Box Turtle Bulletin
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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbySeptember 17th, 2010
Want more reasons to be furious over Billy Lucas’ suicide?
Homophobic hate messages were left Thursday on a memorial page set up for Billy Lucas, a Greensburg High School student who killed himself last week after being mercilessly bullied, friends said. Numerous images were uploaded to a Facebook group, giving visitors a taste of the kind of hate Lucas endured, friends said.
The messages chided the teen about defending himself and made attacks on his presumed sexuality, 6News’ Joanna Massee reported. Lucas was found hanged in a barn at his grandmother’s house last week. Some of the messages attempted to make light of the way Lucas died.
In Greensburg, bullying doesn’t end with death. It goes on beyond the grave to torment those left behind. Greensburg, Indiana right now is the ugliest town in America.
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TampaZeke
September 17th, 2010
But the most important thing is that we not let this turn into a homosexual activist thing or a teachable moment about homophobic bullying or any other kind of thing.
If we try real hard we can make sure that this whole ugly incident goes away before it has a chance to change anything in this Indiana town or anywhere else in America.
Greg
September 17th, 2010
Please, can we expel the entire state of Indiana? Let’s just say that 1811 was a mistake and we’d like to take it back.
pepa
September 17th, 2010
There you go again Jim, taking one incident and blame an entire group of people who had nothing to do with it.
Your credibility is not looking as good as it once was.
Lynn David
September 18th, 2010
I am not sure Greensburg deserves that moniker. There are always a few bad apples in any town on any one issue (though, yeah, Indiana, probably more than a few). More news from TheINDYchannel.com:
From WISH-TV:
To be more exact the Greensburg plan is at:
http://www.greensburg.k12.in.us/News%20Release.pdf
Jason Foundation on high risk students(including GLBTs) concerning suicide:
http://www.jasonfoundation.com/community/youth-suicide-facts/higher-risk-groups.php
But the Olweus Antiâ€Bullying Program out of Clemson University is what the school uses (and is recommmended by Indiana state officials). At:
http://www.clemson.edu/olweus/
–or–
http://www.olweus.org/
I cannot find as yet how the Olweus Program concerns itself with GLBT students. Searched their site with Google and only one article popped up when I used the terms ‘gay’ or ‘homosexual.’
…
beachewtoy75
September 18th, 2010
I’m from Indiana and I know a teacher at the school. He said that kids (mostly boys) were saying things like they were glad the faggot was dead, etc…
They had to hold an assembly about it.
Can’t say I’m surprised. BTW, this is the state that has a special license plate that reads “In God We Trust”
Lynn David
September 18th, 2010
Not sure about Michael Dorn of Safe Havens who they are also employing. He has an anti-bullying program named Weakfish. Guns and knives???
andrew
September 18th, 2010
Pepa — I have to agree. This site has become far more shrill and intemperate over the past months. Just give us the news and spare us the commentary. I don’t need help to know how to feel about these issues. I think I’m going to have to decide whether I want to keep BTB on my Yahoo page.
Priya Lynn
September 18th, 2010
Pepa said “There you go again Jim, taking one incident and blame an entire group of people who had nothing to do with it.”.
The entire town wasn’t responsible, but many, many people in the town were. It doesn’t take the entire town to make it the ugliest one in the States.
John
September 18th, 2010
The SOBs of the younger generation will learn a very painful lesson that mine never faced: online posts do not go away. As with the kids from Itwamba, just wait until future employers Google their names and find this crap. They can forget a life in politics too.
cj
September 18th, 2010
U HAVE SOME NERVE, YA THIS IS ABOUT BULLYING AND IS A PROBLEM TO US, AND YES WE WILL FIGHT UNTIL ITS CHANGED. ALONG WITH OTHER CRAP THAT STANDS IN OUR WAY! I HOPE THE PARENTS FIND OUT WHO THESE PUNKS ARE AND WHIPS THEIR ASSES AND SUES THE PARENTS AND TAKES THEM TO THE POOR HOUSE , THEN THEY KNOW WHAT HATE IS, STRIP ALL AWAY THEY HAVE TO SHOW PARENTS THAT THE NEED TO RAISE THEIR CHILDREN RIGHT IN SOCIETY AND RESPECT ALL PEOPLE !
Chris McCoy
September 18th, 2010
andrew wrote:
Box turtle has never claimed to be the Associated Press, or Reuters. It’s a blog.
Richard Rush
September 18th, 2010
Pepa, it says a lot about you when, considering the events that happened in Greensburg, you choose to whine about Jim’s reference to it as “America’s Ugliest Town.” Only one of you has a some decency, and it isn’t you, Pepa.
Lynn David
September 18th, 2010
About the Greensburg Schools anti-bullying program, they use the Olweus Program, which was developed at Clemson University. Greensburg Schools has developed an ‘action plan‘ in which they intend to supplement their use of the Olweus Program with work from the Jason Foundation and Safe Havens which I mentioned above.
Dr Warren Throckmorton had this to say about the Olweus Program:
So it appears that the school was well armed to stop bullying, but as is possible, the school fatally failed in one particular situation.
Lucrece
September 18th, 2010
This is not a news site. It’s a commentary site– it’s always been like that. It just so happens that the commentary often involves news.
Don’t like it, go read AP or NPR. This is not a soulless pretense of being “objective” (which always translates to promoting the status quo in the case of MSM) type of endeavor.
