I just can't get over this kid's bravery

[dsc]

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/11608272/detail.html

One of the stereotypes about gay people is that we are physical cowards. The defenseless nellie who cowers in the corner as real men do the fighting. Well, we aren't all like that.

An openly gay high school student in Pueblo was assaulted by six of his fellow students last week because of his sexual orientation, his family said Tuesday.

The attack happened last Thursday while the 15-year-old boy was walking home from Centennial High School, his mother, Theresa Ornelas, said.

Anthony Hergesheimer was alone when a vehicle with six teenagers inside passed him four times along Denver Boulevard.


The vehicle finally stopped and someone threw objects at him and shouted derogatory insults at him, Ornelas said.

"One of the boys got out and he hit me on my eye, right on my face with a full can of Lysol," Hergesheimer said. "My nose just started gushing everywhere."

snip

Hergesheimer said he will return to school next week, and he said he feels confident that the majority of his classmates will accept him.

end of quote

This is bravery. Go to the link. This is a little guy not some big behemoth. He got his ass kicked by 6 seniors yet he will be back in school. I admit, I couldn't do what he did. I have some idea how scared he must be. This young man has more courage in his little finger than those manly men who bullied and beat him up. They aren't fit to lick his shoes. Many of us would do well to have a micron of the courage of this young man. Who am I kidding, I would do well to have a micron of his courage. I hope things go well for him. If courage has anything to do with it, it surely will.

So next time someone tells you that all faggots are cowards, point them to Anthony Hergesheimer he is no coward.

[TomInTib]

1. I hope those fucking punks take the full dose.

I plan on following this very closely.

I will be in touch with Centennial HS on Monday morning.

If they don't go all the way with these sorry bastards, I will be spending a lot of money in Pueblo on a ton of community awareness. And I will raise hell with some of those administrators and school board members careers.

This is not an idle threat.

If you remember, get back to me on Monday evening, dsc, and I will give you a progress report.

bookmarking...

Tom

[dsc]

2. I will remember and I hope the funds aren't needed.

[benddem]

3. yes but

those guys need to pay for what they did.

[dsc]

4. I am pretty sure they will

This is a clear case with school jurisdiction. Those seniors are likely to be too busy being in jail to go to school but in case they aren't, they will surely be expelled.

[Glorfindel]

5. God bless him - I learned in high school that all it takes is ONCE

to stand up to filthy bullies and that ends it. I realize the world is more complicated now, but I also know what courage it's taking for that young MAN to face returning to school. I wish him the best and I hope we can be kept informed of matters as they develop.

[dsc]

6. It was 6 on 1

plus they had weapons, somehow I think he was overmatched.

[bliss_eternal]

7. Just read about this yesterday...

...he is so brave. Wish I could send him this :hug: I'll be following this case, as I hope the bastards that did this are severely punished.

Thanks for the post, dsc! :hi:

[hang a left]

8. I betcha a c-note this kid has a strong, loving, and supportive family

who knows he is gay and have nutured and fed his self esteem. Nasty little pricks. I'd like to get a hold of them myself.

I just don't understand the bigotry. Well I do my oldest is a homophobic, ONLY because of his fundie father. I have tried in vain.

[MissMarple]

9. He does. I saw them in a local TV interview.

They said they moved to Pueblo to escape prejudice in California. Pueblo. They would have been better off in Colorado Springs and enrolling him at Palmer High School. There are gay kids there, it is actually a diverse high school community. And, Colorado Springs has a viable gay community. Yes, it does.

[Breeze54]

10. What a bunch of neanderthal thugs!

That boy is brave to go back to that school!
I'm a female but I still would be afraid to go back there.
I wonder if those six are associated with the AF Academy?
They should not only be convicted of a hate crime but
be sued to the max, each and every one of them!

You go Anthony!!! Hit them back hard.....in the wallet!

[whopis01]

43. makes sense that they would be with the AF academy

that's exactly the type of crap they teach the bastards there

[dsc]

45. the kids went to his high school

not the AF academy.

[Breeze54]

46. But they could be associated.

It's in that area, isn't it? It would make sense though, imho.

