Valentine Road (2013) Movie Script
1
Everyone knows where LA is.
You tell someone,
do you know where Oxnard is?
Hardly anyone knows,
unless they've heard
about the story.
It was a bad thing
that happened,
horrible thing that happened.
We all learned a lot about life
through this,
and I know people on the outside
have learned a lot
about themselves through this.
Like, I just woke up
like it was
just another morning.
But I was sick,
and I didn't wanna go to school,
but I pushed myself
to go to school.
I had bought a new sweater
the day before,
so I was quite happy
to wear it and stuff.
And then mom drove me to school,
gave her a kiss goodbye.
Everyone was just hanging out
like they usually do
before the bell rings.
We walked down
to the computer lab.
Larry and I walked together.
The rest of the class
was behind us.
He brought me
little flowers in a Dixie cup.
He was just
a sweetheart of a kid.
He was a little smaller,
you know, those kind of kids.
You tend to... okay,
you just wanna protect 'em.
We went to type our essays
for Holocaust,
Anne Frank and stuff like that.
It's so fricking ironic.
It's a unit on tolerance.
Everybody sat down
and we started typing.
I was walking around,
up and down,
and checking on people's things,
and then all of a sudden,
I heard this pop.
Like a loud bang,
like a balloon popped.
And I just knew
somebody had exploded
one of those computers,
and I turned around
and Brandon was standing.
I said,
"What the hell are you doing?"
I don't know how long it took
for me to realize
that was a gun.
I stood up from my chair
and I was able to see
over the computer.
I just saw his eyes.
I looked at him,
he looked at me,
and then all of a sudden,
there was another pop.
He just gave him another one
back of the head,
and he dropped.
Miss Boldrin
tried helping Larry,
but she was too shocked
and paranoid.
She didn't know what to do.
Brandon put the gun down
and he ran out.
911 Emergency dispatch
You're at E.O. Green School?
Yes. Shots were fired
by Room 42 on campus.
Do you know where
the person with a gun is?
No.
- Who's the victim?
- Is there a victim?
I'm on the phone with dispatch.
Larry!
We need an ambulance.
The ambulance is on the way.
They should be there staging
any time now, okay?
Everyone was screaming,
like the kids that had seen it,
like the blood
and everything, I guess.
There was somebody else
doing first aid.
All I kept thinking is
let him know I'm here.
He knows my voice,
and he was just looking around
and trying to find me.
So he was definitely hearing me.
He was vomiting and gasping,
and thrashing around,
obviously in extreme pain.
One of the people in
the office came on the intercom,
and she sounded really frantic
and it was, like,
"We're on lockdown.
This is not a drill."
These giant cops
came in with huge guns
and, like, kicked the door open.
We've realized since Columbine,
there was a potential
for more victims.
There was a potential
for more suspects,
so they had to start
searching the school.
30 people come in
with the full-on suit
and with like lights
on their helmets and guns,
like they were
pointing them everywhere,
and that just even
got us more scared.
Our first priority
is what do we do
with the children
that were in the classroom
that actually directly visually
witnessed what happened.
They were put into a spare room.
We put on a movie for 'em,
and staged some officers
in the room.
Let's stick these 20,
what, five of us in a room.
Let's put on "Jaws".
Not a cartoon, or...
Let's put on "Jaws".
There was a huge line,
all the way down the street
of parents waiting to
pick up their children.
There were children
could have been hurt
and they were just having them
wait outside in a line,
like nothing's happened.
Hi, everybody,
I wanted to let you know
a quick update on the incident
that happened this morning
out at E.O. Green School
in Oxnard.
The victim
is in surgery right now
at St. John's hospital,
so we're keeping
our fingers crossed,
saying our prayers
for this young man,
and the suspect in this case
fled the area
and he was apprehended by police
just a couple of blocks away.
My friend Matt pulled up
and came walking in,
and I was, like,
"Hey, how's it going?"
He was, like, there was
a shooting at E.O. Green
and I said,
"Yeah, I heard on the radio.
It's, like, crazy?"
and he was all, "Brandon
was involved with that,"
and I honestly thought, like,
he was the one
who got shot and I'm, like,
"Is he alive, is he ok"
you know?
And he's, like,
"No, like, he shot a kid."
I just fell to my knees
and started crying,
and I started screaming "No!"
That's all I really remember,
is just screaming no,
and smashing holes
in everything.
And then some detectives
showed up
and tried to talk to me...
and I, like,
you know,
he's not the victim here,
I don't understand
why you're so upset.
What's your full name, son?
Brandon.
Is that B Yes, sir.
Your middle name.
David, McInerney.
Me and my brother looked up
to my little brother,
because he was the good one.
He never did no drugs,
never got drunk.
We were all doing
that when he were his age.
He was all about
keeping his life straight
and then,
and then all this happened.
Just turned 15?
14, sir.
14, yeah, 14.
People did look at Brandon
as older than he really was.
Deep down, he was
still a kid, you know,
he still bought
action figure toys
and he played
with Pokmon cards.
I heard that he got caught
like a couple of streets over,
but I was still scared.
When I found out
someone got shot,
I knew automatically
that it was Larry.
Yeah. Same here.
The first time that I met Larry,
some kid was over there
and the kid
said something to him,
and Larry got in his face
and said,
"Hey, I am who I am,
so don't..." you know,
and I ran over there
and I got in that kid's face
and said,
"You know what, just leave
this kid alone, you know?"
That's when we became
friends, you know.
We're like brothers,
so we look after each other.
We would go
to get clothes, right,
from the front, donated clothes.
He would always go for the girls
clothes for some reason.
I'm like, what?
We had on episode
during Christmas break
where he got make-up he put on.
It was purple and bright,
and my God,
it was the first time
I'd seen him put make-up on,
and he goes "What do you think?"
and I go, "I think you look
like a clown"
and, being a woman
who puts on make-up,
"I can tell you that."
So we got a VST,
take him in and really show him
how to put it on
but not put it on.
Further in, all of a sudden...
the boots appeared
and I remember thinking
I can't...
walk in those things all day.
I don't know how he's doing it.
He's a tough kid,
but he's strong willed,
and I remember
telling him one time,
Larry, you really
shouldn't be wearing
heeled shoes to school,
because, it's, you know,
because it's dangerous.
When you're doing PE,
and so he put on tennis shoes
and went out the door with me.
Little did I know,
he had tucked his heels
into a backpack.
Whenever Brandon talked
about Larry,
it was about
what Larry was wearing,
'cause it really
was just, weird.
It was, like,
off the wall to him.
It was off the wall to me, too.
I think Larry was kind of
shoving it in everyone's face.
For you to come to school
dressed like that,
you're making a big statement.
At Christmas time,
Larry said very shyly,
"I've got a present for you."
And it was a little blanket
and a mouse
that he had crocheted
for my cat.
And I said,
"My, that's so sweet,"
and I opened it in front of him
and gave him a hug.
My cat didn't show any interest
in either item.
It's admirable that
he was crocheting scarves
for soldiers in the Middle East,
but nobody in the seventh grade
crochets.
Everybody was making fun of him.
They were using him as,
like, like sexual jokes,
like, "Dude, you're so gay",
"you're gonna date Larry
when you grow up."
I thought I could be God
The Valentine's Day game
is where
everyone says the first person
that comes to their mind,
who they think is cute,
and they have to go up
to that person
and ask them
to be their Valentine.
And Larry thought
Brandon was cute.
He had to go up to Brandon,
and it just so happened
that Brandon's friends
were around him,
so he got real embarrassed
when Larry asked him
to be his Valentine.
Larry made a comment
to the effect of,
I love you, baby.
Brandon was offended
by Larry's effeminate demeanor.
He was really disgusted
by who Larry was,
and I think
it made him very angry.
Brandon approached
another student,
a girlfriend of Larry's,
and he told her,
"Say goodbye
to your friend, Larry,
because you're not gonna
see him after tomorrow."
Oxnard police detectives
obtained a search warrant
for the residence,
which belonged to
Brandon's grandfather.
The grandfather's room
had a couple of long guns,
and then there were
a number of hand guns.
There was ammunition as well,
placed on the top shelf
of Brandon's bedroom.
The morning it happened,
my phone rang
at 7:35 and it was him.
I was gonna call him
right back and I didn't.
Many times,
I've been sitting in that room
and just wanted to say,
"What were you calling for",
and I still don't know.
He called
you before it happened?
The victim in this case,
his condition seems to be
improving a little bit
at the hospital.
Hopefully,
he continues to be on the mend,
so that's great news.
It was a whole bunch of
well he's stable,
he's in critical condition
but he's stable.
He's dead.
That's what we heard.
And then, and then,
like, five minutes later,
he's okay.
That wasn't a very happy
Valentine's Day for anyone.
I thought Larry
was gonna survive.
The teacher was, like,
he's gonna survive it
because it wasn't
a strong enough gun.
But then, Valentine's came,
and they gave us the news
that he passed away.
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
My love my love my love
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
I don't think people
realize how brave Larry was,
like, being out
to that many people,
like, it's must have been,
like, extremely difficult.
One, two, three!
Larry!
This is not political.
I'm not a political person,
but this is personal to me.
A boy has been killed,
and a number of lives
have been ruined,
and somewhere along the line,
the killer, Brandon,
got the message
that it's so threatening
and so awful and so horrific
that Larry
would want to be his Valentine
that killing Larry seemed to be
the right thing to do,
and when the message out there
is so horrible
that to be gay
you can get killed for it,
we need to change the message.
Larry was not
a second class citizen.
I am not a second class citizen.
It is okay if you're gay.
My heart goes out
to everybody involved
in this horrible,
horrible incident.
The whole of the families
and this poor...
Even, you know,
Brandon's life has changed
'cause he did this.
I just knew right off the bat
that they were gonna
try him as an adult.
In my head, this is an area,
like, yeah,
he's going to jail
for the rest of his life.
Although he kept saying, like,
he'd never be able
to love a girl,
you know,
he'll never be able to,
you know, get drunk
and do something stupid,
like, he never even
got in trouble before.
There are so many things
he never got to do,
you know, like, he'll never
have to drive a car
or, you know, ditch school.
It just constantly
kept running through my head
is all the things
he'll never be able to do.
I didn't know anything about it
until I read a little article.
You know, he's 14,
and that it's a classmate,
and that
it was charged as a hate crime
and that he was
looking at life in prison.
I was like,
we should try to help this kid.
Scott was working
for United Defense Group
and his boss said,
yeah, we can do it pro bono,
and then we just kind of
sought out to help the family.
Our passion is helping children
in the juvenile delinquency
arena
and especially those
that are charged as adults.
It used to be that they would
have a fitness hearing.
The juvenile's background,
mental health issues.
The idea behind it is to
rehabilitate, not to punish.
But Prop 21 just cut
that whole process out.
I have a three defendant
gang homicide
where one victim was killed,
three victims
were seriously injured.
They were shot multiple times
with a Tec-9,
which is a semi-automatic.
Prop 21 intended to address
this rather dramatic uptake
in juvenile violence
in the gang context,
because a lot of pee-wees,
as their older brethren
called them,
were put up to the task of
committing these violent crimes
because they knew
they would only go
into the juvenile facility
where they would receive
a mild slap on the hand
and they would be out
on the streets
within a very short
period of time.
A lot of people thought
that this was for gang kids.
I don't think
anybody anticipated
that it would be used in the way
that it's being used now.
They're taking a 14 year-old
who's barely,
you know, 19 days
after his 14th birthday
and making that snap decision,
we're gonna charge you
as an adult, because we can.
There are cases where juveniles
have committed a homicide
and we leave them
in juvenile court.
Because of the vicious nature
of the crime,
this is not a crime
that the juvenile system
is capable of handling.
What do you do
with someone like this,
who is so dangerous
that they plot out
the execution of a classmate
in front of the whole
classroom full of people?
What do you do
with someone like that?
And it's not always easy.
I was working
at a grocery store in Arkansas.
I met this truck driver
and he was going to
Oxnard, California,
and wanted to know
if I wanted to go,
and I said sure.
So, I jumped in his truck
the next morning
and we drove out here.
I'd never seen anything
so beautiful in my life,
and so I went home,
and got James and Jeremy
and moved here.
She came here with me
and my brother, on her own,
and she met a guy who was
willing to help her and stuff,
and that was a big thing.
He was the head sales manager
for Cal Co motor sports.
He promised me everything
and bought me everything,
and gave me everything,
and we got married, when I was
pregnant with Brandon.
Billy was a fun guy.
We went camping a lot, you know,
and jet skiing
and motorcycle riding.
He seemed totally normal,
and then once they got,
like, serious, you know,
moved in together,
that's when he, like,
just changed overnight.
We were at one of my friend's
engagement parties
and no one really liked him,
and so, I guess he thought
it was a good idea
that he took a gun
with him to the party.
So, it was like, you know,
your dude has a gun.
You guys need to get outta here.
We finally got home
and we started fighting...
We heard 'em arguing,
and me and Jeremy got up
and we, like,
went by the door and, like,
I was, like, peeking out
and I could see her, like,
walking up the stair
and he yelled, like,
"Turn around
and get back down here,"
and she was, like,
no, whatever, and he's, like,
"I'll shoot,"
and next thing you know, he did.
I walked out there
and she was laying on the stair
and she, like, yelled at me
to go back in the room.
I could hear Billy, like,
on the phone, 911,
lying about it, like,
"It went off, I didn't mean to,
it just went off."
Then, like, tried to, like,
put things over her head
so we couldn't see,
but I still saw there was just,
like, blood everywhere,
all over the wall,
over the stairs,
like when you have wet shoes on,
you get, like, squish,
that's what it sounded like
when you were walking
down the stairs.
And I found out
the bullet went through my arm,
through a wall,
through a water heater,
and landed right next to
Jeremy on the pillow.
It was a .45 automatic
with a hollow point bullet.
Larry had a very sad
and difficult life.
He was adopted by people
who took his brother as well,
but even after
he and his brother were adopted,
he had a pretty rough life.
Larry would go to school
and he would keep
his jacket on or something,
and when he finally
took it off or,
you know, you saw he would have
bruises everywhere.
And the county had been working
to get him out.
It was like 22 complaints
about abuse
and all of them went unfounded.
Probation took him
out of the home,
for some bogus
vandalism and theft.
It was stealing food from
their own refrigerator, yeah.
They detained him
at the Juvenile Justice Center,
I believe, for one night
before he went before the Judge
and the judge
placed him with us.
The last months
he was living in Casa Pacifica,
which is a locally run shelter
for abused
and neglected children.
I knew of him before he came.
We had been working
with Larry and his family
for several years in their home.
They just struggled as a family.
There was just a lot of issues.
I think a lot to do
with his orientation
and what he was trying to,
to learn about himself.
His parents never showed
that they really loved him.
He was so lovable.
I mean,
he was the nicest person.
Any like, bruises
or anything I ever saw,
I always thought
was from martial arts,
because he always was,
like, really tough.
So I just thought
anything was from that,
like, I never really thought...
I was really innocent in that.
It was on Fourth of July
the first time we drank,
like, a beer, I think,
and one beer
when you're that little,
you definitely feel it!
One time he drank is,
like, dating Sam,
and Billy caught him
and punched him in the face
in front of everybody.
I found the next day
that he had a broken nose.
My gosh, this is out of control,
and he's, like, 12 years old,
and he's getting hit in the face
by a grown man.
The students of my classroom
requested counseling
day after day after day,
and they weren't getting it.
They didn't do anything,
and school went,
like, my mum got a call
saying that school would go,
like, go back into session,
like, that day.
They don't care
about what happened.
They cared more
about swine flu...
Than they did about Larry.
It's ridiculous.
Like, at least one
of our teachers every period
talked about the swine flu.
I requested the kids
get laptops,
because some of those kids
were going back to,
a computer lab
that they had run into
after watching
somebody get shot,
and the school didn't stop it.
Can somebody
just take us to Disneyland,
so we can have
one day all together?
Because it was fresh right then.
I even called Disneyland.
They don't do that.
They don't do school shootings.
And then they'd just
leave us to, like,
pretty much fend for ourselves,
when we don't know how to
because we're young
and no one gets taught
how to go through
something like that.
Every single adult
just fucked up everything
at every step of the way
and continues to
and that's, I think,
what's so frustrating for me.
No one noticed
for years and years
and now we just wanna say
sorry, adult.
The judge at the trial
of an Oxnard teenager
accused of murdering
a gay classmate
is scheduled to hear
a new motion today,
for a change of venue
that is likely to cause
another major delay.
The purpose
of the change of venue motion,
obviously,
is to protect the defendant
from press coverage
which has turned
the public against him.
Where are we gonna go?
Because the saturation
is not just local,
it's nationwide.
What if we wind up
in San Francisco County?
I'd volunteer for that!
Superior Court Judge Campbell
refused to move the trial,
but that doesn't mean
the trial will get under way
any time soon.
I get, probably,
two letters a week.
He just got his first package,
and it's all about
cheese and peanut butter
and jelly.
He loves peanut butter
and jelly.
For a long time, Brandon thought
that he was gonna
get bailed out,
and it was devastating
when we had to tell him
that it wasn't gonna happen.
I think that really
devastated Billy, too,
that he knew that
he wasn't gonna be able
to bail Brandon out of jail
and, you know,
promising him stuff
that he just couldn't,
it was just unrealistic.
He had the stability
of being here
for four and a half months,
which I think was helpful
for him to begin to heal.
I was in the system
from when I was five
to when I was 18.
I moved group home
to group home,
but I always ended up here.
At Casa Pacifica,
it's home, man.
It's home.
Larry showed his true self here.
He felt comfortable
around where he was,
so he started coming out.
This is Larry's.
There was this staff member
that could sing, you know.
She was unbelievably good,
so he's like, alright,
and then he's singing.
My gosh, that kid had a voice.
It's amazing.
Larry was an active kid.
Always with people,
laughing, smiling.
When he was at Casa Pacifica,
he was the happiest kid.
I mean, it was, like,
a total change.
I mean it was amazing,
and people liked to say,
it got him more flamboyant.
He started dressing up more.
No, he started dressing up more
because he felt better
about himself.
When Brandon was, like, eight,
I came home and told James
that I had quit my job at Vons
and he said, "You fucked up",
and I bet you're gonna be
homeless in six months,"
and we were homeless
pretty much in six months.
My mom was on drugs, like,
the whole time I was growing up.
Living the life of a zombie,
just high all the time.
I moved out
when I was, like, 17.
I wasn't even 18,
then, I just moved out.
Because
we were homeless anyways.
Brandon went to live with Billy
at Grandpa's house.
It might not sound it,
but it was most likely
better for him
to be with Billy at that point.
And he had Billy
up on this high pedestal,
and Billy fell off,
and he fell off hard, and far.
He would seriously
take Brandon with him
on his drug runs,
like when he was smoking
crystal meth and stuff,
and Brandon would be sitting
there in their living room,
sleeping, and he would, like,
crawl under the coffee tables
and fall asleep,
just to, like, kinda,
be out of sight of everybody.
There was times
when I picked Brandon up,
and he, his knuckles were sore
from being out
in the front yard,
hitting the tree
in the front yard.
It would be bloody.
He wanted
out of that house so bad,
and every time he was with me,
he was begging me
to get a place to live
so he could come live with me,
'cause I lived at the rehab
for so long,
and I couldn't do it.
