By Chloe Lister

Several members of the school community participated in Harvard-Westlake’s official day of silence on April 14. The Gay Straight Alliance hoped to call attention to the harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.

Day of Silence is a national project started by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. According to the website for the event, “The goal of the Day of Silence is to make schools safer for all students, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression.”

The national Day of Silence will take place on Friday; however, Harvard-Westlake’s will occur on Thursday in order to accommodate students who will be attending the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival which occurs at the same time.

“Crossroads [School] actually doesn’t have school on Friday because of Coachella, so their GSA moved their Day of Silence to Thursday, which is where I got the idea,” GSA President Danielle Strassman ’11 said.

Harvard-Westlake has participated in the event in the past, but has not in the past few years either due to the lack of a formal GSA club or lack of interest.