[FloridaJudy]

11. Those cretins will probably get a slap on the wrist

It's not as if they did something really wrong, say like carrying a banner that said "Bong Hits for Jesus":sarcasm:

[karlrschneider]

12. Props to Anthony! Saw him giving an interview on TeeVee. No coward, this kid.

Good on him!
:D

[mzmolly]

13. The cowards are the SIX seniors who felt they needed one another in order to

beat an innocent kid. I hope they suffer SERIOUS consequences.

[flying_monkeys]

14. Curious - - What would be *serious* consequences to you?

I deplore what they did - - but these are high school kids who are (presumably) still reachable and teachable....


What are "serious consequences" to you?

[karlrschneider]

15. Castration with a dull steak knife

for starters...

[motocicleta]

23. Seconded

We have more than 6.5 billion people on the planet - I don't see any reason to try to save 6 who are so clearly in the wrong.

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

25. Wow. Just....wow.

[Pacifist Patriot]

48. No kidding.

*shudder*

[mzmolly]

19. I think they should be charged with a hate crime for starters.

What do you think will "reach" them?

A reminder of what can happen when these issues are not taken "seriously."

http://www2.fe.psu.edu/~wvh100/Matt.htm

An aside, I know of a child who was recently beaten to death by school kids in the neighborhood he/I grew up in. I don't have all the answers unfortunately. But, I do know that violence of this type, if taken lightly, sends a message.

[dsc]

21. jail

Nothing less than jail is acceptable here. I am sick to death of hearing excuses for this kind of brutal non sense.

[frogcycle]

49. reachable and teachable my ass

kids that age that feel comfortable doing that will NEVER be decent human beings. No friggin way.

Oh, they might learn to hold back, learn to "pass" as civilized, but they are bad seed.

just sayin...

[Pro2nd]

17. +1

I'll admit that I have a somewhat conservative bent when it comes to issues such as this (by "this" I mean bullying, not homosexuality). I can't stand to see the strong (especially when there are 6 of them) taking advantage of the weak. I think expulsion and a few months in the County Jail would do these asshats some good.

[BigBearJohn]

18. County Jail would serve them just fine.

[mzmolly]

24. Welcome to DU Pro2nd.

:hi:

[YOY]

16. Buncha big strong sissies to attack a lone kid like that

What the hell are they so afraid of him that they'd attack him like that?

Human nature I guess.

May his strength and perseverance win out over their hatred.

[OneBlueSky]

20. this is the kind of stuff that hate radio contributes to . . .

by denigrating "faggots" and other groups, Imus and his ilk are implicitly saying that it's okay to hate those who may be different . . . it's not surprising that their degrading and divisive language engenders attitudes that can -- and often do -- lead to physical violence . . .

[Breeze54]

26. The 'ilk' would be the whole GOP!

[tkmorris]

22. This is what should happen

The other kids in that school should rise up and kick the snot out of the six homophobic bigots. When that starts to happen we will know that society has started to turn the corner.

[Daedelus76]

27. I guess he is brave, but...

... if I were him I'd get a black belt in something as soon as possible. Going through life getting your ass kicked is no good. Much better to do the ass kicking yourself. We can't all be Ralph Macchio and have Miyagi-San bail us out, and the police aren't always going to get there before your skull gets crushed.

Of course, getting ganged up by 6 people, I don't know what I'd do. Gun-fu?

And I can't believe in this day and age people still think it's OK to hurt somebody because they are gay. I have to admit I'm somewhat more conservative on these types of issues than the DU mainstream, but it's never right to attack anybody because of who they are.

[dsc]

28. It was 6 on one, with at least one weapon, and each one was likely

bigger than he. I do hope, for his safety, some measures are taken to assure he is protected. But no amount of defensive training was likely to help him in this circumstance.

[Daedelus76]

51. Very true

6 to 1 odds only works if you are Jacke Chan or Bruce Lee... in the movies.

As one guy said (forgot who), wisely, "The best martial art is Track... run like hell."

[rockymountaindem]

29. I know this kind of thing could happen anywhere, but I keep thinking "why Pueblo?"

That city has so many other problems that this is the last thing they need. On the whole, I can't tell whether to be surprised that something of this magnitude went down there or not.

