The Newsweek Article

This past week we were given an article titled "Young, Gay and Murdered" to read. I tells the story of a 15 yr old boy, Larry King, who had come out that he was gay. He would deck out in women's accessories, paint his nails, put on glitter, and wear stilettos to school. As time passed on, Larry would egg on some of his fellow classmates, which turned more or less into harassment. Then one day, a fellow classmate that Larry had been harassing, Brandon, shows up to school and shoots Larry in the head, killing him.

There are many questions concerning this story, and some of them I will say I do not know the answers to. I don't know if anyone does. How could Larry's death have been prevented? Why did Brandon have the gun in the first place? Why was there no counseling services for either of these boys? Also, I think that when one reads the article, they know that Larry was pushing his buttons yes, but was it because he was gay that he did all this, or was it in fact a cry for attention?

I think that yes, if there had been counseling services for both of these boys who came from rough homes (which I believe that has a lot to do with the situation as well) this might have been prevented. We will never know. Why did Brandon have the gun- this goes back to the rough home life, which is really heartbreaking when a child is raised with abusive parents. Maybe the fact that his dad had shot his mom when he was younger instilled some subconcious thought that it was ok to shoot people? Again, who knows? I believe that Larry dressed up in women's clothes, and pushed people's buttons as a cry for attention. I think that that comes into more play than the fact that he was gay.

I think that there are certain things that the administration could have done that wouldn't have let the situation escalade into the tragedy it became either. If the assistant principle, Epstein, wouldn't have necessarily egged him on so much, yes I believe she was a driving force in what turned into Larry harrasing the other students, but rather would have been more of just a supportive figure- it may not have happened. Also I think that the teacher who gave him her daughter's green dress played into it too much as well.

These are all just assumptions though, we will never know the "what ifs" of the world. That is what makes it so hard to discuss, because we don't have all the answers. It's like being left in a pitch black room with no flashlight to guide your way- it's scary. I believe that with the next generation, schools need to be more informed on how to deal with cases like this so it doesn't turn into a tragedy.