Tears were coming down his face,
and he was saying how
"James, don't make me go home,
I don't wanna go."
You know, we all got to leave
Billy's situation,
and he didn't.
A real family is what
he got at Casa Pacifica,
and he felt stronger.
He wanted to change,
be a new person,
and that's who
his alter ego was.
One day he would be Lucretia,
and the next, like, Latonya,
but it always started with "La".
Everyone knew
that Larry was part black.
So it was like
a generic kind of black name.
You don't mess with...
Latoya or Latonya.
You know,
you don't mess with her.
At first people
didn't talk to him at all.
They thought he was crazy.
I think that's kind of
the thing he wanted.
If they didn't talk to him,
they weren't bothering him.
It was just kind of relief,
and so that kind of who
that person was to him
was kinda who he wished he was.
I don't think that Larry is gay,
he's transgendered.
It's a big difference.
I think that he was born
in the wrong age.
Hopefully,
within the next 100 years,
it will be perfectly acceptable,
without the totally
disgusting circumstances
that I've had to grow up with.
I was out in the open
eighth grade.
I, I actually regret
the decision very much.
Practically the whole school
is Latino.
So they're, like, "Gay!"
There's a lot of
misconceptions, and...
My parents would send me to,
like, therapy,
with like some medical doctor
for, like, a year and a half,
like, trying to fix this,
see, what's wrong with me
and all this.
But, like, the doctor
ended up saying, like,
how I'm perfectly fine,
and my parents are just, like,
old-fashioned
and they're not open-minded.
The occasional assault...
Which is the equivalent of,
like, fucking fag.
That's what I hear,
because, you know, or, or...
Or just faggot... you know.
Don't be gay!
And then when people say,
"That's gay."
That gets you so mad!
It's just basically ignorance.
That is a plague of our school.
When Brandon told me that
Larry came to school
in high heels,
I was, like, why?
I had a Black Flag...
It's this punk rock band
has a white shirt
but with the Black Flag
symbol underneath,
and you could see it
through my uniform,
and instead of just
telling me to take it off,
you know,
take off your undershirt,
they suspended me for it.
I got in trouble for everything.
No collar...
I would try to go to shirts,
I'd try to wear
a regular white shirt
and not have a collar
and try to get away with it.
I mean, if it's a uniform
dress code school,
how come that one kid
got an exception
from everybody else?
Larry only accessorized
his school uniform
for two weeks
prior to his murder.
The first day
that I saw him accessorized,
I called the District Office,
and the District Office asked me
did it say in our policy that
girls could not wear make-up,
and I said no.
Then you cannot tell him
that he cannot wear make-up.
There was a law that had just
passed in California, SB777,
regarding not discriminating
on gender identity
or sexual orientation
in the educational environment.
I told Larry,
if you want to come to school
and accessorize your clothing,
then you may.
However,
it's going to be very difficult,
and if you can get through it,
more power to you.
He asked his teachers
to call him Letitia
instead of Larry.
That made some students
so uncomfortable,
they bullied him.
Using the "F" word
against a gay or lesbian
or transgendered student,
it's kind of accepted.
More and more teenagers
are coming out.
Over 80% of them say
there's not one adult
in the school situation
that they consider
to be supportive
or helpful in any way.
I had Larry as a student
the previous year
as a seventh grader
and I knew his inclination.
He had discussed it with me.
When he asked me
what to do about the situation,
my response to him was nothing.
What to do about
this situation is nothing
and to keep it private
and to dwell upon it.
Larry shouldn't have
expressed himself so blatantly,
openly, transsexual.
He progressed day by day
in his outward appearance
as a girl.
I was talking to my daughter
and she had her old
homecoming dress,
and everybody knows
you don't reuse your dresses,
so I said
can I give it to Larry,
and he loved it.
He just loved it!
He ran into the bathroom
and he tried it on.
Miss Boldrin, it's a little big,
but it fits great.
My daughter's exceptionally
small and petite.
She's like a 00,
so that'll tell you
how small Larry was.
Any teacher with a grain of salt
really said it's out of control.
I do believe
in a heaven and a hell,
and I do believe Larry,
honestly,
did not even have a clue
the consequences of his actions.
I relate to Brandon
because I could see my own self
being in
that very same position.
I don't know
if I would have taken a gun,
But a good, swift...
kick in the butt might work
really well.
You're visiting.
You are a nosey parker.
Larry had a special need,
this individualized educational
program, which is IEP,
where there are behaviors
that you're trying to extinguish
in the classroom.
Larry had a behavioral goal,
to not do
exactly what he was doing,
in the weeks before he died.
It's a legally binding document.
It should have been enforced,
like any other legal document.
Other teachers had
a lot of issues with Larry,
and because I didn't have any,
they didn't like the way
I was handling my situation.
I didn't run around
and tell everybody,
"I gave Larry a dress,
I gave Larry a dress."
I'm the really cool angel
on the horse
coming down and saving all
the little transgender children.
I've been teaching for 30 years.
Junior High, boys especially,
are homophobic.
I was convinced
that the kids would take it
into their own hands,
since we did not.
The Thursday before
Larry was shot,
I went into my Principal,
and I said,
"If you don't physically
come in there and do something"
to stop Larry's progression,
the boys of this school
are gonna take him out
"behind the shed
and beat him to death."
You gave him a dress,
and he thought he was queen
for a day, and
All of a sudden, he's dead.
I'm quite sure
Larry would not be dead
if he had been
my student that year.
After Larry's death,
a gay pride rainbow group
of about 1,500 people
are marching down Sea Street,
right in front of our school.
Now, who orchestrated
that Gay Pride?
In 14 years of teaching there,
never seen that.
Never seen it
in the city of Oxnard,
and... right in front
of our school?
What is that?
Who orchestrated that?
I have huge questions,
huge questions.
It's that tree right there
with the big stakes.
It's an Australian willow tree.
It's a place to go
where you can remember anyone
you want to remember,
and they don't have to
necessarily be dead.
They can be anyone,
just anyone you wanna remember,
and Larry
was my inspiration for it,
but I can't really say
that it was for Larry
on the plaque
that I'm trying to get,
because of school policy
and stuff.
They don't want to
bring it up again.
Everybody's extremely scared
to talk.
They're very scared.
The day they sent me
my termination letter,
I told them you'd better as hell
send me a really nice
recommendation letter, then,
and this is what
came the next day.
"At this time,
Mrs. Boldrin feels the need
"to change her teaching
environment..." right?
Unfortunately, we do not have
other teaching positions
"that meet her needs..." right?
"Therefore,
I support her efforts
to find a position that would
give her what she needs."
I was extremely concerned
as I started working
for Starbucks,
one, that I was gonna go bald
wearing a hat.
I feel really bad,
come brew coffee at Starbucks
with me inside Vons,
and go from your $55 an hour job
to nine and see what it's like.
Larry King and I
share more in common
than just our names.
We both believe
that all students
should be free to be themselves
without the fear of
name calling,
bullying or harassment.
Hundreds of thousands
of students
will take a vow of silence
on April 25th
as part of the 12th Annual
National Day of Silence.
They'll honor the memory
of 15 year-old Larry King
and the countless other students
who have had their voices
taken from them
simply because of
their sexual orientation
or gender expression.
He wasn't afraid
to be who he was.
Everyone was making fun of him.
I didn't know
what my friends would say
if they saw me round him,
so I just kept my distance.
I felt guilty
'cause I know there are times
that I said things
to make fun of him.
I feel extremely guilty.
He had asked me,
"How come you feel so
comfortable with yourself?
How can you act,
you know, openly gay?"
and I told him, "Larry",
no one's gonna
kill you for who you are.
Everyone's different,
"and that's just the way
the world is."
And a year later,
he was shot to death
because of how he was.
Larry would always be
in my heart,
no matter what.
I got this when I was 18.
It says, "In loving memory
of Larry King".
He taught me things, you know,
just to be who you are,
stand up for yourself, you know.
I mean, I stood up for myself,
but to be strong.
It helped me open up more
and not care about what
people say or how people think
about the way I dress
or the way I look.
The truth hurts
When you turn eighteen
But the truth gets
Even less easy
But what do ya know?
When he first got shot
I used to think, like,
what if it was me?
People just find out
that you're gay,
and then they'll just go
after you.
It was the day of the murder.
Once we were able to leave
the school campus
she was really scared,
and then, you know,
she just looks me and she says,
"Mom, I'm gay."
Okay. It was a surprise.
She wore pink,
she wore Spandex, everything!
It wasn't the colors.
Her hair, her pony tail
went from up here to lower,
and I don't know, it was just
different little things
that I would look at her
and say.
I just wanted her to be sure
that's what she wanted,
and I let her know that it was
gonna be really tough.
My mom took it good,
not all the way,
like, accepting,
but she said
that if that's what I wanted,
then she would be there for me,
and my dad just blew it off.
The father of Brandon McInerney,
the Oxnard boy accused of
killing a classmate,
was found dead this morning,
just hours before his son
was to appear in court.
The Medical Examiner
says the 45-year-old
died from a blunt force
head injury related to alcohol.
The toxicology report
is pending.
The day he died,
I put the biggest smile
on my face.
I didn't give a shit, you know.
Like, I cried,
because I had to be the one
to tell Brandon, you know.
I honestly felt that way.
And even when James
told Brandon,
the first thing
Brandon said was,
"I knew it was gonna happen.
I just didn't know when."
He didn't even cry.
I was the only one crying,
and that's what scared
the crap out of me.
I did not want to leave him,
like, when they told us,
like, that we had to go.
I didn't want to go.
I was afraid of
what he was gonna do,
and ever since that took over,
he shows no emotion, or whatever.
