It is 7:00 am on a Monday morning and the front of Garfield is teeming with students. This is quite an unusual sight, for any respectable Garfield student would still be sound asleep at this ungodly hour. Yet the atmosphere is not thick with the yawns of bleary-eyed adolescents, but charged with excitement and defiance.

A small mass of people stand across the street, flanked by police and swarming reporters. The signs brandished by the rain-jacket-clad individuals scream “God hates fags” and “Obama Antichrist.”

No one shouts profanities at these radical demonstrators, and surprisingly, no one is throwing eggs. Not a single middle finger is raised.

This is Garfield High School’s counter-protest against the presence of the Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, Kansas. This religious extremist group, known for their aggressive picketing methods and “enlightenment by any means” tactics, has singled out Garfield as the only high school in Seattle to protest.

And Garfield has certainly responded. Which is exactly what this group wants.

The Westboro Baptist Church practically thrives on negative attention. They film crowd’s reactions to their crudely worded signs condemning homosexuals and Jews alike, then use the footage to fuel their cause. Sometimes, they even use the footage in lawsuits as evidence that their constitutional rights to free speech are being violated. Settlements for these cases have been a major source of income for this government-classified hate group, so the more of a rise they get out of counter-protesters, the better.

While the counter-protest was peaceful and spirited, it was also inflammatory in a sense. Any sort of attention given to the picketers is proof to them that their methods are effective and their message is getting across. By giving them our attention and investing our energy in defying their message through protest, we are only adding fuel to the fire. If the Garfield community truly wished to prove that the church’s message of intolerance and hate is not to be accepted at our school, we would simply do nothing at all.

To prove that we truly have no ears for their hateful words, which are aimed as attacks against members of our community, we should not give them the satisfaction to know that they are affecting us. We should give them silence.

It is aggravating to simply watch from the sidelines as our communities are insulted and our diversity is condemned. It is only natural that we would react by shouting right back at them. It is human nature to want to defend your own, even if the weapons you are fighting with are essentially the same as those of your enemies.

Whether peaceful or not, a protest is a protest. Noise doesn’t cancel out noise.

Why not let Westboro’s hateful words fall to the ground without any having any effect? Why not take our intolerance of their intolerance to the next level, and take the highroad? Why not strip the church of their one and only weapon: shock value? We can do this simply by not listening, Garfield. They are not even worth the time to listen to. So next time, don’t set your alarm and get some rest.