Leave the site for those of us who appreciate the thoughtful exchange the boys at this site take so much time, effort, kindness, and dedication to offer.
pepa
September 19th, 2010
So are you saying that the entire town has been indicted by a grand jury and convicted of the crime?
pepa
September 19th, 2010
@Lurece
So then in that case why even take this site seriously since it is only one man’s opinion?
pepa
September 19th, 2010
if only you liberals were honest and say that BTB is not gay site about homophobia but rather just another liberal blog then maybe you would have some credence
pepa
September 19th, 2010
This is strange since your fellow liberal believes in the following:
Hunter
September 19th, 2010
Pepa and Andrew:
As others have pointed out, this is a blog, not a news site. In my own opinion, if you can’t read critically, stay off the Internet, because you can’t rely on anything you read there.
As to whether Greenburg is the ugliest place in America, that’s a hard call. There are a lot of contenders, but it’s certainly not the nicest. Leaving hateful messages on a memorial site is pretty nasty.
I am gratified to see from the latest reports that the superintendent is taking this seriously. It’s just sad that it takes something like a kid killing himself to wake people up.
Priya Lynn
September 19th, 2010
Pepa said “This is strange since your fellow liberal believes in the following:”.
True freedom of religion means the government doesn’t try to force religion on people by pushing it through the public sphere. There is nothing inconsistent about those two statments.
Priya Lynn
September 19th, 2010
Pepa asked “So are you saying that the entire town has been indicted by a grand jury and convicted of the crime?”.
What part of “the entire town wasn’t responsible” didn’t you understand?
Priya Lynn
September 19th, 2010
The above comment by Pepa shows the typical dishonesty of right wingers like him.
John
September 19th, 2010
So then in that case why even take this site seriously since it is only one man’s opinion?
Are you so dismissive of all opinion commentary, which btw includes YOUR blog and posts here, or is there some special reason why you are singling out BTB? Personally I enjoy reviewing a mix of opinions from different sides, as long as they are intelligently presented. I do not agree with Jim B. a lot on politics but I also enjoy reading his thoughts on the topics. Ditto for Timothy K., though I agree with him more than Jim B. So I’m really have difficulty understanding what’s the problem here.
Major
September 19th, 2010
THE FIRST AMENDMENT DOES NOT GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO INCITE.
I don’t know who you are Pepe, but you are some kind of a mole or something. He isn’t voicing opinions or bantering ideas to find consensus; he is attacking people and trying to engage fighting. That is not dialogue. Pepe is inciting readers and should be banned.
There is no moral or legal obligation to give him a forum for his hate speech. He has no 1st amendment right to incite. BTB should have a special blog for angry closeted gays that need to incite others.
The affect on me is direct: I find myself not reading the blogs or engaging conversation due to his viral discourse. And I am using an alias today so that Pepe doesn’t track me down and cause me grief.
Good bye Peepe.
Scott P.
September 19th, 2010
Is there a screw up with the moderation again?
Ben
September 20th, 2010
As a believer in equality the right need not be painted with any broader a brush than the right paints the left.
At the moment Surprise, AZ seems uglier to me.
customartist
September 20th, 2010
* Everyone,
The locals aren’t holding anyone accountable.
Please ask CNN to cover the horrible Child Death and Cover-Up of Billy Lucas. Please report the names of Bullies and teachers who knew*
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/tips/newstips.html
Timothy Kincaid
September 20th, 2010
pepa
You need to chill out.
Ironically, we frequently get scolded for being too conservative as well. This site has a number of opinions because it has more than one contributor.
In my opinion, when someone starts ranting about “you’re just a conservative” or “you’re just a liberal” it means that they’ve run out of argument and now are engaging in group-hate.
homer
September 25th, 2010
Those people whining about the commentary aspect of BTB, feel free to spend the hundreds of hours that Jim has spent researching these stories and make your own website.
Josie
October 1st, 2010
i live in greensburg and i 100% agree with the statement of “Greensburg, Indiana: America’s ugliest town.” I went toschool with Billy everyone knew abut him being bullied anyone who said that they didnt know was lying. Billy wasn’t gay but even if he was who cares? NO one deserves to die like this!
olga nada
October 7th, 2010
I’m from Greensburg and went to GCHS. I have lived on the west coast for a decade, but still visit family in the burg regularly. What I have always been aware of in Gbrg is white male entitlement and a lack of critical discourse. There is a phenomenon there whereby men feel as though they run the show. They can stare at whomever, say terrible things to women and minorities, and why? It’s called redneck entitlement. If you’ve never had any experiences outside of your sheltered, white, middle class, male dominated culture, one might start to think that everywhere is like Gbrg. It’s not. I think that Gbrg is going through the same growing pains that have popularized the tea party movement. I’ve noticed on recent trips to Gbrg that when you look around there are actually out gay people and minorities, where once there were none. This must be so scary to those who have maintained tyrannical control since the good ol’ days when black people were escorted out of town, or told not to let the sun set on their asses in the burg. I’ve noticed on FB and elsewhere that whenever someone blames or questions Greensburg’s complicity in hate, people are quick to say that this kind of bullying happens everywhere. As a teacher, I would agree with them in part. Yes, bullying, especially of those deemed different, is rampant. The difference bw elsewhere and Gbrg is that in southeastern IN, hate and the justification of hateful actions are systemic. No one talks about anything. Just ignore it and it’ll go away, or more kids will die, maybe even one that you know or are related to. Maybe then it will be important enough to have a community-based discussion about how Gbrg is, in fact, way behind the times. Look around people…you’ve got maybe a couple decades until not everyone else looks just like you. Then what?!
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