Like, Brandon always
showed emotion
until that day.
There it goes.
The kid on the right
is doing nothing,
and McInerney
just stands up and boom,
starts whaling away on him.
He's not used to
following the rules,
and I believe that he's a bully,
and he's kind of a thug.
I mean, clearly,
there might have been words
spoken between them,
but you can see from the film
it's completely unprovoked.
The kid walks out. McInerney,
who's kind of
doing his laundry or something,
he sees him,
and he just runs over there
and the same thing,
he starts beating the guy up.
I don't know.
Nice!
It doesn't surprise me
that they're having
a difficult time
coming up with a defense.
Here's one of my subpoenas.
I have, like,
a case full of these.
Yeah, it's just...
And I get these all the time,
and when they call,
I ignore them,
simply because
nothing's going on.
It's like every time
they show up for court,
there's a reason
why it isn't going.
One thing built upon
the previous thing
to drag out the case,
which is another,
a not uncommon defense tactic,
try to wear everybody down
and hope that they get
a lesser plea
or the witnesses go away.
That's kind of
defense lawyer 101.
They wanted him to accept
a life sentence.
From the get go,
we told them, well,
first of all, he should
have been in juvenile court.
We explored
and tried those issues,
and tried to set them up
for appeal, etcetera,
but the system
is only as fair as the players.
Mclnerney, who is being held
at the Juvenile Justice Center,
will turn 17 January 24th.
The victim, Lawrence Forbes King
would have turned 18,
and that case is now
going to return to court
on Valentine's Day next year.
This is the first time
when he put Samantha McInerney
and I was, like, my gosh.
"Hey beautiful, I wish
I could tell you in person"
how much I love you,
but it will have to be
on paper for now.
I'm going to buy
a marriage packet,
"and I will send it to you
whenever."
When I think about a guy
being the one to marry,
like for the rest of my life,
he's definitely probably
my number one pick,
'cause he's, like,
the only one that's ever cared.
I just love him... way too much.
When I first looked
at these drawings,
the first page when you start
seeing lightning bolts,
is it doodling, is it?
Okay.
When I started getting
a little farther
into the notebook,
where I was noticing drawings
that stood out to me
to be unusual.
It's not just the book
in his backpack,
it's going through these books.
12th SS, The History
of the Hitler Youth
Panzer Division,
volume one and two.
You oughta go to any backpack
in the city of Oxnard
of any kid
in the school district,
they're probably
not going to have
volume one
and volume two of this.
This isn't just doing history.
This is not Anne Frank.
The doodling that I saw
in my kids' notebooks
were really very interesting,
but the swastika,
they would copy and those
who were artistically inclined
the whole Adolf Hitler
with the mustache
and the hand and the "heil",
and, you know,
walking into class after being
taught some of these things,
the very next day,
it would be perfectly normal,
"Heil!" for kids to come in
and say, "Heil!"
This particular image
was the most disturbing for me,
seeing the hand crushing
the Star of David
and the blood
coming from it as cracks.
It's hard, because
I know Holocaust survivors.
This is a very,
very strong message.
It's very, very powerful.
To me, it's... this is somebody
who would want
to see this happen again.
It very quickly looked to me
as though I was dealing with,
at the very least,
a budding white supremacist,
who very well may have
acted against his effeminate
and far
physically smaller victim,
either because of his sexuality
or because of his race,
knowing that,
that Larry King was biracial.
This is where
Brandon and his friends
used to hang out.
Brandon had, like, a thing
for calling people nigger.
He called me a couple of times,
and I kinda lost it,
and I hurled off
and I socked him in the head
in the middle of class,
and I didn't get in trouble,
in fact,
because I told my teacher
what had happened,
and she wasn't gonna
put me in trouble for that,
and so, I was really mad at him,
and after that, he never
really ever called me
nigger or anything.
I'm afraid of people
who feel very strongly
that juveniles
should not be tried as adults,
because they want to be
on the case so bad
that they'll lie
in jury selection
when you ask them their feelings
about a certain subject,
and I'm really afraid of
the stealth homosexual haters
in this case.
I believe they're gonna present
some kind of
a gay panic defense,
that somehow Larry King,
based on what he did or said
provoked Brandon
into doing what he did.
This trial finally starts
after several years today.
Defense attorneys
told the jury that,
while McInerney
indeed killed King,
it was not a premeditated
act of murder.
Brandon
may have been bullied too,
by Larry, in fact.
Larry had, reportedly,
told people the two were dating
but had broken up,
and just a couple of days
before the shooting,
classmates say
Larry had asked Brandon
to be his Valentine,
and Brandon's friends joked
the two would make
gay babies together.
What Larry was doing to Brandon
was an extreme form of bullying.
It was an extreme form
of sexual harassment.
When playing basketball
at lunch,
Larry had wobbled
onto the court,
interrupted the game
in front of all Brandon's
basketball buddies,
and asked him
if he would be his Valentine.
To have any guy ask you
that in front of all your peers,
but to have a guy who's wearing
high heels and make-up,
that would be, like,
the ultimate humiliation.
It was very disturbing
to all the boys
and so they, you know,
kind of talked about it
in a guy way, macho way.
It's bad enough to have this kid
who wears girls' clothes,
you know, breaking
all the rules,
but then, you know,
guys don't hit on guys.
If you want to
really insult a guy,
you call him gay.
Brandon was thinking that
he needed to get rid of Larry,
he needed to save everyone
from this, you know,
this scourge that had
come up on the school.
When I think of Larry,
I think of, like,
butterflies.
There's a picture of him,
holding, like a,
I think it's a caterpillar,
with him just, like, smiling.
It's for Larry.
The last tattoo
I'm ever getting.
It says hope.
Day two took
such an emotional turn
that we're told
the bailiff had to keep
restocking the courtroom
with facial tissue,
because of all the tears.
About a half a dozen students
testified,
saying the same thing,
that King was a loner
who was ignored
until he came out and started
wearing make-up and heels,
and that other students
randomly mocked him.
One of them, though,
that had the most
riveting testimony,
was a girl known simply
as Mariah T.
She was a friend
of Larry King's,
was also sitting behind him
when those fatal shots rang out.
Just spell your name.
M-A-R-I-A-H.
Thank you.
Miss Fox?
- Hi, Mariah.
- Do you remember that morning?
Yes.
What did you see
Breathe. You okay?
Do you want to take a break,
Mariah?
Why don't we take a break?
Thank you for everything.
Walked into the courtroom,
and I remember seeing her look
over at the defendant,
and she gets up
on the witness stand.
I asked her one or two questions
and she just lost her mind.
She turned away
from the defendant
and she just kind of collapsed
and started sobbing.
Everyone asks me
how I would react
if I ever saw Brandon,
and I always would say that,
like, I would attack him,
but at the same time, like,
and I know
what it's like to be alone,
and unfortunately
that's what he turned to,
because that's what
he was taught.
I mean, look at this place,
it's gorgeous.
It's a beautiful view.
This is a public area,
anybody can come here,
but the reality is,
not anybody can come here.
Something as simple as
a memory board
for a friend that died,
they take the time,
not just to commemorate
that he was a surfer
or to talk about his persona,
but to put
the nautical sign on there.
It's this diamond,
and that "X" right there.
The SSL, Silver Strand Locals,
is a gang moniker.
The acronym, SSL,
it's often done in graffiti
with a kind of a runic
lightning bolt looking "S",
very similar to the
Schutzstaffel "S"
from the Nazi era.
You think of beach, you think,
like,
white surfers or something.
White is a minority now.
You don't see
a lot of white people,
like fully white people,
like me, like, white, like,
or, like, like Brandon,
like, we were white, like.
You will, like, you see like,
tan people, you see,
like, you can just tell
when someone...
It's not a bad thing.
Brandon had at least
one mentor that we know of
who is a dyed-in-the-wool
neo-Nazi racist skinhead.
Matt Reaume told us that
Brandon McInerney's
half brother, James Bing,
knew that Brandon was getting
into white supremacy
and brought him to Matt Reaume
specifically to educate him.
Matt is white, they said
a white separatist, you know.
Matt doesn't hate you
because of your skin color.
He believes, you know,
a white man
should have a white wife,
a black man
should have a black wife.
A black woman should have
a black husband, you know,
just to save your,
your ethnicity.
It could have been me
the whole time
instead of Larry.
I don't really feel like
being surrounded by people.
Sometimes I just feel
like a ghost.
I watched the movie,
"Boys Don't Cry".
That made me have
nightmares, too.
Even dressing like a boy
could get you killed.
I had a dream that
that was gonna happen to me.
I just kept having
the flashbacks.
I'd be driving,
and just start crying.
I'm just never
gonna see the world
the way I did
before February 12th.
If I fall and break my leg,
easy, I know
what the problem is,
but with the post traumatic,
you don't know
what's gonna set it off.
My family couldn't handle it.
They couldn't
handle the anxiety,
the crying, the despair.
I had overdosed on drugs,
I had tried to commit suicide,
and I almost did it,
because I was on a life support
for three days.
I'm really excited to see
Mariah and Marina,
I really am. I've missed 'em.
The last time
I physically saw them
was literally the day
I walked off the job.
What I've learned is that
truly nobody's
ever prepared for any of this,
and everybody just thinks,
"The cops and the school,
they've always got it handled."
They don't have shit.
I think the day of the shooting
was the first day
I dressed like a guy.
Yeah.
And when I saw you,
you know, like, hey,
and then I couldn't
recognize her.
But I love it. I like it a lot.
The week before the shooting,
I had an epiphany.
I was out monitoring
the students after school,
and I saw
this pretty little girl,
and she had really short hair
with these dangly
pretty earrings,
and these high heeled boots
and beautiful little figure,
and then she turned around
and I saw it was a boy.
