,
Stephanie

-- Stephanie

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Hey!
I was at lunch just and when i saw all the students there with the duct tape over there mouths i was truely impressed. Tis morning i felt like no one was going to do this but as the day went on i inspired people to be silent. i let them read the little flyer i gave tham and they told me they wanted to join in. during they day i did meet some people that were pro choice and they said some things that were kind of rude but i just pray that they will change their mind somje day and join this cause. I pray that in doing this that people who thought of aborting their babies don't see that as an option anymore. God bless.
-Kiana K.

-- Kiana K.

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My friedn Rebecca Horner and I took a vow of scilence today to show our respect for all of God's creatures that were murdered. We printed off felers to gain more respect for what we were doing today. We had at least 100 people wearing red tape eaither on their wrist or pants. Some people were very disrespectful towards our protest. Some people would take the flier and rip it up in front of us. One person took the flier, without looking at it, crumbled it up, threw it in his mouth, and then spat it at me. There was some people that found tape and wrote "Pro-Choice" on it. But Rebecca and I kept our chins high and kept finding people that would be Pro-Choice. And we plan on doing this for years to come.

-- Shannon Shaw

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hey everyone! I had to come early cuz of medical reasons but I wore a red bandana on my arm with the words LIFE written on tape and people responded. This morning before school even started my friend Christina was like "that's cool" and wore one of my other bandanas. My little sister (7th grade) and my mom (who works in elementary skewl) wore them too. I saw other people in my skewl who I didn't even expect to be wearing them! I handed out the little fliers and cards and i wasn't really teased or taunted, most people were either like that's cool or whatever. I find that went u stand for something and don't back down people just leave you alone. I actually had to tear my bandana twice so two other girls could join the cause. I only went to skewl for three periods and I saw about 10 participants or so, so I'm assuming there are even more who I don't know or I didn't get to see. Hope everyone remained strong and made a difference in someone's life today!

Melissa

-- Bryan Kemper