I haven’t seen any coverage regarding which, if any, Triad-area schools are participating in today’s National Day of Silence, during which many students will reman silent throughout the day to protest bullying of GLBT students. Down in Wake County, I couldn’t help but notice that, while my old Raleigh middle school, Ligon, is participating, my old school, Millbrook, is not, despite the fact that many of its fellow Cap-8 schools are.

The N&O reports conservative groups are urging parents to keep their kids home from school today to voice their opposition to the National Day of Silence. Some parents claim that schools are complicit by allowing students to remain silent, but Apex High School principal Matt Wight says he and other principals “have told teachers to treat it like a normal day.”

That’s the proper way to handle it, and I think it’s the wrong approach to hold kids out of school. They should not only be sent to school but encouraged to participate as if it were any other day. Doing anything else would only call more attention to students remaining silent.