BORED OF EDUCATION

McInerney-King Trial Testimony: If You Can’t Fit In, Learn How To Dodge Bullets

The trial of Brandon McInerney, who killed 15-year-old gay high-schooler Lawrence King in 2008, is well underway. This week, testimony from teachers has provided surprising background not just on the incident, but on King’s life and the prevalent culture at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard, CA.

“He desperately wanted to be liked but didn’t have the social skills to get along with his peers,” special-ed teacher Susan Crowley said about King. “He often said things that were one note off the mark.”

As reported in the Ventura County Star:

When [King] 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.”

Other educators testified that King was developmentally immature, appeared confused about his sexuality and made sexually suggestive comments to other students. “I think Larry was probably gay, but I don’t think he knew that,” Crowley said. “He had a lot of years before he could figure it out.”


Former assistant principal Joy Epstein came under fire for testifying that King’s issues were being handled well by administrators and that few people had complained about King wearing women’s high-heel boots, scarves and makeup—a claim refuted by Crowley and others. On Monday, the jury first heard that Epstein herself was a lesbian, although “testifying teachers had danced around the subject for weeks.”

While it seems many teachers at King’s school cared for the boy, who may have had  behavioral problems—or was simply struggling through the pains of coming out—their testimony suggests the chief priority was getting him to fit in.

[Teacher Shirley] 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.”

How about talking to the kids who are doing the targeting? Sadly, it became clear Monday that wasn’t Brown’s agenda. When prosecutor Maeve Fox asked her what she said to school administrators about King’s disruptive attire and behavior Brown replied: “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?'”

God, yes—because having to look at a funny little kid in makeup and high heels is about the worst thing that can happen to a 16-year-old. Far worse than, say, having your brains splattered against the lockers. (Brown also testified that she witnessed a group of boys chasing King in a “potentially unpleasant situation,” but chose not to step in.)

Exactly who is on trial here, anyway? Was King a troubled kid who acted inappropriately in school? Probably. But if that means you get  a bullet to the head, we would’ve been six feet under before junior prom.

 

 Image via HerryLawford

 

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