That being said... when I was in high school we played two tennis matches against Centennial. One of them, played in Pueblo, nearly devolved into a fight. Thinking back on it, I don't know how we avoided violence. I wasn't playing that day because (stupid me) I cut my finger on the can of balls when I was opening it. Even so, I was ready to rumble against those guys. The second time we played was so damn tense because of the shit that went down the first time I don't think anybody was concentrating on their game so much as sizing up the people on the other side of the net figuring if we could kick their asses or not. Of course, the Centennial kids weren't so aggressive that day as we had our entire football team practicing on our field not 50 yards away. Centennial definately has both the best and worst reputation of Pueblo's five (?) high schools. They're the biggest and the best, but they've also got some real problem students.

I completely agree with you about how brave this kid is, though. Not a lot of people would do that, under any circumstances.

[dsc]

30. I literally can't imagine having that kind of courage

After all the extreme likelihood that there are brothers of those 6 students at that school combined with the likelihood that those students are popular and have many friends at that school make it very likely he will have a cool reception from a pretty large number of students. He has far more guts that I could ever imagine having.

[rockymountaindem]

31. While my personal image of that school derives from my tennis experience

It would probably do us good to both keep in mind that Centennial is considered the best school in Pueblo and has some very high academic achievers and good kids who will hopefully be shocked into action by this sad affair. We can only hope that they'll emerge from the shadows and make it known to the thugs that their violence won't be tolerated.

I would like to endorse what Mrs. Marple said about Palmer HS in the Springs. When Fred Phelps came to town to pull his usual shit, hundreds of Palmer students cut class to protest him in front of the school during class hours. The cool people outnumbered Fred and his pods by at least ten to one. *That* was a refreshing sight in Dobsonland.

[Heathen57]

33. I agree with you about Palmer

I remember when the 'abortion-mobile' (the pickup truck with 6' pictures of fetuses on it) was in front of that school protesting the speaker from Planned Parenthood was there. The kids either ignored him or gave him a ration of shit.

Then there was the series in the school papers about how gays were being singled out for mistreatment. Dobson and Perkins tried to take over the school paper over that one.

I have often thought that my son would have graduated if we had transfered him from Coronado to there. Instead, he quit and got his GED instead.

[rockymountaindem]

34. Always good to see another denizen of El Paso County on this board

Welcome to DU!

[Heathen57]

50. Thanks!

It is hard to live in the most tight-ass repub county in the nation.

[roguevalley]

32. what a wonderful kid. God bless him and keep him safe.

[proud patriot]

35. I think he is correct

Most of the students will support him through this .

[dsc]

36. I hope so

there is an x factor that none of us, but he probably does, know. How popular were his attackers? If his attackers were popular students, then I have some major fear for this kid.

[proud patriot]

38. I think the ugliness of the attack

will cause people to re think their own biases .

As well as the courage of this kid in returning will
inspire his peers to stand with him .

[dsc]

40. It certainly should

In any case this kid has guts period. His poor mom must be frantic with worry.

[Cabcere]

37. Wow...that is truly brave!

Good for Anthony Hergesheimer. :applause: I don't think I would've been brave enough to stand up to those kids...and I carry pepper spray with me at all times! K&R for the young man, and here's hoping his cowardly classmates get appropriately punished for their vile actions.

[Tigress DEM]

39. Where's that group that escorts at military funerals?

I hope Anthony doesn't get hurt more. These kind of incidents gather a life of their own. Hopefully kids in school will stand up with him against the bullies.

[Tatiana]

41. Perfect reason why there should be federal hate crime legislation.

This guy is indeed brave. It's also wonderful that he has a supportive family behind him.

[Martin Eden]

42. Letter from a Vermont mother

This has been posted before, but if you haven't read it before you should. It is eloquent and powerful, and shames the anti-gay bigots like nothing else I've read.
http://www.gfcbaltimore.org/GFC_VT_Mom.htm

[dsc]

44. I have read it

and it brought me to tears. Sadly it wasn't published when the civil unions debate was on going but it got a lot of play later.

[Cabcere]

47. Wow.

I hadn't seen that before, but it is very powerful and well-written. Thanks for (re-)posting it! :hi: