I wrote yet another story this week about the problems at Lake Washington High School, when it comes to Antioch Bible Church. In this installment, last year’s school paper co-editor, Molly Silver—now a student at New York University—wrote an opinion piece about the church, which the school yanked. The school says they yanked it because it was plagiarized, a charge Silver very much denies. Silver says she did base her opinions on what she’d read in the New York Times, but she credited that paper where credit was due.

The school’s principal, who attends the church, also contends—via the district spokesperson—that he offered to set up Silver with Antioch’s pastor, Ken Hutcherson, for an interview. When I spoke with the district spokesperson, I told her that according to Silver, no one offered her chances to fix her piece, or told her about interview opportunities.

The story I wrote includes Silver’s denial of the school’s version of events. But just to make everything perfectly clear, I got this note from Silver today. She read the story, and takes strong exception to the district’s line:

Hi Amy,

I just read your piece and I liked it, however I have a few things to
correct…

THEY FUCKING DID NOT OFFER ME ANY INTERVIEW WITH KEN HUTCHERSON. I am completely shocked that the district rep would lie so blatantly and I am insulted that they did not realize I would have remembered such an offer had it actually occurred. Not only that, but there was no Seattle Times article that I “copied word for word”. They articles that I REFERENCED in the piece were from the NY Times and from a Christian website. Furthermore, I was never given any options to improve the piece because I was not informed of its removal from the issue until AFTER it was sent to the printer.

The corruption at Lake Washington High School continues…

Molly Silver