Melee at gay school

New York Daily News ^ | 10/10/03 | SONI SANGHA, JOE WILLIAMS and MICHELE McPHEE

[kattracks]

The fall afternoon started simply enough: A handful of gay teens from Harvey Milk High School lounged around a Lexus parked by a Starbucks in Greenwich Village on Tuesday.

Then things got violent.

One of the teens fiddled with the Lexus' sideview mirror, enraging the driver. Words, some of them possibly homophobic, were exchanged. A bottle was thrown at the luxury car.

The Lexus driver came at the teens with a screwdriver.

When all was said and done, three Harvey Milk students as well as the driver of the Lexus, Vernon Jones, 23, were arrested - and Jones had been jabbed in the back with his own screwdriver, police said.

"This guy in a car started saying things. He was, like, 'Oh, look at the gay people, saying he wanted to murder us and everything. Then a few kids started saying, 'What's your problem?'" Leomi M., 16, a transgender Harvey Milk student who saw the fracas across the street from the school, said yesterday.

"The guy came out of the car, pulled a screwdriver out of his pocket and we ran," said Leomi, who wore a wig, makeup and women's clothing.

As some teenagers scattered, Jones allegedly grabbed one 17-year-old student, Erica Simon, and "mushed her" in the face, said another witness.

"He was starting to mush a girl, and 15 kids ran back to help her. Erica was roughed up," said another student witness, Randy M., 19. "It was crazy. He was saying, 'Y'all f------ homos are going to hell. Y'all should have died when you were first born.'"

Simon, along with four other students, is accused of "kicking, punching, and beating" Jones with a broken umbrella, fists, and feet, police said. They also wrestled his screwdriver away and slammed it into his back.

Jones, of Brooklyn, suffered a puncture wound and was brought to St. Vincent's Medical Center, where he was treated and charged with menacing.

Simon, along with Kareem Macedon, 16, and Penn Lorenzo, 16 - all from Brooklyn - were charged with gang assault and menacing. Two other teens involved in the attack were being sought by cops yesterday, police said.

Police are not investigating the incident as a hate crime.

"He gets out with a screwdriver, and they attack him. This was not motivated by him seeking to harass them about being gay," said a police official. "The Harvey Milk students were the aggressors."

But the Manhattan district attorney's office said Jones could face additional charges.

"We are absolutely investigating whether it is a hate crime," said Barbara Thompson, a district attorney spokeswoman.

The four were slated to be arraigned at Manhattan Criminal Court last night.

Bill to protect students

Harvey Milk Principal William Salzman referred all calls to the Department of Education, which said the incident was under investigation.

The arrests came the same week that the City Council Education Committee held hearings on a bill designed in part to protect gay and lesbian students from taunts and harassment. School Safety Chief Ben Tucker said there have been no similiar incidents at the school since it opened in September - with dozens of protesters outside.

"I think everyone was on edge about it when the school opened .... The school is very visible, so it's not unreasonable to assume that the school could be a target, or that the students could be targets," Tucker said. "That's the reason the school exists in the first place - to give the students some comfort."

With Bill Farrell and Celeste Katz

Originally published on October 10, 2003

[Alouette]

Dollars to donuts that 'Vernon Jones' from Brooklyn is African American.

BINGO!

Which "persecuted victim" gets "affirmative action" preference in a black vs. gay encounter? That assuming the gays are not also black.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

A handful of gay teens from Harvey Milk High School lounged around a Lexus parked by a Starbucks in Greenwich Village on Tuesday.

Something very weird here. I can see lounging around a parking lot or an empty car. But one with a driver still in it?

Sounds like they went looking for trouble. A bunch of teens gathers around my car and I am going to perceive it as a threatening situation.

I am also not going to get out of the car with a screwdriver, I am going to put the car in gear and (with or without speed bumps) I am out of there. But then I am not a 23-year-old male and have no illusions about how tough I am.

[AppyPappy]

Vernon Jones, 23

If he is black, this is going to get REALLY interesting.

[ctlpdad]

My vote for your next quote of the day:

Homosexuality is a mental disorder on par with any other mentally debilitating condition. Anything that would cause an organism to voluntarily filter itself out of the gene pool can be recognized as such.

6 posted on 10/10/2003 5:15 AM EDT by Caipirabob

[mountaineer]

"That's the reason the school exists in the first place - to give the students some comfort."

Damn straight! Er, I mean, that's right! It's not like schools should exist to provide an education, they're just there to give comfort to mentally disturbed, self-deluded cross-dressing urban yoots.

[tdadams]

Let's face the facts here. Homosexuality is a mental disorder on par with any other mentally debilitating condition.

Of course we should take your word on this and not listen to those silly medical associations who say it isn't. What do they know.

Anything that would cause an organism to voluntarily filter itself out of the gene pool can be recognized as such.

I wasn't aware that homosexuality had been "filtered out" of existence. That doesn't appear to be the case.

