Posted on 07/20/2008 9:25:44 PM PDT by Marie2
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
The only teachers who truly tried to help him were the ones who told him to wash off his makeup. The dyke vice-principal obviously egged him on, thus compounding his problems at school, which led to his murder. Of course she’ll blame it on “homophobic” teachers and students. Sad all the way around, but Ms. Epstein definitely had a hand in the way it ended. Very interesting that the day of his murder he came to school dressed as a boy.
It only proves to me that many public school districts are out of control. Search all you like for individual right or wrong in this case, but it is all due to cultural chaos that is taking place in public schools.
Teachers and administrators have morphed into politicians, activists or lawyers. The superintendent, who blamed “the system” and the gay assistant principal are perfect examples.
The school all but gave Larry free reign according to the article. It was perfectly OK for him to do whatever he wanted without discipline. That was the source of the problem but a perfect reflection of the landscape: gays and minority groups have special rights even if they are engaging in bigotry and harassment to the point of taunting and near assault.
I’m not justifying the shooting at all, but the motivation? Who knows for sure. I don’t, you don’t. You push a troubled kid up to the wall and they will snap because in general they feel helpless that the system will do anything for them, all you can hope is that it won’t end up like this case did.
If it had been me I’d have warned the kid once to knock it off and then it’d be game on. He’d either gotten expelled or I’d have smacked him upside the head a couple of times. Life is a two way street, and you respect other people’s space.
I think you unpacked this whole mess rather well. It’s tragic on both sides. The school was likely afraid to discipline him and I think you will find that rather common throughout the US educational system when it comes to a minority or protected class. It is politically correct to the point of absurdity. I dare say, had he been wearing a cross it would have been considered a distraction, yet a boy wearing stiletto heels and chasing other boys around wasn’t.
Where does the anti-whitey hostility come from?
God help us all.
He's fantasizing it. That's as far as I can figure it out.
this is so sad. My gut tells me that these two boys may have been initimate and after the ‘act’, that was just to much for the straight boy to handle. That is why Larry dressed as a boy on the day he was murdered. It was probably his first time with a young man and he didn’t know how to handle it either. It wasn’t what was portrayed by television, media, and the society. How sad for both of them and all those who knew them.
Oh god, here it comes.
Right wing nut cases .....homophobes....bigoted nation...and on and on and on.
I find it interesting that the Principal (who’s job is to keep the peace and quell problems) is passing the buck on to a society of guns that needs more social programs filled with more people who will pass the buck, etc.
“One teacher was very protective of Larry, his English teacher, MRS. Boldrin. [CAPS mine] To help Larry feel better about moving to Casa Pacifica, she brought Larry a present: a green evening dress that once belonged to her own daughter.”
Let’s redefine ‘contributing to the delinquency of a minor,’ shall we?
This whole matter is the school’s fault. The schools by pushing their “Day of Silence” and Gay-Straight Alliance clubs are encouraging children to “come out”. These are not student-driven events. The schools are forcing confrontations like these. Well, one of the kids just pushed back. Ms. Epstein should be fired and charged with corrupting a minor. A child’s sexuality is none of the State’s damned business! Both of these children were victims.
Sorry, but if this jackass could be provoked to murder for being hit on by a guy, he’s obviously too mentally unstable to last in society.
He would probably be the same jackass who wants to start a fight with someone who accidentally bumped into him on the street, or would be the same jerkoff who would take something innocuous and turn it into something extremely offensive to him and start a fight over it.
We don’t hear about what Larry might have done to the shooter to provoke him.
Was grabbing the kid’s butt? Was he talking about how he and the shooter could be ‘an item’.
There is more to this story than an innocent gay boy being shot.
This does not mean that the shooter should not be prosecuted, he should. But the whole school failed both students, in fact they failed the whole student body. Everyone knew that Larry was far beyond a distraction, yet they allowed it to continue because they were afraid of the backlash. The assistant principal should be culpable. She not only condoned the bullying behavior of Larry, she seemed to encourage it.
If a child decides he is gay, I think the school must make sure he or she is "protected" from persecution, but in this case the persecuted became the bully, and that should never ever be accepted.
To me, this story is not as much about homosexuality, but instead about a distracting teen that found a way to be the center of attention, and no one stopped him. There is even question if Larry was actually gay, or if he just used the agenda to further his attention getting behavior.
This, in no way, means that Brandon (the shooter) should not be punished, he should be to the fullest extent of the law, but the school should be punished also. Both students were had troubled backgrounds, and both lives are now gone.
Larry should have been punished for his stalking like behavior, but Brandon (the shooter) had no justification what so ever to shoot him. Murder can never be justified.
OMG, we’ve read stories about 6 yr. olds being charged with sexual harassment for hugging, middle schoolers being charged with sexual harassment for swatting girls on the rear end and yet this confused boy thought it was okay day in and day out harass the other boy.
This is a terrible story about adults being too frightened to deal with a volatile situation.
Kids need boundries, whether they are gay or not. Middle school is hard enough, it is an awkward time for all kids. I’m sorry but allowing Larry to act out the way he did was wrong. Do I think he deserved to be killed? No, but please this whole situation was out of control because of a political agenda.
Firstly, nobody, nobody deserves to be hurt or killed for what they believe.
Secondly, if a straight person acted this way (i.e. an absolutely screaming, mincing, over-the- top queen) they would be accused of making fun of homosexuals, and would be "re-educated" in compulsive diversity training.
Thirdly, part of what killed this kid was a society so absolutely starstruck with "tolerance" as a virtue that it would let him get to this age without telling him "kid, nobody likes a freak and a moron and you are going to have to act like a normal human being, at least in public."
And fourthly, fifty years ago, his parents would have had him at a psychologist within two heartbeats of his first "teetering" outbreak, scared to death that they had produced a little homo, and the doctor would have counseled him and treated him in an effort to deal with his obvious (back then) psychological disorder.
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