Placer’s Gay-Straight Alliance club participated in an anti-slur campaign to raise awareness about their club and their cause during the returning week in school.

Participating members had insulting words and phrases that they have been called written on duct tape, and proudly wore them around school. That day at lunch, they put the labels on a poster and cut it into pieces, a symbolic gesture of them overcoming negative stereotypes. 

The next day, they labeled themselves positively, boasting inspiring words.

 “We wanted to get the club’s name out and demonstrate the prejudice on campus and how we are choosing to cope with it. We just wanted to remind others around the school that we’re not second class citizens,” explained GSA vice president, senior Connor Soejoto.

“We wanted to use this as a way to prove that everyday slurs that we hear around campus are offensive,” stated club president and senior Hayley Hanley.

This silent campaign was also in response to past aggressive actions towards the club. When the club was first starting, a short article was run about them in the Hillmen Messenger.

“That article was cut out of the paper and put on posters around the school along with offensive words. It was totally defaced. We spent two meetings talking about it,” told Soejoto.

The club came up with a positive way to overcome the slams they were faced with and were even inspired.

“Slander personifies why we need a club like this… The primary purpose of the club is awareness,” Soejoto stated.

With “raising awareness” being a recurring goal for the club, the question of whether or not they have achieved this has been raised.

 Soejoto feels “whole-heartedly” that the club succeeded in reaching their objectives.

 “Many people in my classes questioned me about it, and I got to explain what we were doing,” he said.

On the contrary, Hanley feels that their goals “were not reached 100%.”

“I feel like the student body was not in tune with what was going on. We are going to do more similar campaigns in the future, and we plan to have more promotional posters and have announcements in the bulletin,” Hanley commented about the club’s future endeavors.

While this sole campaign has not made the whole of Placer’s student body conscious and tolerant of the GSA Club, it was a strong first step from a club with noble ambitions.