By KATE MARTIN
Staff Writer
MOUNT VERNON — Over several days beginning Oct. 3, the words, “All
fags must die,” were found scrawled in blue marker in five girls’
bathrooms at Mount Vernon High School.
The messages listed several members of the school’s Gay-Straight
Alliance — all spelled correctly, a 15-year-old sophomore club member
told the Skagit Valley Herald. Hers was one of the names on the list.
“My name and others are almost always spelled incorrectly,” the
girl said in an interview Monday afternoon. “I have a gut feeling that
it’s someone who knows some of us.”
She said she was so rattled by the threats that she stayed home
from school Thursday. Vandalism was again found Thursday and then
Monday.
But on Tuesday, club members were shocked to hear that the person
who crafted the messages was one of their own. Mount Vernon High School
Principal Dave Anderson said a 19-year-old club member confessed Monday
afternoon to the vandalism. The young woman is one of the club’s
founders, said Cathy Pfahl, a faculty advisor to the club.
“The kids are just finding out today, and they’re devastated,”
Pfahl said.
The woman, whose name was included among the others written on the
wall, could now face criminal charges, said Jill Boudreau with the
Mount Vernon Police Department.
The police department will refer the case to the county prosecutor
and will recommend a charge of malicious harassment, a class C felony,
Boudreau said. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in
prison and a $10,000 fine.
Eric Monson, an assistant principal, said the student was
disciplined and was not at school as of Tuesday afternoon.
Gay and lesbian students have faced veiled hostility throughout the
years, Pfahl said.
“It’s in attitudes. All of the (club members) talk about
experiencing a shove in a crowded hall,” Pfahl said. “They’ll hear the
word ‘fag’ hissed and not know who it is.”
It’s not an overt anti-gay climate, she said, but “the kids get it
in smaller ways that make the need for courage necessary.”
Since the messages started appearing in bathroom stalls last week,
Pfahl said several students and faculty members came forward to support
the club.
“My hope is the students will continue building on that,” she said.
Pfahl said she thinks club members will continue with an event they
had planned months before, to ask fellow students to sign a pledge
called “Straight for Equality” on Thursday.
Straight for Equality is part of a national effort, Pfahl said, to
raise awareness about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered issues.
The pledge asks straight people to “come out” as a straight ally.
But with news that the vandal might be a club member, Pfahl said
the students are concerned about the club’s credibility.
“They are very worried that this will reflect badly on the club,”
she said Tuesday morning.
Kathy Reim, president of the Skagit County chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, said the club has had growing pains in the year since it was formed.
“I hope we can understand that these are cries for help,” she said
of the vandalism. “Sometimes they don’t look exactly like we think they
should.”
Kate Martin can be reached at 360-416-2145 or at kmartin@skagitvalleyherald.com.