Concerns over a recent Mount Si High School assembly brought an overflow crowd of residents, students and media to the Snoqualmie Valley School District Board of Director’s regular meeting Thursday evening, Jan. 24.

The controversy stemmed from what happened at the school’s Jan. 17 assembly in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Redmond Pastor Ken Hutcherson, whose daughters attend Valley schools, had been invited to speak by a group of students on how King’s legacy has personally affected him. Hutcherson has drawn controversy for objecting to suggestions that the current gay civil rights movement bears resemblance to the African-American civil rights movement in the 1960s, but at the assembly did not stray from the topic of King’s legacy.

During the assembly, one teacher booed Hutcherson, while another stood just before the end of the assembly and voiced a question to the pastor, which he did not answer.

Mount Si High School language arts teacher Kit McCormick asked Hutcherson how he felt about the opening statement from the assembly, “All people are created equal, and should be treated equally,” given his vocal opposition to equal rights for homosexuals.

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