Mount Si High School librarian challenges e-mail on school club

Published 9:18 am Thursday, October 2, 2008

The Snoqualmie Valley School District Board of Directors heard more about the perception of bias at Mount Si High School at its March 6 regular meeting.

Mount Si librarian Elaine Harger said she had received an e-mail from Rev. Ken Hutcherson that referred to Mount Si’s Gay-Straight Alliance as a “sex club” and asked if Harger wanted to be added to the list of Mount Si teachers he was pushing to have fired.

“What had I done to justify that he would try to get me fired from my job? This is intimidation, pure and simple,” said Harger.

Hutcherson was invited to speak about civil rights at the high school’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day assembly in January. One teacher booed him during his speech, and another asked him about his public opposition to equal rights for homosexuals.

Harger was not one of the teachers who interrupted the assembly, but said she had exchanged e-mails with members of the Coalition to Defend Education (CoDE) who accused her of pushing political agendas on children.

CoDE is a group of parents and community members who aim to stop what they perceive to be indoctrination of children in schools.

Harger said her e-mail had been forwarded to Hutcherson, who did not return a call from the Valley Record by press time.

Phillip Garding, CoDE’s vice president, said at the meeting that allegations that his group had an anti-gay agenda were false.