Fox also asked her if she thought Epstein, who was openly lesbian, empowered King. Crowley said yes.
Teacher testifies at McInerney trial that King lacked social skills
By Zeke Barlow
Updated Monday, August 1, 2011
CHATSWORTH — Larry King was a sweet, caring kid who endeared himself to certain teachers at E.O. Green School but had trouble making that same connection with students his own age, according to court testimony Monday.
“He desperately wanted to be liked but didn’t have the social skills to get along with his peers,” Susan Crowley, King’s seventh-grade special education teacher, testified at the trial of Brandon McInerney. “He often said things that were one note off the mark.”
When he came to her class wearing a pink scarf, she told him to take it off, said Crowley, who testified that she probably knew King better than anyone at the school. Then there was the jewelry and makeup that followed.
“I was concerned they were designed to draw negative attention to himself and would make him unhappy and victimized,” she said. “He couldn’t distinguish between positive and negative attention. He just wanted people to pay attention to him.”
The last time she spoke with him, she told him to take off the pink nail polish he was wearing.
King, 15, was killed a few weeks later — shot twice in the back of the head at the Oxnard school. McInerney, 17, is charged with murder and a hate crime. Crowley testified Monday on the 18th day of McInerney’s trial.
King was extremely immature for his age and didn’t have a firm grasp of his sexuality, she said. A year before he was wearing women’s high-heeled boots and telling friends he was gay, he had complained that another boy was sexually harassing him at school. King told Crowley back then that he wasn’t gay, she said.
“I think Larry was probably gay, but I don’t think he knew that,” she said. “He had a lot of years before he could figure it out.”
Crowley said she did not think former assistant principal Joy Epstein was being truthful when she testified that King’s behavior was being adequately addressed by school administrators and that very few people had complained about King’s clothing.
“It is impossible for any sentient being not to know,” Crowley said. “Every conversation I had with an adult leading up to his death was about Larry’s behavior.”
Senior Deputy District Attorney Maeve Fox asked Crowley if she thought the school staff was to blame for King’s death.
“Is blame the same as responsibility?” Crowley said.
Fox also asked her if she thought Epstein, who was openly lesbian, empowered King. Crowley said yes.
Epstein’s sexuality was an issue earlier in the day. It was the first time the jury had heard about it, although testifying teachers had danced around the subject for weeks.
Debi Goldstein, an eighth-grade math teacher who had McInerney in a class in 2008, said the problems King’s attire was causing at school were well-known among teachers and administrators, including Epstein.
“She said there were problems going on at the school at the time but it didn’t bother anybody and none of the teachers had come to complain — and that is not true,” Goldstein testified. “The teachers were upset because it was disruptive to the environment and upsetting the students.”
Under cross-examination, Goldstein said she never personally saw any of the problems King was allegedly causing. Goldstein said she didn’t know of specific complaints but heard other teachers talking about it in the lunchroom.
“I knew teachers were upset,” Goldstein said. “She (Epstein) was not doing her job as an administrator if she did not know things were bothering the staff.”
Shirley Brown, a seventh-grade teacher at E.O. Green, also testified that she didn’t think Epstein was adequately addressing the issue of King’s behavior and its impact on students.
Brown said when King came to school with thick pancake and eye makeup, she told him to take it off.
“He looked like a clown, and if a girl came into my class like that, I would tell her to go to the bathroom and wash it off,” Brown testified. “I would talk to any student who was doing anything that was making themselves a target.”
She said she complained to the head principal about King’s safety.
“My comment was that if something wasn’t done soon, Larry would be taken behind the back shed of the P.E. area and be beaten to death,” Brown said.
Fox asked Brown what she said to the administration when she complained about King’s attire.
“I said something to the effect of, ‘Gay rights? What about the rights of the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders who come here and are not ready for this information?’ “ Brown testified.
Fox also brought up a union grievance Epstein brought against Brown for making what Epstein thought were offensive homophobic and anti-Semitic remarks. Brown said the comments were grossly misunderstood and the grievance was dismissed the next day.
Brown said she once saw a group of boys chasing King, which she described as a potentially unpleasant situation. Fox asked her if she stepped in to stop the chasing.
“No,” Brown said.
The trial continues Tuesday. It is being held in Chatsworth because of pretrial publicity in Ventura County.