USI clubs HEAR and Spectrum will be participating in the annual Day of Silence to support gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual (LGBT) community members on Friday. 

The Day of Silence is a national event where students across the nation take a vow of silence for a day to bring awareness to the silenced efforts to stop LGBT bullying and harassment in schools.

Throughout the day, Spectrum and HEAR will have a table set out for students to sign a banner and show their support.

They will also be showing the movie “Bullied” in Forum 1 at 3 p.m. followed by a panel of students and professors who will take questions regarding the movie and harassment in general.

The movie focuses on one kid’s struggle in high school and the torment he went through, said Crystal Steltenpohl, president of Human, Environmental, and Animal Rights (HEAR).

“His tormentors went as far as urinating on him,” Steltenpohl said. “That is what we want to prevent by doing the Day of Silence.”

In preparation for the event, students and professors will share their own struggles as members and allies of the LGBT community on Thursday at Breaking the Silence, a free event at 6:30 p.m. in Mitchell Auditorium.

Students will answer questions at this event about why they are participating in the Day of Silence without even speaking.

Participants will be handing out cards explaining the silence for attendees, Steltenpohl said.

Other speakers will accept questions and stories from audience members and will end the night with a special surprise, said Steltenpohl.

President of Spectrum Jazmyn Gideon said that this is her second year involved in the Day of Silence and will be reading an original poem at Breaking the Silence.

“Last year more people came than expected and we had to seat people on the stairs of Kleymeyer Hall,” Gideon said. “This year we moved the event to Mitchell Auditorium and we hope to fill the place up.”

Both clubs advertised the event throughout Evansville hoping to get high school students and members of the community to come hear the stories and take a vow of silence themselves.

“The silence allows people to see that there is a problem and we need to do something about it,” Gideon said. “Even a mass of silence can make a statement.”