8th grader shot to death for being gay

[jman]

This makes me feel really sick and sad, I cannot fathom why society can't just be tolerate of a person's sexual orientation:

Thankfully the kid responsible may be facing a life sentence

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/23/us/23oxnard.html

OXNARD, Calif. — Hundreds of mourners gathered at a church here on Friday to remember an eighth-grade boy who was shot to death inside a junior high school computer lab by a fellow student in what prosecutors are calling a hate crime.


In recent weeks, the victim, Lawrence King, 15, had said publicly that he was gay, classmates said, enduring harassment from a group of schoolmates, including the 14-year-old boy charged in his death.

“God knit Larry together and made him wonderfully complex,” the Rev. Dan Birchfield of Westminster Presbyterian Church told the crowd as he stood in front of a large photograph of the victim. “Larry was a masterpiece.”

The shooting stunned residents of Oxnard, a laid-back middle-class beach community just north of Malibu. It also drew a strong reaction from gay and civil rights groups.

“We’ve never had school violence like this here before, never had a school shooting,” said David Keith, a spokesman for the Oxnard Police Department.

Les Winget, 44, whose daughter Nikki, 13, attends the school, called the crime “absolutely unbelievable.”

Jay Smith, executive director of the Ventura County Rainbow Alliance, where Lawrence took part in Friday night group activities for gay teenagers, said, “We’re all shocked that this would happen here.”

[Parts]

I don't understand it either but it's not good in my opinion that the kid who did it faces life.  He is so young surly if handled correctly he could be rehabilitated but prison is not about that here it's about punishment and revenge  meaning when he gets out in fifteen years he will likely commit some other crime   

[jman]

I don't understand it either but it's not good in my opinion that the kid who did it faces life.  He is so young surly if handled correctly he could be rehabilitated but prison is not about that here it's about punishment and revenge  meaning when he gets out in fifteen years he will likely commit some other crime   

I disagree, would you really want someone who killed or raped somebody out on the street just because they were "rehabilated"? This kid maybe an exception but I don't think this kid's parents and loved ones would be too happy to see this kid go through rehabilatation and just walk.

Though I will say that putting drug users in prison is stupid IMO. When they get released they just go and do it, why not send these people to rehab instead throwing them in prison, how does that help them?

[Parts]

I'm not saying he should not do time.  Just that the system has to do more to help instead of just store these people.Non violent  drug users in prison is just stupid in my opinion also

[Sophgay]

i agree that non-violent drug users shouldn't be put in prison
but i think this kid should
14 is young, but it's old enough to know what you're doing
no "normal" person would shoot a kid for being gay, whether they're 14 or 40
i doubt this kid can be changed

[Parts]

Maybe it's just a hope that they can change.  My hope is that they will but I can be somewhat of an idealist

[DirtDawg]

I'm afraid it may be like the proverbial lightbulb ...

How many top-heavy institutions, starry-eyed psychologists, hard-earned tax dollars, manipulating doctors, and social-working do-gooders, does it take to change a killer?

One, the killer must do it. How then do we as a society ensure that the lightbulb will not go out again.


We can't. We will have to start again, when it does.

[El]

I'm wondering if what the killer's parents are like.

Though I think the killer should face punishment, I think he's too damn young to be tried as an adult.  He's actually not old enough that he would be likely to really grasp what he was doing.

[El]

This is a more recent article which has more detail about the two boys.

[jman]

Whats really sad about all this is the fact that we as a society have still not fully accepted people's sexual orientation, I mean why do people care what gender a person decides to have sex with? How is that affecting their life?


Also I am really displeased with some of the teachers in that school. It seems they did nothing about the bullying this kid was receiving. Seems like an all to familar story.


I don't know why more is being done about bullying, I mean how many fucking kids have to be killed or grow up with severe psychological problems?

[Sophgay]

i had a friend in school who was gay, but didn't admit it till he was 16
it was obvious he was gay though, and he got shit for it all through school
the teachers did absolutely nothing
if it had been bullying over race or religion, they would have, why not sexuality?

[jman]

if it had been bullying over race or religion, they would have, why not sexuality?

or a disability

[Calandale]

And...if it is that long, mind showing a nice shot of it bared.

[SovaNu]

fucked up. very sad.