It clicked.
This is Larry, and this is what
all the rumblings are about,
and now I understand.
He came into my classroom
before school with make-up on.
I told him
he needed to wash it off
because we were working
on his behavior issues.
He wasn't supposed to
draw attention to himself,
and wearing make-up as a boy
is definitely
drawing attention to yourself.
I saw Brandon
sitting on the bench,
very angry and upset.
Brandon's friends,
they were laughing at Brandon.
That's when
I first noticed Larry.
He was kind of
parading back and forth.
It seemed like he was trying
to get Brandon's attention.
Nobody else at E.O. Green
hated Larry to the point
that they wanted to hurt him.
Brandon suggested
they jump Larry,
they beat him down,
but nobody
would help him do that,
so he was basically
gonna do it all by himself.
Brandon's dad was gonna
take him to school,
and he walked outside,
and Brandon
actually forgot the gun
and had to go back in
and get it.
Now there's an opportunity
where fate
has actually made you forget.
The one key element
you need to commit a murder
is the weapon
and instead of maybe
taking a clue or, you know,
getting scared
he's gonna get caught,
he just no, oops,
I forgot the gun.
I gotta go back in and get it.
Even though Brandon was consumed
by these feelings,
there was a chance
to stop and think.
Larry was called
out of the class,
and during Larry's absence,
Brandon began to have
second thoughts.
You know, he had his hand
in his sweatshirt pocket
where the gun was.
He was, at that point, thinking
maybe I won't do this.
The ultimate trigger
was Larry saying,
"I've changed my name
to Letitia."
When he heard that,
it just obliterated
any reserve or restraint
that he had.
That took it to another level.
This guy, who is doing
these things to me,
is not going to be calling
himself by a girl's name.
The admissions that Brandon made
to Dr. Hoagland were so damning
and corroborated
the entire prosecution theory.
I thought it was over.
He did not pull a Columbine.
He did not go and shoot
everybody he could.
He shot Larry King because
he didn't know what else to do
to make it stop.
It's not a murder.
When you make this decision,
use your common sense,
use your heart, use your soul,
remember that he was 14.
Mr. Wippert would ask you
to violate the law, you know,
use your heart,
and 39 times he reminded you
that the defendant
was a 14 year-old boy.
We talked about the fact
that it's gonna be difficult
that your emotions come in,
but you have to
check them at the door.
The law requires you to do that.
There is absolutely no way
that the facts of this case
could ever be
voluntary manslaughter,
because no reasonable,
average person
would ever do
what the defendant did.
And it's sad, it is.
It's tragic, it's awful.
It's also a done deal.
Was it a momentary
act of panic or a cold
The jury has been unable
to reach a verdict
after deliberating for days.
In fact, the judge in this case
has declared a mistrial
just a short time ago.
The jury is saying they could
not come to an agreement,
with seven jurors believing
that he was guilty
of voluntary manslaughter,
five saying they believed
he was guilty of murder.
He's looking at life in prison,
and that's not an option.
We want a date, certain,
that he can look
at a calendar and say,
on this date, I'm gonna get out.
He doesn't wanna go
through this process again,
and none of us wanna go
through this process again.
But if we have to,
then we have to.
We'll have some talks with
the District Attorney's Office,
and see if there's
any kind of resolution
that all parties can live with.
None of the jurors believe
that this was a hate crime.
Until another day.
Until another day.
This is what I poured for you,
it's really good.
Trader Joes. 3.99.
Everybody's
telling me about that.
I'm telling you, it's so good,
and they have Cab,
they have Merlot,
and they have Marbach.
We bonded because
it was so frustrating
to hear things in court
and, and there were times
we were all crying in court,
and we couldn't talk about it.
I know.
Brandon's an intelligent kid.
Everybody said it.
You know, I feel
he's an intelligent...
But I feel he's such a kid.
He's immature!
I feel... You know,
when I looked at him,
and he was sitting
at that table,
my heart broke for him,
as a mom and a grandmother.
None, not one of us thought
that he was a white supremist.
Never.
Now. His assignment
on Adolf Hitler.
Could it have sparked
his interest in that...
Well, I wanna know
a little more about this.
He's 14, of course he did.
He's a kid.
And they love to draw
at that age.
Yes, they doodle
and crosses and...
and he's combining symbolism.
I doodle now,
especially when I'm not happy
about what I'm hearing,
and my hands go
faster and faster.
Where are the civil rights
of the one being taunted
by another person,
who's cross
They have to address that.
It's very important.
Clearly that wasn't addressed.
No, it wasn't,
and he had no one
he could turn to,
'cause the school was so pro
Larry King's civil rights.
But where was
Brandon's civil rights?
It was the high heels.
I think it was the make-up.
The behavior...
Because Marina...
Yes. She had a girlfriend.
They were told not to
hold hands in school,
so they stopped.
She got it.
She... Exactly.
Larry didn't get it,
and had he followed
her example...
We wouldn't be here today, no.
Here's an extra.
Yes. Thank you.
We were supposed to
not consider his age,
which is very hard to do.
That was the very first
thought I had.
He is so young.
How can I, Rosalie,
say that this kid
needs to go to jail
for the rest of his life?
It would have to be
so much more compelling
in every way for me
to even go down that avenue.
I do not think
it was first degree murder.
However, it was premeditated.
He had a plan to resolve
this terrible problem,
because no one was taking
care of this problem.
By murder, or just to maim him?
We don't know.
And then he's having
second thoughts about doing it.
But then, the green light
when he says,
"Hey, Larry, I hear you're
changing your name to Letitia,"
to him that's a green light.
He pulls out the gun
and shoots him.
Yeah.
He was solving a problem.
I picked a terrible jury.
Juror number 11 wrote
a letter to Judge Campbell.
"It is a tragedy,"
and propaganda filled
witch hunt.
You all know
this was not a hate crime.
You all know the victim
had a long history
of deviant behavior.
"Yes, I said deviant."
As you can see,
she cc'd Judge Campbell,
me, Mr. Wippert,
ABC 20/20, the Venturer,
Star, Fox, LA and God.
Everybody's so worried
about Brandon.
My God, he could get 52 to life.
He shot a kid
in the back of the head,
point blank range,
and premeditated and lied...
Watched the back of his head
for 20 minutes.
I feel bad for Brandon,
he made some bad mistakes,
and he's a... he's a kid.
Do you hold him accountable
for the rest of his life?
I'm not a judge
but I can sure tell you
that they made a murder victim
the cause of his own murder.
I've never seen that before.
It was a seven-five split
for manslaughter.
How many of you believed
Brandon should have been tried
as an adult
for first degree murder?
Not one of you.
The District attorney's Office
refused to talk publicly,
but said in a statement
they believed Brandon
is capable of killing again.
And just this week,
a California court
gave the green light
for DA to retry Brandon again
for first degree murder
as an adult.
These jurors are now wearing
Save Brandon bracelets too.
They also told us
they're raising money
for Brandon's defense
for the retrial.
To see the jurors
going on television
with a Free Brandon bracelet
and all that,
are you gonna have
that kind of compassion
for a, admitted shooter
if it was your kid?
If you've got me
walking through your door
in the middle of the night
to give you the one bit of news
that you never ever,
ever wanna hear.
How are you gonna feel then?
Are you gonna keep
that bracelet on?
This is my only tattoo.
Obviously it's a show of support
for Brandon.
It felt like
the right thing to do.
I don't know how to explain it.
I don't know that I will ever
be able to express
what it is about this kid
that means so much to me.
I just... I love him.
He's just like one of my
favorite people on the planet.
His spirit,
his energy and his...
I don't know what it is,
and I don't suppose
I need to know what it is,
but I just, I love him.
I just, I think he's fantastic.
Every time I look at it,
I'm happy.
There was a surprise plea deal
tonight
in the case of a gay
junior high student
shot to death by a classmate.
How do you plead to that count?
Guilty.
He pleaded guilty
to second degree murder,
voluntary manslaughter,
and use of a firearm,
in the death of his classmate,
Larry King.
Well, he is gonna spend
the next 21 years
of his life in prison,
no possibility of parole.
The Ventura County DA's Office
and attorneys for
Brandon McInerney
reached that deal
in a Ventura County
courtroom today.
Brandon McInerney's
mother left, weeping,
also not talking to reporters.
Some of the jurors
in the first trial
were here to support McInerney.
And I was kind of shocked,
like, 21 years, really?
No chance of parole, really?
It seems an awful long time
for a kid
who had no prior record,
who didn't do any torture,
kidnapping
or any of the other things
that I would consider
to be appropriate
for a 21-year sentence
with no possibility of parole.
There's more to the story
than just what you see.
I'm sorry.
Just hanging back
so I don't get down there,
but I don't think
I have anything at this time.
I'm sorry.
It just sucks.
Larry doesn't get to
come back in 21 years.
I was just thinking about Larry.
We're not gonna see him
smile anymore,
not gonna see him grow up.
We ended up getting a resolution
which was the best
that we could have gotten.
It was still way too high.
It's still way too high.
Everything we did
in this was a fight,
but at the end of the day,
what really matters
is Brandon is gonna get out.
He has a date for his calendar
that he can look forward to.
I would next like to
thank the people
who have helped me
get to this point,
my family
for keeping me motivated
and always supporting me,
my lawyers.
Their hard work
have put me in a position
to put this diploma to work.
Lastly, to the people
I haven't mentioned.
No, your support
hasn't gone unnoticed.
Thank you.
He's sent a letter.
First thing
I got it in the mail.
I did not open it.
I was too scared.
"It's cool you found out
about my graduation.
"I would have been an idiot
not to try and get my diploma.
"I can't tell you enough
how sorry I am
"for all the pain and guilt
I've caused you,
"but I need you to know,
"none of this
is your fault at all.
