Comments on That 15 Year-Old Gay Kid Shot at School Yesterday?

It's a heartbreaking world, this.

Fuck.

That fucking sucks. Makes you wonder what the fucking point is sometimes.

Did they catch the little fucker who did it?

As a teacher, I find this doubly upsetting and am planning on using it in class tomorrow. However, @3 asks "did they catch the little fucker who did this?" They can't 'catch' him unless they 'catch' the vast majority of society. Children, and this was middle school, rarely act independt of their surroundings; their psychosis is almost always an environmental one. The fuckers who did this are the actors behind our homophobic, heternormative, entirely afraid of anything different or queer society, not the kid who fired the shots. Sorry if this sounds like a middle school essay, but it's true.

Horrible

@3: Yeah Ecce, they did.

I dunno, it seems like the past couple of years it's been a bit carte blanche with homo violence. I don't know what kind of crime this was- and if it was a "hate crime" versus simple murder... but regardless the extremists seem to be out there more and more...

This is truly heartbreaking. I am from the area in California where this happened. Oxnard is a troubled area with a good amount of gang violence. Its unfortunate that they aren't even mentioning this as a potential hate crime. More than the kid that did this, what about his parents? Did he learn from them to be so homophobic? Did this kid threaten his "machismo"? Its so difficult to understand why the child that did this thought that it was the only solution. Truly, truly sad.

so about three years ago i was walking at night in downtown greenville, sc. some idiot outside of a bar called me a fag, so i wheeled around and asked him to repeat himself. luckily, his friend yanked him away and told me that the guy said nothing and was just an idiot. he had about 5 inches and 50 pounds on me, so i'm glad he didn't start anything. i would have had my ass kicked.

Police have not alleged a motive for the shooting, but said there appeared to have been "bad blood" between the teens.

WHAT?

Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
This is truly heartbreaking. This makes me weep. This makes me angry. Sigh.

America Means Peace???

America means freedom?

Fuck.

Horrible.

Do we know if this was a hate crime or not?

Terrible tragedy. Wish I knew who or what to blame. The kid was old enough to know what was right or wrong, but it was probably a fucking insane fundamentalist christian society that gave him the extra nudge and pushed him over the brink.

Ugh. I look at my closeted eighth-grade years and can't imagine having the courage that this poor boy had. I have to look at his comfort in being himself as a sign that maybe things are moving in the right direction, but then there's the killer... a reminder of the reason I was in the closet. Sad, horrible, sickening... can't stop thinking of his parents.

Please, Baby Jebus, don't let johnnie@4 be a teacher at my childrens' school. You don't teach in Issaquah, do you johnnie?

They can't 'catch' him unless they 'catch' the vast majority of society.

WRONG. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Kids have been assholes to each other for all sorts of reasons since the dawn of time. This kid is different.

He chose to bring a gun to school and kill a fellow student. He is a fuck and so are his parents. This wasn't society's fault.

As a teacher you should demand responsibility from your students. Or do you let them blame society, too?

@17

You're only half right, kind of. What Johnnie(#4) might have been stressing was the fact that people in general, individuals, are to certain extents representations of the social atmosphere they're socialized into. How does that play out? It means that this 13 year old that popped a cap in this 15 year old's ass is quite possibly a very real representative of the repulsion, hatred, and anymosity that, whether you yourself identify or not, many people feel towards homosexuals.
Just because you've got your head on straight doesn't mean that all of the families on your bock do. I'm a teacher too, and though school-age bullying is nothing new, homos demanding rights still is, relatively. Again, whehter you agree or not, the same society that prevents homo-marriages and elects fucktards like Bush into office is the same society that continually accpets anti-homo aggression. Yes we are all responsible, yes this is an enormous problem. And, yes we are, to a certain extent, bi-products of our society.

#15: Pretty much anytime you shoot someone, it's a hate crime.

In general, This was a terrible tragedy. I am, however, surprised they would take his organs. I know the Red cross is pretty assholish about taking Gay blood, you'd think organs would be the same. (Not that I think they should refuse either blood or organs, just that it was surprising)

@17 Big Sven. It's not that black and white. Of course the kid who shot him is a total evil shit. But society also played a part. How did he get a gun? How does a kid get a gun? Parents? Then they're assholes and need to be prosecuted as well. Or did he get it just because guns are easy to come by? And what kind of stupidity breeds the mindset that led to this? Who can possibly understand this kind of insanity? My daughter is in middle school and I have to have faith that she is safe there. But we never know for sure.

My only experience with a hate crime was when the Air Force sent me to Egypt. In civilian clothes with a 7 day beard, we tried not to look too GI, and we hoped everyone would think we were Canadian. While looking at the oldest Mosque in Cairo from a few blocks away, some children playing in a lot realized we were Americans, or at least westerners. So they started yelling and throwing rocks at us.

Our Egyptian driver yelled back at them but they kept stoning us. A rock hit me in the toe and it hurt for a day or so. We retreated to our van and went back to our hotel compound.

It made me feel pretty damn unsafe, knowing that anywhere I went I could become a target just because there were people who hated anybody like me. That's what it means to feel terrorized.

I don't feel that way every time some random person is a crime victim.

K@17 & M@20-

I just feel that if one says "society is partially to blame" it removes some of the blame from the individual (and his parents.)

But I'm OK if we can say 100% of the blame is the kid's and his parents, and then another 40% on top of that is the fault of the kind of homophobia that first allows Mt. Si high school to invite Pastor Hutch and then secondly demonizes the LGBT kids and progressive teachers for calling him on his bullshit.

johnnie, perhaps I was a tad harsh. Long week, very sick mom.

What if Terry Schaivo had been a lesbian?

