Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyNovember 19th, 2009
Few hate crimes are specifically preventable. It is not often that the intended violence is known in advance and reported to authorities. Which makes the case of Jayron Martin so frustrating and infuriating.
A fellow student warned Jayron that a group of students planned on beating him because he’s gay. So Jayron reported the threat to two assistant principals, who did nothing to protect him.
When Jayron got on the bus to go home (as the school opted not to call his mother) so did the group of attackers. Jayron then told the bus driver and begged for help. He didn’t get any.
So he ran. As fast as he could. Which wasn’t fast enough.
Unable to make it home, he ran into a neighbor’s house; but this didn’t deter his attackers. They followed and one beat Jayron with a metal pole while eight others watched.
It wasn’t until the owner came downstairs with a shotgun, and cocked it, that they ran off leaving Jayron with a concussion, bruised and bleeding.
Those who oppose gay-straight alliances or other support systems for gay students like to pretend that gay students face no greater threats than any other students. And when situations occur, they comfort their biases with the thought that the student must have provoked the situation or didn’t take the expected steps to protect himself.
I wonder what excuse they will give this time. But, then again, I also often wonder how they sleep at night.
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Shannon Spencer Fox
November 19th, 2009
I so very hope that either the kid or his parents are smart enough to get in touch with Lambda Legal, or perhaps the ACLU, about this… and that the school’s prepared for one hell of a lawsuit.
Ken in Riverside
November 19th, 2009
This is disgusting.
If anyone hears of a fund to pay for litigation against the “adults” who were supposed to be responsible, please share with the rest of us.
Richard W. Fitch
November 19th, 2009
Those living in Fort Worth or Atlanta already know the outcome of any internal, self-investigation.
Burr
November 19th, 2009
What makes me sick is it shouldn’t take any special gay-straight alliance or other special awareness to get off your ass, do your job, and PROTECT a kid, regardless of why he’s being threatened.
Where’s the moral values? I don’t see them.
Thank God for the guy with the shotgun, but is it gonna take splattering a homophobe’s brains before these animals back the eff off?
Ben in Oakland
November 19th, 2009
It always amazes me how these big macho straight boys can only attack a weak little faggot in gangs.
It reminds me of the Naked Civil Servant, when Quentin Crisp tells agang that they better leave him and his friends alone lest someone figure out which one of them is queer.
homophobia isn’t the fear of gay people. It’s the fear that you yourself may be gay.
I sincerly hope that the mother of this boy sues the hell out of the school district, the priniple, and the bus driver, and the parents of the pathetic bullies. I hope that the onlookers get prosecuted under conspiracy laws. I also hope these fag-bashers get prosecuted under our newly enacted hate crimes law.
I’m wondering how the Religious Reich will manage ot spin this one to make it Jayron’s fault.
Ken in Riverside
November 19th, 2009
@Ben, here’s what the magic eight ball says:
It’s Jayron’s fault because he got on the bus instead of calling his mom to pick him up. Who would get on a bus with a group of people determined to attack him?
The assistant principals get told about many threats every day, how were they to know that this one was credible? Anyways, it happened off school grounds so why should they be considered responsible anyways?
Timothy (TRiG)
November 19th, 2009
I really don’t understand this level of hate, or this level of recklessness. It boggles my mind.
And it infuriates me.
TRiG.
Rikki B
November 19th, 2009
To Ken in Riverside:
I sure hope you are kidding. This sounds like typical Texas Machismo. Gang up on the little fag. Somebody should take a pipe to all those responsible… or at the very least, sue them till they can;t walk.
John
November 19th, 2009
Rikki: Ken in Riverside is parroting the BS one hears from homophobes. Indeed, look at the comments found at this article and one finds the exact 2 points he raised.
wackadoodle
November 19th, 2009
they comfort their biases with the thought that the student must have provoked the situation or didn’t take the expected steps to protect himself.
I’ve already seen people saying its his fault because he probably hit on one of them. You know, because these same people support the right of women to gang up on a guy and beat him with lead pipes for hitting on them. Its not like they’re just grabbing for straws and every single person defending this would change their tune instantly if it were a straight kid that got beat up.