"It is no one's fault
but my own.
"Please know that,
"and I am definitely
not angry with you,
"and I never was.
"I've moved on
from what happened,
"and I hope I can help you
do the same.
Love, Brandon."
Graduates traditionally
move their tassels
from the right side
to the left side
of their graduation hats
to indicate they have completed
this phase of studies
and now are ready
to move on to the next.
Move that tassel!
When you ask me
if Larry died in vain,
the answer to that,
with or without any trial
is yes.
He simply shouldn't have died.
The trial of Brandon McInerney
is neither here nor there
when it comes to Larry's death.
It highlights
how intolerant we are,
that intolerance
is to such a degree
that people bring it with them
wherever they go,
even in the jury box,
and until we become
a little more forgiving,
a little more open-minded,
I think, as a society,
then tragic events like this
will continue to be in vain.
"God grew a garden
and planted a seed
"and every so often,
had to pull out a weed.
"He cared for the seed, so much.
"He knew every hair
on its head and such,
"for this seed was a child
who would love and laugh
"but the love of a family
he'd only get half,
"who'd be a great child
but adopted while young,
"growing up with maybe
your daughter or son.
"He'd care for the animals,
birds and bugs,
"and if anyone was sad,
he'd give them hugs.
"He'd only use the kindest
and softest tone,
"but God knew a secret
that to us was unknown.
"This seed's life was short
"and would die
while still young,
"but while still alive,
this seed would have fun.
"This seed's name was Larry,
and he was my good friend,
and he stayed like that
all the way to the end."
This is it.
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
My love my love my love
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
If I was gay
I would think
Hip-hop hates me
Have you read the YouTube
Comments lately?
"Man that's gay"
Gets dropped on the daily
We become so numb
To what we're saying
A culture
Founded from oppression
Yet we don't have
Acceptance for 'em
Call each other
Faggots behind the keys
Of a message board
A word rooted in hate
Yet our genre
Still ignores it
Gay is synonymous
With the lesser
It's the same hate
That's caused wars
From religion
Gender to skin color
The complexion
Of your pigment
The same fight
That led people
To walk outs and sit ins
It's human rights
For everybody
There is no difference!
Live on and be yourself
When I was at church
They taught me
Something else
If you preach hate
At the service
Those words aren't anointed
That holy water
That you soak in
Has been poisoned
When everyone else
Is more comfortable
Remaining voiceless
Rather than fighting
For humans
That have had their rights
Stolen
I might not be the same
But that's not important
No freedom 'til we're equal
Damn right I support it
I don't know
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
My love my love my love
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
No law is gonna change us
We have to change us
Whatever God you believe in
We come from the same one
Strip away the fear
Underneath
It's all the same love
About time
That we raised up...
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
My love my love my love
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
Love is patient
I'm not crying on Sundays
Love is kind
I'm not crying on Sundays
Love is patient Love is kind
Everyone knows where LA is.
You tell someone,
do you know where Oxnard is?
Hardly anyone knows,
unless they've heard
about the story.
It was a bad thing
that happened,
horrible thing that happened.
We all learned a lot about life
through this,
and I know people on the outside
have learned a lot
about themselves through this.
Like, I just woke up
like it was
just another morning.
But I was sick,
and I didn't wanna go to school,
but I pushed myself
to go to school.
I had bought a new sweater
the day before,
so I was quite happy
to wear it and stuff.
And then mom drove me to school,
gave her a kiss goodbye.
Everyone was just hanging out
like they usually do
before the bell rings.
We walked down
to the computer lab.
Larry and I walked together.
The rest of the class
was behind us.
He brought me
little flowers in a Dixie cup.
He was just
a sweetheart of a kid.
He was a little smaller,
you know, those kind of kids.
You tend to... okay,
you just wanna protect 'em.
We went to type our essays
for Holocaust,
Anne Frank and stuff like that.
It's so fricking ironic.
It's a unit on tolerance.
Everybody sat down
and we started typing.
I was walking around,
up and down,
and checking on people's things,
and then all of a sudden,
I heard this pop.
Like a loud bang,
like a balloon popped.
And I just knew
somebody had exploded
one of those computers,
and I turned around
and Brandon was standing.
I said,
"What the hell are you doing?"
I don't know how long it took
for me to realize
that was a gun.
I stood up from my chair
and I was able to see
over the computer.
I just saw his eyes.
I looked at him,
he looked at me,
and then all of a sudden,
there was another pop.
He just gave him another one
back of the head,
and he dropped.
Miss Boldrin
tried helping Larry,
but she was too shocked
and paranoid.
She didn't know what to do.
Brandon put the gun down
and he ran out.
911 Emergency dispatch
You're at E.O. Green School?
Yes. Shots were fired
by Room 42 on campus.
Do you know where
the person with a gun is?
No.
- Who's the victim?
- Is there a victim?
I'm on the phone with dispatch.
Larry!
We need an ambulance.
The ambulance is on the way.
They should be there staging
any time now, okay?
Everyone was screaming,
like the kids that had seen it,
like the blood
and everything, I guess.
There was somebody else
doing first aid.
All I kept thinking is
let him know I'm here.
He knows my voice,
and he was just looking around
and trying to find me.
So he was definitely hearing me.
He was vomiting and gasping,
and thrashing around,
obviously in extreme pain.
One of the people in
the office came on the intercom,
and she sounded really frantic
and it was, like,
"We're on lockdown.
This is not a drill."
These giant cops
came in with huge guns
and, like, kicked the door open.
We've realized since Columbine,
there was a potential
for more victims.
There was a potential
for more suspects,
so they had to start
searching the school.
30 people come in
with the full-on suit
and with like lights
on their helmets and guns,
like they were
pointing them everywhere,
and that just even
got us more scared.
Our first priority
is what do we do
with the children
that were in the classroom
that actually directly visually
witnessed what happened.
They were put into a spare room.
We put on a movie for 'em,
and staged some officers
in the room.
Let's stick these 20,
what, five of us in a room.
Let's put on "Jaws".
Not a cartoon, or...
Let's put on "Jaws".
There was a huge line,
all the way down the street
of parents waiting to
pick up their children.
There were children
could have been hurt
and they were just having them
wait outside in a line,
like nothing's happened.
Hi, everybody,
I wanted to let you know
a quick update on the incident
that happened this morning
out at E.O. Green School
in Oxnard.
The victim
is in surgery right now
at St. John's hospital,
so we're keeping
our fingers crossed,
saying our prayers
for this young man,
and the suspect in this case
fled the area
and he was apprehended by police
just a couple of blocks away.
My friend Matt pulled up
and came walking in,
and I was, like,
"Hey, how's it going?"
He was, like, there was
a shooting at E.O. Green
and I said,
"Yeah, I heard on the radio.
It's, like, crazy?"
and he was all, "Brandon
was involved with that,"
and I honestly thought, like,
he was the one
who got shot and I'm, like,
"Is he alive, is he ok"
you know?
And he's, like,
"No, like, he shot a kid."
I just fell to my knees
and started crying,
and I started screaming "No!"
That's all I really remember,
is just screaming no,
and smashing holes
in everything.
And then some detectives
showed up
and tried to talk to me...
and I, like,
you know,
he's not the victim here,
I don't understand
why you're so upset.
What's your full name, son?
Brandon.
Is that B Yes, sir.
Your middle name.
David, McInerney.
Me and my brother looked up
to my little brother,
because he was the good one.
He never did no drugs,
never got drunk.
We were all doing
that when he were his age.
He was all about
keeping his life straight
and then,
and then all this happened.
Just turned 15?
14, sir.
14, yeah, 14.
People did look at Brandon
as older than he really was.
Deep down, he was
still a kid, you know,
he still bought
action figure toys
and he played
with Pokmon cards.
I heard that he got caught
like a couple of streets over,
but I was still scared.
When I found out
someone got shot,
I knew automatically
that it was Larry.
Yeah. Same here.
The first time that I met Larry,
some kid was over there
and the kid
said something to him,
and Larry got in his face
and said,
"Hey, I am who I am,
so don't..." you know,
and I ran over there
and I got in that kid's face
and said,
"You know what, just leave
this kid alone, you know?"
That's when we became
friends, you know.
We're like brothers,
so we look after each other.
We would go
to get clothes, right,
from the front, donated clothes.
He would always go for the girls
clothes for some reason.
I'm like, what?
We had on episode
during Christmas break
where he got make-up he put on.
It was purple and bright,
and my God,
it was the first time
I'd seen him put make-up on,
and he goes "What do you think?"
and I go, "I think you look
like a clown"
and, being a woman
who puts on make-up,
"I can tell you that."
So we got a VST,
take him in and really show him
how to put it on
but not put it on.
Further in, all of a sudden...
the boots appeared
and I remember thinking
I can't...
walk in those things all day.
I don't know how he's doing it.
He's a tough kid,
but he's strong willed,
and I remember
telling him one time,
Larry, you really
shouldn't be wearing
heeled shoes to school,
because, it's, you know,
because it's dangerous.
When you're doing PE,
and so he put on tennis shoes
and went out the door with me.
Little did I know,
he had tucked his heels
into a backpack.
Whenever Brandon talked
about Larry,
it was about
what Larry was wearing,
'cause it really
was just, weird.
It was, like,
off the wall to him.
It was off the wall to me, too.
I think Larry was kind of
shoving it in everyone's face.
For you to come to school
dressed like that,
you're making a big statement.
At Christmas time,
Larry said very shyly,
"I've got a present for you."
And it was a little blanket
and a mouse
that he had crocheted
for my cat.
And I said,
"My, that's so sweet,"
and I opened it in front of him
and gave him a hug.
My cat didn't show any interest
in either item.