That poor brave kid. I wonder how many kids a few years younger than him are now going to be afraid to come out until college at the very earliest because of this?

Sorry to hear about your mom, Big Sven.

A thirteen-year-old murderer. This is horrible.

So while this is what the VenturaCountyStar.com is saying:

"Students in the class identified the victim as Lawrence King and the shooter as Brandon McInerney. Police would not confirm the names but said both were 15.

"The suspect ran off campus after the shooting but was apprehended nearby, police said.

"Police said it appeared to be an isolated incident between the two students. The students apparently had an ongoing dispute, including an argument Monday, other students said."

All of the good folks of Oxnard in the article's comments thread are talking about gang violence and a "bad school." Not a mention of a hate crime.

Is there any memorial fund set up for the family yet? Somewhere donations could be made?

shit like this makes me so happy i went to an arts high school. seriously, it was JUST LIKE "FAME". openly gay teachers, about 10% openly gay students.

gay equaled popular, talented & admired. dumb ass homophobe ignorant equaled expelled. this was the late 70s - early 80s, and i pretty much think every school district in america needs the equivalent as a haven for its young gays.

It does seem odd that no matter where I look to find this story, there is little or no mention of the fact that the apparent reason for the shooting was that the kid self-identified as gay. Most stories just use the tired "bad blood" line mentioned above, or don't address the WHY of the situation at all. WTF is wrong with people in this country. You can bet that this would have been reported differently if he had been straight.

This is a terrible tragedy, as death always is for someone so young. But let's not all jump to the conclusion that the kid was shot BECAUSE he was gay. Some other Sloggers have noted that this area had extremely high gang violence. The 13 year old might have shot the 15 year old not because he was gay, but because that's how he has been taught to deal with conflict by gang groups. I think of the place I work, a treatment center for teenagers-we have a genuine gang member, and he's commented that he had no real problem with gays. He's quite friendly with another boy in treatment who is openly gay. But he's also said that if a fight erupts, no matter what over, his reaction is to pull a gun and shoot. Or take a swing.
If anything, this shooting suggests that our society has a problem with gang violence, not necessarily gays. Let's stop looking at the 15 year old identity (sad as his death may be) and look at the shooter's.

Any kid getting shot and killed is a tragedy.

We just don't address it, as much.

Where is the outrage, seriously? Matthew Shepard was brutally attacked and left to die; this kid was shot to death in his class by a cold-blooded murderer! Why aren't we doing something to show how upset our community is? Blogging about it is simply not enough! Anyone for a vigil or protest?

Where is the outrage, seriously? Matthew Shepard was brutally attacked and left to die; this kid was shot to death in his class by a cold-blooded murderer! Why aren't we doing something to show how upset our community is? Blogging about it is simply not enough! Anyone for a vigil or protest?

Though I was not trolling for sympathy but rather explaining my short fuse, thanks greendyke.

More proof that this "sanctity of life" theme is a crock. We treat life very cheaply, though we like to [i]say[/i] otherwise. Just look at our arts, the real arts, not the freaky sculptures by extreme artists, but mainstream entertainment. Movies, music & television are full of death & violence. The most popular TV shows are about dead bodies, often brutally murdered. The big blockbuster films are about sensationalized violence. Our consumption of art reflects what is in our hearts, and that is blood lust.

Just because life is cheap, doesn't mean it isn't worth protecting. But let's not buy into the crap of "all life is sacred and must be preserved forever". It's obviously not what we really feel.

This is from Equality California (eqca.org):

While there were reports of the victim receiving support at school due to the bullying he endured, no other bullying prevention efforts have been reported. This terrible event sheds light on the need to provide better education for all students about respect for diversity and differences.

“With young people coming out at younger ages, our schools – especially our junior highs and middle schools – need to be proactive about teaching respect for diversity based on sexual orientation and gender identity,” said Carolyn Laub, executive director of Gay-Straight Alliance Network. “The tragic death of Lawrence King is a wake-up call for our schools to better protect students from harassment at school. As a society, we can prevent this kind of violence from happening.”

“We are deeply saddened by this tragedy, which is a grim reminder of the need for all of us to re-double our efforts to protect LGBT youth,” said EQCA Executive Director Geoff Kors.

California has laws protecting students from harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression in schools. The California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act was enacted in 2000, and further strengthened through the passage of AB 394 (The Safe Place to Learn Act) and SB 777 (The CA Student Civil Rights Act), which went into effect on January 1, 2008.

@31, here's what the AP says now:

OXNARD, California (AP) - Prosecutors on Thursday charged a 14-year-old boy with attempted murder and said he committed a hate crime in the classroom shooting of a student who has since been declared brain dead.

Prosecutors would not say why they filed a hate-crime enhancement with the attempted murder count, but several classmates said the 15-year-old victim, Lawrence King, sometimes wore women's clothes.

Prosecutors want the suspect tried as an adult and expect to upgrade the charges after King is taken off a ventilator for organ donation.
...
"I think that's what he would have wanted," King's father, Greg King, told the Ventura County Star.

Lawrence King had been under the care of the county foster care system and lived at Casa Pacifica, a nearby center for abused and neglected children, said Steve Elson, the facility's chief executive.

"We're are all stunned and it's just an unspeakable tragedy," Elson said Wednesday. "This is a very big traumatic experience for all of us."

This is disgusting.

I remember I was a little flamboyant in school, but I didn't have too much of a difficult time. It sucks that it can't be like that all over the world, let alone our own country.

@28:

Steve:

How about a donation to Casa Pacifica where Lawrence King was staying (not with his family):

Vicki Murphy
Director of Development & Public Relations
Casa Pacifica
1722 South Lewis Road
Camarillo, CA 93012
(805) 445-7804
vmurphy@casapacifica.org