Class War

Two teachers at Snoqualmie’s Mount Si High School are planning to
take legal action after they were formally disciplined for protesting
Pastor Ken Hutcherson’s appearance at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day
assembly in January. Last week, the school’s principal, Randy Taylor,
met with Dr. George Potratz and Kit McCormick—both English
teachers at Mount Si—and presented them with letters admonishing
them for their behavior during the assembly.

During a student-planned assembly on January 17, Potratz booed
Hutcherson—famous for his virulently antigay lobbying and
rhetoric—and McCormick, an adviser to the school’s Gay/Straight
Alliance club, asked the pastor to explain how his speech about
equality related to his public stance against gay rights.

In the last few weeks, things have been tense at the school. Mount
Si’s office has been flooded with calls from parents—some angry,
some supportive of the teachers—and there are rifts growing among
the students. Recently, several students circulated a petition to end
the school’s annual “Day of Silence,” meant to raise awareness about
homophobia. When another student—a member of the
GSA—refused to sign the petition, they were harassed.

While the incident had come up at several packed school-board
meetings, the district had refused to “take a side” on the issue.
Still, the district allowed Taylor to discipline the two teachers.
Taylor claims the teachers—who were protesting Hutcherson’s
presence at an assembly about equality—acted in an
“unprofessional” manner, and, in his letter to McCormick, suggested she
should have, among other things, submitted an editorial to the school’s
newspaper in advance of Hutcherson’s appearance, rather than speak up
at the assembly.

Potratz and McCormick—who have both been offered free legal
counsel and support from groups like the National Organization for
Women and the Human Rights Commission—are working with their
union to contest the disciplinary letters.

jonah@thestranger.com