Today:

1.Return assignments and go

over them
2.Discuss any questions about
lecture/readings
3.Go over the 4 articles
4.Discuss school shootings in
relation to this week’s
 School Shootings…… February
2008
12,

Why Didn’t We Hear About This One?

Lawrence King,
Dead at 15

murder and said he committed a hate crime in the

Brandon classroom
McInerney shooting o
(14 yrs
old) has been charged for
premeditated hate crime.
The boy, although a minor,
could face up to 50 years
to life in prison and is
currently being held on
$770,000 bail.

Video coverage on last week’s shooting

What mainstream media didn’t
say……


 Prosecutors would not say why
they filed a hate-crime
enhancement with the attempted
murder count, but several
classmates said the 15-year-old
victim, Lawrence King, sometimes
 What they said about
Lawrence
• KNBC of Los Angeles reports
Hueneme School District
Superintendent Jerry Dannenberg
as saying:
– King had been receiving help
from school support staff,
Dannenberg said. He had no
details on the type of
assistance the teen needed.
– “He was seeing a number of
people trying to help him deal
with his own personal issues,”
he said.
 Quotes in the Press about this
Incident:


Several students at the south Oxnard campus said



King and his alleged assailant had a falling out

stemming from King’s sexual orientation.
– The teenager sometimes wore feminine
clothing and makeup, and proclaimed he
was gay, students said.
–
– “He would come to school in high-heeled
boots, makeup, jewelry and painted nails
— the whole thing,” said Michael Sweeney,
13, an eighth-grader. “That was freaking
the guys out.”
–
 What they said about
Brandon
• Student Juan Sandoval, 14, said he shared a
fourth-period algebra class with the suspect,
Brandon, whom he described as a calm, smart
student who played on the basketball team. “I
didn’t think he was that kind of kid,” Sandoval
said. “I guess you never know. He made a big
mistake.”
 Discussion
Questions
What issues seem to be masked by the media in this situation? Why do you think these issues were


not covered in mainstream press?



• What sort of pressures do boys, in particular, face during their middle and high school
experience? How do these differ from the pressures girls face? How are they similar?
Can these pressures lead to violence? Why does it seem to happen in some cases, and
not in others.


• Why do the media tend not to focus on the gender issue when boys, or men, are the
perpetrators?
•
• Why are the vast majority of school shootings perpetrated by boys?
•
• Why do you think there have been few, if any, such incidents involving girls who took up
arms against their classmates?


• If a girl, or group of girls, were the perpetrators in a school shooting, do you feel media
coverage would emphasize the fact that they were girls?
•
• If you were in charge, what would you do to reduce male violence in schools?


• What are some other social issues involving youth that were largely ignored when
confined to communities of color, but which became major national issues when young
white people were involved?
–
 The shooting, which has the classmate facing up to 50 years in prison, appears ca

because of their gender identity and expression were males who looke
don McInerney, 14, who reportedly told peers that Lawrence was "having his last da

el Sweeney, 13, an eighth-grader. "That was freaking the guys out."  Classmates rep

to express their gender authentically, but fatal violence against them keeps occur

iolent assaults that has claimed the lives of more than 50 young people 30 and un
rs.  (www.50under30.org)

were gay or perceived to be gay were more than five times more likely than other
hools Coalition survey. 
 Gender/Sex Transgressors

Brandon Teena
Transgender / Pre - op
Transsexual David Reimer
Murdered : December 31, Sex reassignment
1994 in Humboldt,
Nebraska, the “heart of Committed suicide: May 4,
the Midwest.” 2004 at 38 years old
 Gender/Sex Transgressors

There’s Something About Miriam

2004 Reality TV Show in UK
featured six men wooing 21-year-old

RuPaul Mexican model Miriam Nago without

born RuPaul Andre Charles revealing that she was a pre-operative
transsexual until the final episode.
Drag Performer
Popular in 1990s Transsexual – Undergo pathology of
gender Identity Disorder, Sex
Reassignment Surgery