It's admirable that
he was crocheting scarves
for soldiers in the Middle East,
but nobody in the seventh grade
crochets.
Everybody was making fun of him.
They were using him as,
like, like sexual jokes,
like, "Dude, you're so gay",
"you're gonna date Larry
when you grow up."
I thought I could be God
The Valentine's Day game
is where
everyone says the first person
that comes to their mind,
who they think is cute,
and they have to go up
to that person
and ask them
to be their Valentine.
And Larry thought
Brandon was cute.
He had to go up to Brandon,
and it just so happened
that Brandon's friends
were around him,
so he got real embarrassed
when Larry asked him
to be his Valentine.
Larry made a comment
to the effect of,
I love you, baby.
Brandon was offended
by Larry's effeminate demeanor.
He was really disgusted
by who Larry was,
and I think
it made him very angry.
Brandon approached
another student,
a girlfriend of Larry's,
and he told her,
"Say goodbye
to your friend, Larry,
because you're not gonna
see him after tomorrow."
Oxnard police detectives
obtained a search warrant
for the residence,
which belonged to
Brandon's grandfather.
The grandfather's room
had a couple of long guns,
and then there were
a number of hand guns.
There was ammunition as well,
placed on the top shelf
of Brandon's bedroom.
The morning it happened,
my phone rang
at 7:35 and it was him.
I was gonna call him
right back and I didn't.
Many times,
I've been sitting in that room
and just wanted to say,
"What were you calling for",
and I still don't know.
He called
you before it happened?
The victim in this case,
his condition seems to be
improving a little bit
at the hospital.
Hopefully,
he continues to be on the mend,
so that's great news.
It was a whole bunch of
well he's stable,
he's in critical condition
but he's stable.
He's dead.
That's what we heard.
And then, and then,
like, five minutes later,
he's okay.
That wasn't a very happy
Valentine's Day for anyone.
I thought Larry
was gonna survive.
The teacher was, like,
he's gonna survive it
because it wasn't
a strong enough gun.
But then, Valentine's came,
and they gave us the news
that he passed away.
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
My love my love my love
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
I don't think people
realize how brave Larry was,
like, being out
to that many people,
like, it's must have been,
like, extremely difficult.
One, two, three!
Larry!
This is not political.
I'm not a political person,
but this is personal to me.
A boy has been killed,
and a number of lives
have been ruined,
and somewhere along the line,
the killer, Brandon,
got the message
that it's so threatening
and so awful and so horrific
that Larry
would want to be his Valentine
that killing Larry seemed to be
the right thing to do,
and when the message out there
is so horrible
that to be gay
you can get killed for it,
we need to change the message.
Larry was not
a second class citizen.
I am not a second class citizen.
It is okay if you're gay.
My heart goes out
to everybody involved
in this horrible,
horrible incident.
The whole of the families
and this poor...
Even, you know,
Brandon's life has changed
'cause he did this.
I just knew right off the bat
that they were gonna
try him as an adult.
In my head, this is an area,
like, yeah,
he's going to jail
for the rest of his life.
Although he kept saying, like,
he'd never be able
to love a girl,
you know,
he'll never be able to,
you know, get drunk
and do something stupid,
like, he never even
got in trouble before.
There are so many things
he never got to do,
you know, like, he'll never
have to drive a car
or, you know, ditch school.
It just constantly
kept running through my head
is all the things
he'll never be able to do.
I didn't know anything about it
until I read a little article.
You know, he's 14,
and that it's a classmate,
and that
it was charged as a hate crime
and that he was
looking at life in prison.
I was like,
we should try to help this kid.
Scott was working
for United Defense Group
and his boss said,
yeah, we can do it pro bono,
and then we just kind of
sought out to help the family.
Our passion is helping children
in the juvenile delinquency
arena
and especially those
that are charged as adults.
It used to be that they would
have a fitness hearing.
The juvenile's background,
mental health issues.
The idea behind it is to
rehabilitate, not to punish.
But Prop 21 just cut
that whole process out.
I have a three defendant
gang homicide
where one victim was killed,
three victims
were seriously injured.
They were shot multiple times
with a Tec-9,
which is a semi-automatic.
Prop 21 intended to address
this rather dramatic uptake
in juvenile violence
in the gang context,
because a lot of pee-wees,
as their older brethren
called them,
were put up to the task of
committing these violent crimes
because they knew
they would only go
into the juvenile facility
where they would receive
a mild slap on the hand
and they would be out
on the streets
within a very short
period of time.
A lot of people thought
that this was for gang kids.
I don't think
anybody anticipated
that it would be used in the way
that it's being used now.
They're taking a 14 year-old
who's barely,
you know, 19 days
after his 14th birthday
and making that snap decision,
we're gonna charge you
as an adult, because we can.
There are cases where juveniles
have committed a homicide
and we leave them
in juvenile court.
Because of the vicious nature
of the crime,
this is not a crime
that the juvenile system
is capable of handling.
What do you do
with someone like this,
who is so dangerous
that they plot out
the execution of a classmate
in front of the whole
classroom full of people?
What do you do
with someone like that?
And it's not always easy.
I was working
at a grocery store in Arkansas.
I met this truck driver
and he was going to
Oxnard, California,
and wanted to know
if I wanted to go,
and I said sure.
So, I jumped in his truck
the next morning
and we drove out here.
I'd never seen anything
so beautiful in my life,
and so I went home,
and got James and Jeremy
and moved here.
She came here with me
and my brother, on her own,
and she met a guy who was
willing to help her and stuff,
and that was a big thing.
He was the head sales manager
for Cal Co motor sports.
He promised me everything
and bought me everything,
and gave me everything,
and we got married, when I was
pregnant with Brandon.
Billy was a fun guy.
We went camping a lot, you know,
and jet skiing
and motorcycle riding.
He seemed totally normal,
and then once they got,
like, serious, you know,
moved in together,
that's when he, like,
just changed overnight.
We were at one of my friend's
engagement parties
and no one really liked him,
and so, I guess he thought
it was a good idea
that he took a gun
with him to the party.
So, it was like, you know,
your dude has a gun.
You guys need to get outta here.
We finally got home
and we started fighting...
We heard 'em arguing,
and me and Jeremy got up
and we, like,
went by the door and, like,
I was, like, peeking out
and I could see her, like,
walking up the stair
and he yelled, like,
"Turn around
and get back down here,"
and she was, like,
no, whatever, and he's, like,
"I'll shoot,"
and next thing you know, he did.
I walked out there
and she was laying on the stair
and she, like, yelled at me
to go back in the room.
I could hear Billy, like,
on the phone, 911,
lying about it, like,
"It went off, I didn't mean to,
it just went off."
Then, like, tried to, like,
put things over her head
so we couldn't see,
but I still saw there was just,
like, blood everywhere,
all over the wall,
over the stairs,
like when you have wet shoes on,
you get, like, squish,
that's what it sounded like
when you were walking
down the stairs.
And I found out
the bullet went through my arm,
through a wall,
through a water heater,
and landed right next to
Jeremy on the pillow.
It was a .45 automatic
with a hollow point bullet.
Larry had a very sad
and difficult life.
He was adopted by people
who took his brother as well,
but even after
he and his brother were adopted,
he had a pretty rough life.
Larry would go to school
and he would keep
his jacket on or something,
and when he finally
took it off or,
you know, you saw he would have
bruises everywhere.
And the county had been working
to get him out.
It was like 22 complaints
about abuse
and all of them went unfounded.
Probation took him
out of the home,
for some bogus
vandalism and theft.
It was stealing food from
their own refrigerator, yeah.
They detained him
at the Juvenile Justice Center,
I believe, for one night
before he went before the Judge
and the judge
placed him with us.
The last months
he was living in Casa Pacifica,
which is a locally run shelter
for abused
and neglected children.
I knew of him before he came.
We had been working
with Larry and his family
for several years in their home.
They just struggled as a family.
There was just a lot of issues.
I think a lot to do
with his orientation
and what he was trying to,
to learn about himself.
His parents never showed
that they really loved him.
He was so lovable.
I mean,
he was the nicest person.
Any like, bruises
or anything I ever saw,
I always thought
was from martial arts,
because he always was,
like, really tough.
So I just thought
anything was from that,
like, I never really thought...
I was really innocent in that.
It was on Fourth of July
the first time we drank,
like, a beer, I think,
and one beer
when you're that little,
you definitely feel it!
One time he drank is,
like, dating Sam,
and Billy caught him
and punched him in the face
in front of everybody.
I found the next day
that he had a broken nose.
My gosh, this is out of control,
and he's, like, 12 years old,
and he's getting hit in the face
by a grown man.
The students of my classroom
requested counseling
day after day after day,
and they weren't getting it.
They didn't do anything,
and school went,
like, my mum got a call
saying that school would go,
like, go back into session,
like, that day.
They don't care
about what happened.
They cared more
about swine flu...
Than they did about Larry.
It's ridiculous.
Like, at least one
of our teachers every period
talked about the swine flu.
I requested the kids
get laptops,
because some of those kids
were going back to,
a computer lab
that they had run into
after watching
somebody get shot,
and the school didn't stop it.
Can somebody
just take us to Disneyland,
so we can have
one day all together?
Because it was fresh right then.
I even called Disneyland.
They don't do that.
They don't do school shootings.
And then they'd just
leave us to, like,
pretty much fend for ourselves,
when we don't know how to
because we're young
and no one gets taught
how to go through
something like that.
Every single adult
just fucked up everything
at every step of the way
and continues to
and that's, I think,
what's so frustrating for me.
No one noticed
for years and years
and now we just wanna say
sorry, adult.
The judge at the trial
of an Oxnard teenager
accused of murdering
a gay classmate
is scheduled to hear
a new motion today,
for a change of venue
that is likely to cause
another major delay.
