My question involves small claims court in the state of: WA

I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, I just don't know how the system works. I'm considering taking a former roommate to small claims court to pay past due rent. I'd like to avoid that, but he's being so stupid about things I may not have a choice.

I know that some cases can go into public records. I don't know what will be discussed, and whether he'll decide to be a jerk and randomly drag my irrelevant medical history into things. If he does, however, does that mean it's going to go into some public record that anyone can look up the transcript from and see all the random things he'd say? Or would it just be a general outline of the case? If that's so, could I be a John Doe in that case for my privacy, or will my name forever be on this stupid small claims court record to look up? I recently found a lot of records of myself online, and the last thing I want is the first result for my name in Google popping up a random public record of me taking this guy to small claims court.