Young, Gay and Murdered

[varun]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/147790

Young, Gay and Murdered
Kids are coming out younger, but are schools ready to handle the complex issues of identity and sexuality? For Larry King, the question had tragic implications.

At 15, Lawrence King was small—5 feet 1 inch—but very hard to miss. In January, he started to show up for class at Oxnard, Calif.'s E. O. Green Junior High School decked out in women's accessories. On some days, he would slick up his curly hair in a Prince-like bouffant. Sometimes he'd paint his fingernails hot pink and dab glitter or white foundation on his cheeks. "He wore makeup better than I did," says Marissa Moreno, 13, one of his classmates. He bought a pair of stilettos at Target, and he couldn't have been prouder if he had on a varsity football jersey. He thought nothing of chasing the boys around the school in them, teetering as he ran.

But on the morning of Feb. 12, Larry left his glitter and his heels at home. He came to school dressed like any other boy: tennis shoes, baggy pants, a loose sweater over a collared shirt. He seemed unhappy about something. He hadn't slept much the night before, and he told one school employee that he threw up his breakfast that morning, which he sometimes did because he obsessed over his weight. But this was different. One student noticed that as Larry walked across the quad, he kept looking back nervously over his shoulder before he slipped into his first-period English class. The teacher, Dawn Boldrin, told the students to collect their belongings, and then marched them to a nearby computer lab, so they could type out their papers on World War II. Larry found a seat in the middle of the room. Behind him, Brandon McInerney pulled up a chair.

Brandon, 14, wasn't working on his paper, because he told Mrs. Boldrin he'd finished it. Instead, he opened a history book and started to read. Or at least he pretended to. "He kept looking over at Larry," says a student who was in the class that morning. "He'd look at the book and look at Larry, and look at the book and look at Larry." At 8:30 a.m., a half hour into class, Brandon quietly stood up. Then, without anyone's noticing, he removed a handgun that he had somehow sneaked to school, aimed it at Larry's head, and fired a single shot. Boldrin, who was across the room looking at another student's work, spun around. "Brandon, what the hell are you doing!" she screamed. Brandon fired at Larry a second time, tossed the gun on the ground and calmly walked through the classroom door. Police arrested him within seven minutes, a few blocks from school. Larry was rushed to the hospital, where he died two days later of brain injuries...

[mikita]

1. oh god, so so sad and senseless

I'm left without words -- why we are such a cruel species.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. A very interesting article

which points up the fact that tolerance needs to be taught far earlier than it appears to be now.

[blossomstar]

3. I cried when I read this...

his heart was given to a 10 yr. old on valentine's day. I'm sorry, but this "intolerance" from kids comes from what they see their parents do and say. So very sad.

[billyoc]

4. A tragic waste, beyond sadness.

BTW, if you have a weak stomach, do NOT read the comments. :wtf:

[dsc]

5. Of course we have to find a gay to blame

Joy Epstein was one of the school's three assistant principals, and as Larry became less inhibited, Epstein became more a source of some teachers' confusion and anger. Epstein, a calm, brown-haired woman with bifocals, was openly gay to her colleagues, and although she was generally not out to her students, she kept a picture of her partner on her desk that some students saw. While her job was to oversee the seventh graders, she formed a special bond with Larry, who was in the eighth grade. He dropped by her office regularly, either for counseling or just to talk—she won't say exactly. "There was no reason why I specifically started working with Larry," Epstein says. "He came to me." Some teachers believe that she was encouraging Larry's flamboyance, to help further an "agenda," as some put it. One teacher complains that by being openly gay and discussing her girlfriend (presumably, no one would have complained if she had talked about a husband), Epstein brought the subject of sex into school. Epstein won't elaborate on what exactly she said to Larry because she expects to be called to testify at Brandon's trial, but it's certain to become one of the key issues. William Quest, Brandon's public defender, hasn't disclosed his defense strategy, but he has accused the school of failing to intercede as the tension rose between Larry and Brandon. Quest calls Epstein "a lesbian vice principal with a political agenda." Larry's father also blames Epstein. He's hired an attorney and says he is seriously contemplating a wrongful-death lawsuit. "She started to confuse her role as a junior-high principal," Greg King says. "I think that she was asserting her beliefs for gay rights." In a tragedy such as this, the natural impulse is to try to understand why it happened and to look for someone to blame. Epstein won't discuss the case in detail and, until she testifies in court, it's impossible to know what role—if any—she played in the events leading to Larry's death.

end of quote

This whole thing pisses me off no end. I am sick of us being blamed when stuff like this happens. There is a lot of blame to go around, but Brandon is where it should start.

[MuseRider]

7. OMG that is disgusting!

"a lesbian vice principal with a political agenda." An agenda? A political agenda? Where are these peoples minds? An innocent child was murdered and they go to agendas? Is anyone looking into who might have influenced Brandon? NO? Of course not. How can people actually think like this? This was a child! A beautiful child who had the courage to be an individual.

