UPDATE: Hutcherson draws 100 'prayer warriors'; 500 kids skip school to avoid controversy

As over 7,300 K-12 schools observe GLSEN's 12th annual Day of Silence today, battle lines are drawn between a vocal anti-gay pastor, his "prayer warriors," and the gay-straight alliance at one high school in the Pacific Northwest.

Mount Si High School, in Snoqualmie, Washington, is undergoing what is being called retaliation for an incident during a Martin Luther King Day speech given by Rev. Ken Hutcherson of Antioch Bible Church in nearby Redmond.

Antioch, having placed a newspaper ad encouraging parents to show up at the school to picket this morning, was countered by another ad by Tolt UCC Congregational Church, voicing its support.

"We send our kids there to get an education, not an indoctrination," Hutcherson told KING 5.

"It's personal," Mount Si principal Randy Taylor told the Seattle Times Thursday. "We embarrassed him at the Martin Luther King assembly. It's payback."

"Of course it's personal," Hutcherson concurred. "They embarrassed me and they embarrassed my daughter." The pastor's daughter, also a Mount Si student, helped organize the engagement.

Hutcherson, during his January 19 appearance, was booed by one teacher and asked by another how he could promote racial equality, while at the same time speak out against equality for sexual minorities.

"She said something to the effect of 'How can you preach a climate of acceptance and tolerance, but that doesn't apply to gays and lesbians?'" recalled Principal Taylor.

Calling it his job as a pastor to influence public policy, Hutcherson had earlier assailed executives of Microsoft, headquartered in Redmond, over its support of the "homosexual agenda" in its adoption of pro-gay employment policies and support of anti-discrimination legislation, threatening a takeover from the inside. Part of the pastor's effort was a call out to his parishioners to buy shares of Microsoft and donate them to the church.

Notably, gay 19-year-old Mount Si alumnus and activist Neil Lequia is paying a visit from Seattle to offer his support. Recalling a climate of bullying, faculty opposition and taunts in previous years' Day of Silence observances, Lequia told the Seattle Times: "We need this controversy to show we need a change.

"As much hurt and damage this has caused me, it's for the better of Mount Si."

UPDATE: Rev. Hutcherson's crowd of 100 were kept separate from Day of Silence supporters by police; 50 held silent vigil before the start of the school day, reports the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 500 students are reported to have not attended school at all, reports KOMO, with 200 volunteering to participate.

The accompanying video report below was broadcast on Seattle's KING on April 24, 2008.