Rich
November 19th, 2009
I read on another site (Huff I think) that the main attacker, a 16 year old, had been arrested and will be charged as a minor; his name will not be released and if convicted, the record expunged when he turns 21. Now imagine if it had been a black kid who had assaulted a white student, gay or not…you know he would be charged as an adult. The depth of double standards here goes deep indeed.
Robert in San Diego
November 19th, 2009
Do you know why there has never been a national hate crimes law including sexuality until only what, 2 weeks ago?
Because we don’t go around hitting and killing straight people because they are straight. Can you imagine if we had been doing that for several decades there would of been a hate crimes law covering sexuality immediately so we could be punished to the full extent of the law.
Imagine that…… All we had to do was become them and start straight bashing.
CB
November 20th, 2009
All this can be attributed to the Republican Party, the right and religious organizations with their hate speeches who give the green light to bigotry and discrimination towards gays.
The Democrat Party and the left are not much better. All they do is talk the talk of supporting gay’s but take little action. Gay’s are literally stuck between a rock and a hard place.
The only thing the gay community can do is start pulling their support (money) from candidates, especially those who have been in office for sometime who continue to state they support gay rights, but do little in action.
Protests are about the only way any action will be done. A protest at this school and bus company needs to happen until all adults involved are fired and all the children involved are charged as accessories. The Houston gay community needs to organize something for this child. We need to protect our own, since it is apparent our schools and goverments aren’t. The new hate crime law should go into effect in this instance.
This is a child we are talking about and parents expect that their child, no matter who that child is, will be protected when at school or on a bus.
Christopher Waldrop
November 20th, 2009
I won’t call for violence against anyone, and I think the response to this should be a call for an end to any violence. What’s perhaps most disturbing is that a neighbor with a shotgun had to be involved to stop what was going on. It frightens me how much more badly this story could have ended, and how unwilling the school administrators were to do anything about it. I understand they hear a lot of threats, and maybe they’ve gotten too much flack for the “zero tolerance” policies that were so popular a few years ago. That doesn’t matter. When one student threatens another, or when a group of students threatens another, teachers and other adults need to step in and investigate. I don’t care that it didn’t happen on school property–although, technically, the bus is school property. The threats obviously started at school.
Timothy Kincaid
November 20th, 2009
Paul,
Comments such as that which you posted are entirely unacceptable. It has been removed.
Douglas Parks
November 21st, 2009
This story just shows that Americas are not becoming more civilized. I’m appalled when I hear that two assistant principals and a bus driver refuse to aid a student in a situation like this. All three should be summarily fired. But that this behavior continues in the 21st century and no one cares is a sad commentary on our country.
Ben in Oakland
November 22nd, 2009
That Sarah Palin is taken seriously is an even sadder comment.
Mr. HCI
November 22nd, 2009
As others have said already, no doubt the beaten child will be the one to get the blame. After all, he should know being gay is the worst sin of all; the boys who beat him were merely doing their “Christian” duty.
Kierra Minor
November 22nd, 2009
This is rediculous…THATS WHY I HATE THAT SCHOOL….& I WISH I CAN FLY BACK TO HOUSTON TO SEE MY BEST FRIEND & MAKE SURE HE IS OKAYYY.DAMN IMMATURE KIDS..BEATING UP ON THE GAY PPL.MAKING ME UPSET.
gary47290
November 24th, 2009
I wish the neighbor had fired.
There is plenty of precedent for a defense of preventing harm here.
shirley
December 22nd, 2009
To response about religious people.God love all of whom he created He just don’t like all of our CHOICES. No One has the right to beat anyone. the Bible said in john 8:7 part b states He that is without sin among you,let him first cast a stone at her. meaning none of us is with out sin we just need to do better for God. move self out of the way. That mean we all have work to do until that day when every need going to bow and every tongue going to confess to God. but through it all we still have to love every one no matter what our faults are because he loves us through our faults.
Fg68at
January 20th, 2011
The School have a GSA since at least 2007 or september 2009 (“first meeting” of the year?).
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=18583443672#!/group.php?gid=18583443672&v=wall
http://schools.cfisd.net/langham/Clubs/GSA_Webpage/index.html
http://schools.cfisd.net/langham/clubs.html
2003 there was no GSA
http://66.160.205.104/news/january2003.html
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