05-07-2012, 07:58 PM
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#14 (permalink)
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| Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 3,022
| I finally found the specific charge. It's illegal in Indiana for someone under 18 to possess a stun gun.
The same article where I found that had a lot more depth to the story. Bullied student faces expulsion, fired stun gun mom gave him | Indianapolis Star | indystar.com Quote:
Grimes said she knew Young was gay even when he was a little boy. His personality differed from that of his twin brother, Darrell, and an older brother. He would want to put on her makeup and shoes, and his brothers would get mad and tell him not to do that. She said she always was supportive of his sexuality.
"Everybody in my family knew he was (gay), so we just loved him," she said.
Young lived with his mother until he was 7 and then lived in Arizona with his dad for about 10 years.
He became openly gay as a freshman in high school.
In Arizona, some of his classmates called him names such as "gay boy," but most accepted him and his sexuality, Young said.
Bullying was not a problem until he moved back in with his mother in Indianapolis and started at Tech last fall, he said.
When he arrived at the school, his new classmates were more confrontational. His outgoing personality and unique accessories made him stand out from the other students. Even some of the other gay students were unfriendly, he said.
The bullying started in October, he said.
"All day I'd be on my guard," he said. "It never got better. It always got worse."
Young broke down in tears when a rumor circulated that he performed sex acts in the bathrooms.
He said he thought about committing suicide.
His grades already had slipped from A's and B's to F's, and Grimes said he was losing weight. His problems at school seeped into his home life. He said the stress at school did not go away when he got home, so he would fight with his mother and siblings. He moved in with a friend and started missing school. More than a month later, he moved back with his mother and tried to get a fresh start at Tech.
But the bullying continued, Young said. It happened every day.
Students would bump into him in the hallways on purpose and call him names. Sometimes, they would taunt him in class.
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Young and his mother said they told the school about the bullying more than 10 times, but Young said Tech did not formally investigate their complaints except for once when a student who taunted him during class was taken to the dean's office and punished.
Grimes said she called the school about students following Young home from the bus stop, but school officials said they could not do anything since the students were not on school property. When she complained other times, they brought up his sexuality.
Larry Yarrell, the Tech principal, said school staff were trying to help Young by suggesting that he "tone down" his accessories.
"If you wear female apparel, then kids are kids and they're going to say whatever it is that they want to say," Yarrell said. "Because you want to be different and because you choose to wear female apparel, it may happen. In the idealistic society, it shouldn't matter. People should be able to wear what they want to wear."
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