By Lynn Thompson
Times Snohomish County reporter
Hundreds of protesters and counter-protesters clashed outside Mount Si High School in the Snoqualmie Valley in 2008 over The Day of Silence, an annual event meant to call attention to the harassment of gay students.
Now, a brutal assault in the boys' locker room is raising questions about the climate for gay students at the school and whether administrators are doing enough to respond to bullying.
The November attack was the culmination of several weeks of taunts about the perceived sexual orientation of a freshman boy, his mother said. The assault victim was another 14-year-old boy who told Snoqualmie police that he was tired of his friend being picked on.
The assault broke his eye socket, two teeth and left him with a concussion. Medical assistance wasn't called for almost an hour, and the boy continues to have problems with dizziness and concentration, according to medical records.
A 16-year-old student, who knew neither of the boys, has been charged with second-degree assault in King County Superior Court and no longer attends the high school. His family declined comment. Another student, who allegedly led the taunts and was seen talking to the assailant immediately before the attack, told police that he didn't know the assailant and hadn't told him to assault the victim...
"When we asked to be heard, they were defiant. Instead of protecting the youth in their school, their purpose seemed to be to circle the wagons and protect themselves," said Heather Sommers, who said her son was harassed for presumably being gay in the weeks leading up to the assault because his voice hasn't changed yet and he's sometimes physically awkward.
Outspoken anti-gay rights pastor Ken Hutcherson and a group of parents in 2008 called for cancellation of the Day of Silence. They told the school board that the event was an example of Mount Si teachers forcing their liberal political agenda on students. When the day wasn't canceled, they urged parents to keep their students home. More than 100 held a prayer vigil outside the school...
Josh Friedes, advocacy director for the gay-rights group Equal Rights Washington, attended several of the contentious school-board meetings. He said that Superintendent Joel Aune never spoke out for the right of gay students to attend school free from harassment.
"The absolutely uncontroversial proposition, that all students should be safe at school, was eclipsed by a belief that there was a gay political agenda." Friedes said.
George Potratz, a language-arts teacher at Mount Si, said he's been disciplined twice for standing up for gay students, once when he booed Hutcherson's appearance as the school's Dr. Martin Luther King Day speaker in 2008, and again last year when he taught a poem before the Day of Silence by Walt Whitman about the loss of a male lover.
School administrators have done little in the last two years, he said, "to foster student understanding of gay people." The result, Potratz said, is that some students "feel entitled and empowered to aggressively voice their intolerant attitudes."-
Two weeks ago, Johnson and her son helped Sommers and her son pack up the contents of Sommer's Snoqualmie Ridge apartment and move to another city. Since both boys stopped attending Mount Si, they will likely have to repeat ninth grade. Sommer's son will attend a private school on the East Coast next year. Johnson said her son will not return to Mount Si.
No protests were held outside Mount Si on the Day of Silence in April, but 432 students — almost 30 percent — skipped school.
Sommers said she asked her son what he thought about so many kids not showing up.
He said, "I think a lot of people don't like gays."
Related
Help for bullying
State Education Ombudsman
The Washington State Office of the Education Ombudsman provides third-party conflict resolution for families and schools to help address bullying, harassment and other problems that affect public-school students.
The office provides information, consultation and coaching over the phone. The services are free and confidential.
To contact the OEO call: 1-866-297-2597.
Safe Schools Coalition
The Safe Schools Coalition provides support and advocacy for students being harassed because of gender expression or perceived sexual orientation. Help is available to the students, families or school staff of K-12 public and private schools. The organization also provides training to schools.
To contact the Safe School coalition, e-mail:
intervention@safeschoolscoalition.org. Messages will be returned within 24 hours. Or call 1-877-SAFE-SAFE. Calls are answered 24/7 by staff at the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center who forward messages to a Safe Schools Coalition intervention specialist.
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