[KEVLAR]

Your'e dense.
I have yet to see two men procreate.
This is what is meant by "filter out of the gene pool", as in removing themselves from it, not passing on thier genes.

[tdadams]

Go right to the ad hominem. How charming.

So now, extinction doesn't really mean extinction? I guess if your statements can't be supported by the facts, you just change the definitions. I see, Mr. Clinton.

[KEVLAR]

The word extinction is not in the sentance.
I also did not see any mention of "homosexuality had been "filtered out" of existence"
You need to work on your reading comprehension.
Whatever attack you percieved was well deserved.

[truthandjustice1]

"Of course we should take your word on this and not listen to those silly medical associations who say it isn't."

And those credible medical organizations would be?

[MEGoody]

"We are absolutely investigating whether it is a hate crime," said Barbara Thompson, a district attorney spokeswoman."

Okay, so this is a hate crime (even though the students started it), but when a white guy is beaten up by a bunch of black guys who drag him off a city bus, that's not a hate crime.

But that's not a double standard or anything.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Leomi M., 16, a transgender Harvey Milk student

Any doctor who would perform transgender surgery on a 16 year old should be taken out and shot. Period.

[kallisti]

and that makes celibate monks insane?

[AD from SpringBay]

"We are absolutely investigating whether it is a hate crime," said Barbara Thompson, a district attorney spokeswoman.

Gotta love those absolute investigations. This article would make a wonderful study in linguistics. I can see it now, "The Politics of Homosexual Equiture in Modern Journalism and the Post-Modern Enthememe - 101". Should be good for at least four credit hours.

[tdadams]

You're doing a whole lot of semantic hair-splitting there. The meaning was clear and the assertion was stupid.

[MEGoody]

"Of course we should take your word on this and not listen to those silly medical associations who say it isn't."

Of course. Psychiatrists don't practice - they already know it all. By golly, there are even some of them who think a child being molested by an adult can be a good thing!

[mountaineer]

The NY Post's version of the story:

Students at the city's high school for gay kids ganged up to clobber a man after he taunted them, cops said. The free-for-all on Astor Place left the man injured and under arrest, along with three students from Harvey Milk HS.

Witnesses said around 20 students jumped the man after he hit one kid in the head and threatened others with a screwdriver outside Starbucks Wednesday afternoon.

The man who allegedly provoked the fight - Vernon Jones, 23, of Brooklyn - was treated at a hospital for a puncture wound and was charged with menacing.

Three students, Erica Simon, 17, Kareem Macedon, 16, and Penn Lorenzo, 16, were charged with gang assault and menacing, cops said.

Pupils at the school said the bad blood began after Jones confronted Macedon in a nearby McDonald's Tuesday where he threatened: "I am straight and gay people are going to die."

"The guy came and said, 'You're all going to hell' and told us that we should have all died before we were born. It was really upsetting," said student Randy M., 19.

Students said Jones then returned Wednesday and confronted Simon, who is bisexual, outside the Starbucks where she was hanging out after school.

"The same kid came back yesterday and he brought a screwdriver with him and he said to the girl, 'Where are your people?' She said 'What people?' and he punched her in the face," said Stephanie Ruiz, 16, from Woodhaven.

Ruiz said many kids from the school then jumped on Jones, and Lorenzo stabbed him with the screwdriver.

"We were heading for the train and the straight guy went wacko," said a student. "All the kids from the school jumped the guy because he hit the girl."

Simon's family at her home in Coney Island said they had spoken to the teen from jail. She told them Jones had smacked her head against the Starbucks glass window.

"He turned and banged her head twice against the window pane and she fought back," said her brother Jeffrey Simon, 22.

Cops, however, said the brawl was caused when Jones began making comments to the students while sitting in his car outside the Starbucks, waiting for his wife to buy coffee. They said Jones also had an infant in the car.

Cops said Jones told the kids the way they were behaving "reflected poorly" on other black kids, but didn't specify if this was a gay slur.

They said the students began throwing bottles at the car and Jones got out wielding a screwdriver.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

...Leomi, who wore a wig, makeup and women's clothing.

Unless the author meant to say "transvestite" which is entirely different.

Or does 'transvestite' carry some sort of stigma with it? Is it un-PC to say transvestite? Does it carry some sort of negative conotation? Perhaps 'transgender' allows the sickos to pretend that they have some sort of 'syndrome'.

[Centurion2000]

Of course we should take your word on this and not listen to those silly medical associations who say it isn't. What do they know.

They know that homosexuality is a PC protected disease like AIDS, so they knuckled under.

Anything that would cause an organism to voluntarily filter itself out of the gene pool can be recognized as such.

I wasn't aware that homosexuality had been "filtered out" of existence. That doesn't appear to be the case

At the individual versus the species level, homosexuality is no better than suicide. Your genes don't get passed on. Also the mental illness of homosexuality produces a lifestyle that takes about 30+ years of the average lifespan of an American male.

Of course it's a disease.