Gay California student's slaying sparks outcry

[phrigndumass]

Source: AP as reported on MSNBC

OXNARD, Calif. - Larry King was a gay eighth-grader who used to come to school in makeup, high heels and earrings. And when the other boys made fun of him, he would boldly tease them right back by flirting with them.

That may have been what got him killed.

On Feb. 12, another student, Brandon McInerney, 14, shot him twice in the head at the back of the computer lab at their junior high school, police say.

The slaying of the 15-year-old boy has alarmed gay rights activists and led to demands that middle schools do more to educate youngsters about discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Police would not discuss McInerney's motive. But the day before the shooting, King told McInerney he liked him, eighth-grader Eduardo Segure told the Ventura County Star.


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23847511/

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This is JR. HIGH SCHOOL. Unbelievable.

[msongs]

1. not LBN it was more than a month ago, bad as it was/is nt

[phrigndumass]

2. Thanks ... I just saw it today on MSNBC for the first time.

GLSEN's annual Day of Silence will commemorate student Larry King on April 25.

[David__77]

3. WHAT THE FUCK?!: "That may have been what got him killed."

That's fucking stupid. That's NOT what "got him killed." What got him killed was a someone murdering him. I don't like the implication of that statement.

[phrigndumass]

4. I totally agree with you

[LeftyMom]

5. Agreed. What "got him killed" was having an unstable classmate with a gun.

Generally, here in the world of the sane, we assume middle school students don't have to structure their lives around not setting off armed nutcases.

[sce56]

6. You can "not like it all you want" but the fact is he was harrassed for his Sexual orientation

So he fought back by teasing and flirting with those who picked on him one of them could not take it and blew his brains out
Larry King was shot in the head about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday,Feb 12th as he sat in a computer lab at Green with about two dozen classmates. Witnesses identified the shooter as classmate Brandon McInerney. McInerney, 14, was arrested shortly after the shooting, a few blocks away from Green.

THIS IS NOT LBN this story is over a month old!

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/feb/29/no-headline---ob9kingdeath29-fc/

The Ventura County District Attorney's Office on Thursday charged McInerney with first-degree murder and the use of a firearm to commit a crime. McInerney, who is being prosecuted in adult court, is also facing a hate crime allegation. Lawyers in court Thursday would not elaborate on the hate crime charge.

Police have said the shooting was rooted in a personal dispute between McInerney and King, but they declined to elaborate.

Several students said King was openly gay and other students often teased him because of his nonconformist behavior and style of dress. Authorities have declined to comment on issues of sexual orientation.

Re: your Feb. 24 article, "It doesn't make sense":

I am writing this because I feel some things have been overlooked concerning the tragedy at E.O. Green School.

I have a child who attends the school. I have been reading articles and letters printed in this paper on a daily basis, referring to the bullying and teasing the victim endured after apparently "coming out." A student stated in the Feb. 24 edition, "If kids didn't want to have contact with a gay person, Larry would chase after them." In the same story, another student said he saw Larry looking at Brandon the day before the shooting and saying he liked him. Later at lunch, Larry asked to sit with Brandon, who then left the table. Of course, this does not justify killing anybody, ever. But this sounds like Larry may have been harassing Brandon.

E.O. Green has a dress code. Parents were told it would help make school safer and a better learning environment because kids would not be distracted by the freedom to express themselves in the way they dress. Why, then, would school officials allow a boy to wear makeup and high-heeled shoes? They apparently felt this would not be a distraction at a middle school.

We were told at a meeting at Hueneme High School that the school cannot suppress students from expressing themselves as individuals. What? This is a contradiction to the dress code, isn't it? We were then told the dress code cannot legally be enforced in this state.

To finish up, why would Larry persist to get near someone who did not like him? We will never understand the decisions immature teens make.

[arundhatiroyfan]

7. Short of writing that he had it coming.

Reminds me of the way some journalists report about female rape victims.

[Peace Patriot]

8. Charging a 14 year old as an adult is absurd. The nearest adult in the chain of

custody on the gun is the one who should face severe penalty. And I do NOT take this crime lightly. I just happen to know that many 14 year olds have no judgment, no common sense, and hardly any sense of self-preservation. They do absolutely nutso things that give parents nightmares and gray hairs--putting themselves at risk in every way imaginable. To try a 14 year old as an adult is egregiously unfair. It should not be allowed.

As for targeting gays, I think the entire Republican Party, from Bush and Rove on down, should be in jail. How can we expect youngsters to learn tolerance and self-control when the President of the United States targets gays as his narrative for stolen elections, tortures prisoners and slaughters 1.2 million innocent people to get their oil? We have fascists and war criminals running our government. Kids know this. They know we haven't been able to control these manipulative bigots and criminals. They know our whole society is out of whack. They are more vulnerable to fascist imagery in corporate 'news" and entertainment, and models of tolerance, generosity, self control, lawfulness and caring for the common good are hard to come by.

We are all oppressed, in one way or another--more oppressed than we might like to admit--living in a very unjust society--whether its teachers being bullied by Bushite "No Child Left Behind" testing rules, or parents up to their eyeballs in debt bullied by criminal credit card sharks, or soldiers enslaved by "stop loss" in Iraq, or police, fire fighters and other emergency workers drafted to Iraq, or the 70% of the people in our prisons with long sentences for non-violent crimes--in prisons where rape and brutality are routine--or the corporations, war profiteers and super-rich who have ripped us off to the tune of $10 trillion--our society is being attacked and dismantled, and young teenagers feel these things in a direct way that adults cannot even fathom. Some survive it. Some don't. These two kids didn't make it. It is a SOCIAL tragedy, as well as a family tragedy. It is our common failure. But it is most attributable to fascist imagery and messages permeating our society, and that starts at the top.

[Swagman]

9. a 14 yr old schoolkid can get a gun-outrageous !

[Orsino]

10. America teaches kids to fear Teh Gay and to worship the gun.

These incidents are as inevitable as they are tragic--but we still manage to feign surprise every goddamned time.