Students knock down verbal abuse

February 5, 2015

Sticks and stones may break bones, but words can last a lifetime.

The thirteenth annual Writing on the Wall Project gave students the opportunity to destroy a metaphorical wall of verbal harassment and oppression last Friday.

Students pulled down the 9-foot-tall wall made of 364 cinderblocks, each painted with a hurtful word or phrase. Weeks before the ceremony, students gathered in front of Library West to paint a word or saying that has hurt them the most in their life on a cinderblock.

The 40-foot-wide wall was on display for a week at the Plaza of the Americas and included insults such as “inadequate,” “stupid” and “selfish.”

Sophia Lamothe, a pre-law student and director of the project, said the demolition of the wall intended to break down the barriers that separate the UF community.

LB Hannahs, director of LGBT Affairs and the ceremony’s keynote speaker, reminded students that the words live beyond the wall.

“The work we do to rid them from our consciousness is often a lot harder than taking a sledgehammer or lifting a cinderblock and throwing it to the ground,” Hannahs said. “The work requires patience and kindness, failure and growth.”