Hutch opposes disruption by creating chaos

The Day of Silence as come and gone at Mount Si High School in Snoqualmie, Washington.

I decided to sit out the denouement of this manufactured drama and didn’t write about it.  I made a conscious decision in this case not to add to the ego stroking column inches that Reverend Hutcherson needs to thrive.

That doesn’t mean I haven’t read just about everything that has been written about it.  It was while reading this blog post over at Through a Glass Dimly that I realized the lurking irony of the whole scene.

I captured the thought in a comment that read, in part:

It amuses me that Hutcherson and the "Coalition to Defend Education" used the argument that the Day of Silence disrupted the school day when kids should be getting their education.  After all, education is the point of attending school, right?

Yet in reality, students at Mount Si High School participating in the Day of Silence were required to speak if called on in class.  Their commitment was to avoid only unnecessary talking. 

Look, no educational disruption!

But then again, maybe not.  In response to urging by Hutcherson the parents of between 500 and 600 children kept them home from school on the Day of Silence.  Some as a protest, but some because they didn't want to be at the school and forced to take a position on the controversy. 

If the meta-point Hutch and Co. wanted to make was that events like the Day of Silence shouldn't be allowed because of the alleged "disruption" that they cause, then creating an actual disruption and causing more than 500 kids to miss a day of school seems like a mammoth failure and more than a little hypocritical.

But, as we have all come to learn, failure and hypocrisy are Hutcherson's chief stock in trade.