Candidate Offers Students Lesson In Free Speech Speaker Outrages Forum By Using Bible Quotes To Say Homosexuals Should Be Killed

A legislative candidate who outraged many Puyallup High School students with his inflammatory remarks about gays and integration may end up being a good lesson in the basics of democracy and free speech.

Mark Downey, a Populist Party candidate for the 25th District of state House, Position 1, was invited to speak at the school-sponsored forum but startled students with his intolerant message.

He used quotes from the Bible to say homosexuals should be killed, and he called multicultural integration a cancer.

At the end of his speech, Downey appeared to give a stiff arm, Nazi-style salute, although he contends he was merely waving to a woman in the back row of the audience.

“He said something to the effect that Communists, homosexuals and non-whites should not be allowed to hold public office,” said Matthew Oren, 18. “It was a shocking thing.”

Downey contends he was contributing to the marketplace of ideas.

Ben Allison, 17, said that as a black person he was offended by Downey’s remarks, but he wasn’t sure that Downey should have been banned from the forum.

“I think he had a right to come because if he hadn’t come, no one would know his views,” Allison said. “I was close to hitting him, though.”

Bettina Gord, 17, said Downey told her she shouldn’t be able to hold public office because she is female. She said she was disheartened when a student gave Downey a “high-five” after the speech.

Carri Ballou, whose daughter, Theresa Elliot, attended the assembly, was outraged that anyone could say such things in a public school that receives her tax dollars.

“Mark Downey has the right to his opinions but not to be preaching it to our kids,” Ballou said. “I certainly don’t raise my kids with those kind of views. He should have been dragged off that stage.”

Downey’s fellow candidates, Democrat Luanne Green and Republican Joyce McDonald, also were surprised by his comments.

Green said she thought McDonald might grab the microphone away from Downey.

“I said, ‘Let it go. The kids need to understand that these people are out there,”’ Green said.

Vice Principal Barbara Pope agreed.

“I really believe that he should have been there,” Pope said. “To me, the issue is what are we exposing our kids to. I think we expose them and then we talk before and afterwards with them.”

Nearly 550 seniors and about 100 members of the public attended Tuesday’s forum. Candidates made opening statements, responded to audience questions, then made closing remarks.

“I happen to not agree with the Republican platform, but does that mean we’re not going to invite them to our forum?” Pope said. “This was really democracy at its best.”

Oren, who was a student panelist for the debate, described a stunned silence in the auditorium for the first 10 seconds of Downey’s closing statement. That silence quickly turned to screaming and booing that nearly drowned out the candidate’s remarks.

Students and teachers talked about the free speech issues in classes following the forum.