This makes my heart hurt but it also makes my brain hurt. I do not and never will understand how this happens and how when it does it is defended like this.

[Hydra]

9. Amusing

Instead of one child being threatened and cold-bloodedly being murdered by another child, we are somehow being led to think that if he didn't act like what he was, that he would have been fine.

Conformity = safety?

[readmoreoften]

10. Sick fucks. Can't blame the little hateful shithead who did this. Have to blame a gay teacher.

What about the teachers who forced the lesbian teacher in the closet? Why isn't their agenda to blame?

[dsc]

13. In fairness she may have decided voluntarily not to be specific with the students

they may well have known but not be directly told. I am in a similar situation now but am pretty sure I will just answer the question. I don't particularly like the message I am inadvertently sending by giving a non answer/answer.

[readmoreoften]

19. That's very true, but the gossipy response from the faculty in the article leads me to believe

that they aren't exactly allies over there.

You're doing what you can, my friend. I'm not explicitly out to my students either and I teach college. Although I don't hide my life if I talk to them outside of class, I find that I shy away from saying "my girlfriend and I" or "my partner and I" in situations where straight people would feel perfectly justified saying "my husband and I"

[dsc]

20. thanks

I am not partnered so that doesn't really come up, but not dating is its own giveaway. I would say that AP had a bit of a tough time, hopefully her own school will be better for her. BTW how did your labor dispute turn out?

[readmoreoften]

23. $11K in financial loss; found our the case was egregious enough to be taken to the United Nations

I'm still recuperating emotionally 2 years later and it will take me years to recuperate financially. Basically they fired me for fighting for organizing my workplace, but they couldn't say that so they said they hired me because I was a poor student teacher. Then weeks later they rehired me as faculty for a fraction of the pay and no benefits. At the time of my grievance hearing I pointed out that I was now a member of the faculty with advisees, teaching my own courses to juniors and seniors, getting great teaching reviews from senior staff. After about two months of deliberation, they denied my grievance and upheld the decision that even though I was a successful professor, I was not ready to be a teaching assistant. :crazy:

I'll never forget that 90% of the "good democrats" crossed the picket line and about 50% started to harass and ridicule us. The revelation that 90-95% of people will step on your neck for a pat on the back by their boss and a few dollars has left me quite skeptical about new friends. It's hard to trust. I am extremely sensitive to certain kinds of self-interested rhetoric now. I'd rather befriend a courageous person committed to their political beliefs than a person with whom I have a lot in common but stands for nothing. I also was sickened by the behavior of the university administration. I grew up working as a countergirl and waitress in shady, mob-owned restaurants. But I have never met people as morally depraved as the higher-up administration at NYU. They're as bad as any cutthroat corporation but they are psychotics in that they actually (truly) believe they are doing good.


Aren't you glad you asked! :hi:

[galledgoblin]

6. everything that's wrong with this country

in amplified by our middle school and high school students.

all our national social and economic policies trickle down to the schools, and all those "jokes" and statements made between the lines are said outright by our students.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

8. i couldnt finish the article. it seemed that they blamed him for his death.

[readmoreoften]

11. Nah. It was a gay teacher's fault.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

12. i thought it was the kids fault for flaunting his sexuality?

[Creideiki]

14. It was the gay principal's fault

because she told the victim that it was all right to be who he was. If she had told him to be ashamed and hide who he was, then nothing would have happened. Gay Panic wins once again.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

15. ahh. i see.

:hi:

[readmoreoften]

17. Actually it was the entire GLBT forum on DU's fault.

So technically it's Skinner's fault. Lawyer up, y'alls.

[aspergris]

16. I realize you are being sarcastic

But the only person to blame is the kid who committed the murder.

Oxnard is a tough town in general (I used to surf there a lot), and it took guts to do what King did.

I can't wait to see what kind of inventive defense they try with this kid.

[readmoreoften]

18. Oh it won't be that inventive. Same ol' gay panic shit, different decade.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

21. did you read the article? i read some of it and stopped because it was blaming the kid

[aspergris]

22. yes.

I caught that (not so subtle) implication.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

24. oh.. then i dont understand your comment that no one blames the kid

maybe i misread.

[aspergris]

25. I didn't say that

I said there is no one to blame except the kid.

iow, blaming anybody but the perpetrator is misguided.

If you read my post again, I think it's clear. I went back and reread and it appears clear to me

[La Lioness Priyanka]

26. thats what i meant. i misread it.

[aspergris]

27. np n/t

[Oeditpus Rex]

28. As we'd expect, fundies blame Larry King

http://rr-bb.com/showthread.php?t=53526



I wish to Dog they'd just get their asses raptured already and stop spreading hate.