We misinformed our audience yesterday on a hot topic, and I thought it was time to set the record straight.

Yesterday, we posted a solicit on our Facebook page (become a fan, by the way, if you haven't already) about the National Day of Silence. We claimed students were exercising their freedom of expression in support of gay rights through this national day of recognition.

The organization that supports the National Day of Silence -- an group called the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) -- emphasizes their push for a safe learning environment for all students regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, and draws support for their cause from case studies in which students are bullied, harassed and threatened becaused of their confirmed -- or even perceived -- sexual identity.

When we said yesterday on Facebook that students were planning a gay rights demonstration through the National Day of Silence, that was incorrect. GLSEN and the National Day of Silence has nothing to do with marriage equality or any other equal rights measures, and GLSEN has never endorsed any such movement.

We projected the correct information in our online article and in our 10PM news broadcast, though in our editorial meeting this afternoon, one person had to correct themselves when referring to the National Day of Silence as a "gay rights movement."

It's extremely important to clarify what the National Day of Silence strives for, and what it does not. Some parents kept their children home from school today believing that today's movement for safer schools was equated with a grassroots campaign for homosexual rights. And by portraying that incorrect information yesterday, we're have to take responsibility on that influence.

Still, as I read the forty-plus comments left on our Facebook posting, I could easily see that some were offended by the thought that their children might be forced to participate in what they still considered to be a movement for equal rights. And yesterday, FOX40 News interviewed SaveCalifornia.com's Randy Thomasson, who reacted to the Day of Silence by saying...

"To be tolerant, you have to agree to disagree. But by forcing someone to agree with you is the very definition of intolerance."

Let's set the record straight: Nobody is forced to participate in the National Day of Silence, and staying quiet in the classroom to show solidarity against bullying and harassment on any level is NOT a distraction to the learning environment. Children who talk out of turn are more of a distraction than children who choose to stay silent for a day because they feel beating up a fellow peer because of his or her gender or sexual identity, religion, race or otherwise.

Read more: Students plan protests, opposition says keep kids at home