The purpose
of the change of venue motion,
obviously,
is to protect the defendant
from press coverage
which has turned
the public against him.
Where are we gonna go?
Because the saturation
is not just local,
it's nationwide.
What if we wind up
in San Francisco County?
I'd volunteer for that!
Superior Court Judge Campbell
refused to move the trial,
but that doesn't mean
the trial will get under way
any time soon.
I get, probably,
two letters a week.
He just got his first package,
and it's all about
cheese and peanut butter
and jelly.
He loves peanut butter
and jelly.
For a long time, Brandon thought
that he was gonna
get bailed out,
and it was devastating
when we had to tell him
that it wasn't gonna happen.
I think that really
devastated Billy, too,
that he knew that
he wasn't gonna be able
to bail Brandon out of jail
and, you know,
promising him stuff
that he just couldn't,
it was just unrealistic.
He had the stability
of being here
for four and a half months,
which I think was helpful
for him to begin to heal.
I was in the system
from when I was five
to when I was 18.
I moved group home
to group home,
but I always ended up here.
At Casa Pacifica,
it's home, man.
It's home.
Larry showed his true self here.
He felt comfortable
around where he was,
so he started coming out.
This is Larry's.
There was this staff member
that could sing, you know.
She was unbelievably good,
so he's like, alright,
and then he's singing.
My gosh, that kid had a voice.
It's amazing.
Larry was an active kid.
Always with people,
laughing, smiling.
When he was at Casa Pacifica,
he was the happiest kid.
I mean, it was, like,
a total change.
I mean it was amazing,
and people liked to say,
it got him more flamboyant.
He started dressing up more.
No, he started dressing up more
because he felt better
about himself.
When Brandon was, like, eight,
I came home and told James
that I had quit my job at Vons
and he said, "You fucked up",
and I bet you're gonna be
homeless in six months,"
and we were homeless
pretty much in six months.
My mom was on drugs, like,
the whole time I was growing up.
Living the life of a zombie,
just high all the time.
I moved out
when I was, like, 17.
I wasn't even 18,
then, I just moved out.
Because
we were homeless anyways.
Brandon went to live with Billy
at Grandpa's house.
It might not sound it,
but it was most likely
better for him
to be with Billy at that point.
And he had Billy
up on this high pedestal,
and Billy fell off,
and he fell off hard, and far.
He would seriously
take Brandon with him
on his drug runs,
like when he was smoking
crystal meth and stuff,
and Brandon would be sitting
there in their living room,
sleeping, and he would, like,
crawl under the coffee tables
and fall asleep,
just to, like, kinda,
be out of sight of everybody.
There was times
when I picked Brandon up,
and he, his knuckles were sore
from being out
in the front yard,
hitting the tree
in the front yard.
It would be bloody.
He wanted
out of that house so bad,
and every time he was with me,
he was begging me
to get a place to live
so he could come live with me,
'cause I lived at the rehab
for so long,
and I couldn't do it.
Tears were coming down his face,
and he was saying how
"James, don't make me go home,
I don't wanna go."
You know, we all got to leave
Billy's situation,
and he didn't.
A real family is what
he got at Casa Pacifica,
and he felt stronger.
He wanted to change,
be a new person,
and that's who
his alter ego was.
One day he would be Lucretia,
and the next, like, Latonya,
but it always started with "La".
Everyone knew
that Larry was part black.
So it was like
a generic kind of black name.
You don't mess with...
Latoya or Latonya.
You know,
you don't mess with her.
At first people
didn't talk to him at all.
They thought he was crazy.
I think that's kind of
the thing he wanted.
If they didn't talk to him,
they weren't bothering him.
It was just kind of relief,
and so that kind of who
that person was to him
was kinda who he wished he was.
I don't think that Larry is gay,
he's transgendered.
It's a big difference.
I think that he was born
in the wrong age.
Hopefully,
within the next 100 years,
it will be perfectly acceptable,
without the totally
disgusting circumstances
that I've had to grow up with.
I was out in the open
eighth grade.
I, I actually regret
the decision very much.
Practically the whole school
is Latino.
So they're, like, "Gay!"
There's a lot of
misconceptions, and...
My parents would send me to,
like, therapy,
with like some medical doctor
for, like, a year and a half,
like, trying to fix this,
see, what's wrong with me
and all this.
But, like, the doctor
ended up saying, like,
how I'm perfectly fine,
and my parents are just, like,
old-fashioned
and they're not open-minded.
The occasional assault...
Which is the equivalent of,
like, fucking fag.
That's what I hear,
because, you know, or, or...
Or just faggot... you know.
Don't be gay!
And then when people say,
"That's gay."
That gets you so mad!
It's just basically ignorance.
That is a plague of our school.
When Brandon told me that
Larry came to school
in high heels,
I was, like, why?
I had a Black Flag...
It's this punk rock band
has a white shirt
but with the Black Flag
symbol underneath,
and you could see it
through my uniform,
and instead of just
telling me to take it off,
you know,
take off your undershirt,
they suspended me for it.
I got in trouble for everything.
No collar...
I would try to go to shirts,
I'd try to wear
a regular white shirt
and not have a collar
and try to get away with it.
I mean, if it's a uniform
dress code school,
how come that one kid
got an exception
from everybody else?
Larry only accessorized
his school uniform
for two weeks
prior to his murder.
The first day
that I saw him accessorized,
I called the District Office,
and the District Office asked me
did it say in our policy that
girls could not wear make-up,
and I said no.
Then you cannot tell him
that he cannot wear make-up.
There was a law that had just
passed in California, SB777,
regarding not discriminating
on gender identity
or sexual orientation
in the educational environment.
I told Larry,
if you want to come to school
and accessorize your clothing,
then you may.
However,
it's going to be very difficult,
and if you can get through it,
more power to you.
He asked his teachers
to call him Letitia
instead of Larry.
That made some students
so uncomfortable,
they bullied him.
Using the "F" word
against a gay or lesbian
or transgendered student,
it's kind of accepted.
More and more teenagers
are coming out.
Over 80% of them say
there's not one adult
in the school situation
that they consider
to be supportive
or helpful in any way.
I had Larry as a student
the previous year
as a seventh grader
and I knew his inclination.
He had discussed it with me.
When he asked me
what to do about the situation,
my response to him was nothing.
What to do about
this situation is nothing
and to keep it private
and to dwell upon it.
Larry shouldn't have
expressed himself so blatantly,
openly, transsexual.
He progressed day by day
in his outward appearance
as a girl.
I was talking to my daughter
and she had her old
homecoming dress,
and everybody knows
you don't reuse your dresses,
so I said
can I give it to Larry,
and he loved it.
He just loved it!
He ran into the bathroom
and he tried it on.
Miss Boldrin, it's a little big,
but it fits great.
My daughter's exceptionally
small and petite.
She's like a 00,
so that'll tell you
how small Larry was.
Any teacher with a grain of salt
really said it's out of control.
I do believe
in a heaven and a hell,
and I do believe Larry,
honestly,
did not even have a clue
the consequences of his actions.
I relate to Brandon
because I could see my own self
being in
that very same position.
I don't know
if I would have taken a gun,
But a good, swift...
kick in the butt might work
really well.
You're visiting.
You are a nosey parker.
Larry had a special need,
this individualized educational
program, which is IEP,
where there are behaviors
that you're trying to extinguish
in the classroom.
Larry had a behavioral goal,
to not do
exactly what he was doing,
in the weeks before he died.
It's a legally binding document.
It should have been enforced,
like any other legal document.
Other teachers had
a lot of issues with Larry,
and because I didn't have any,
they didn't like the way
I was handling my situation.
I didn't run around
and tell everybody,
"I gave Larry a dress,
I gave Larry a dress."
I'm the really cool angel
on the horse
coming down and saving all
the little transgender children.
I've been teaching for 30 years.
Junior High, boys especially,
are homophobic.
I was convinced
that the kids would take it
into their own hands,
since we did not.
The Thursday before
Larry was shot,
I went into my Principal,
and I said,
"If you don't physically
come in there and do something"
to stop Larry's progression,
the boys of this school
are gonna take him out
"behind the shed
and beat him to death."
You gave him a dress,
and he thought he was queen
for a day, and
All of a sudden, he's dead.
I'm quite sure
Larry would not be dead
if he had been
my student that year.
After Larry's death,
a gay pride rainbow group
of about 1,500 people
are marching down Sea Street,
right in front of our school.
Now, who orchestrated
that Gay Pride?
In 14 years of teaching there,
never seen that.
Never seen it
in the city of Oxnard,
and... right in front
of our school?
What is that?
Who orchestrated that?
I have huge questions,
huge questions.
It's that tree right there
with the big stakes.
It's an Australian willow tree.
It's a place to go
where you can remember anyone
you want to remember,
and they don't have to
necessarily be dead.
They can be anyone,
just anyone you wanna remember,
and Larry
was my inspiration for it,
but I can't really say
that it was for Larry
on the plaque
that I'm trying to get,
because of school policy
and stuff.
They don't want to
bring it up again.
Everybody's extremely scared
to talk.
They're very scared.
The day they sent me
my termination letter,
I told them you'd better as hell
send me a really nice
recommendation letter, then,
and this is what
came the next day.
"At this time,
Mrs. Boldrin feels the need
"to change her teaching
environment..." right?
Unfortunately, we do not have
other teaching positions
"that meet her needs..." right?
"Therefore,
I support her efforts
to find a position that would
give her what she needs."
I was extremely concerned
as I started working
for Starbucks,
one, that I was gonna go bald
wearing a hat.
I feel really bad,
come brew coffee at Starbucks
with me inside Vons,
and go from your $55 an hour job
to nine and see what it's like.
Larry King and I
share more in common
than just our names.
We both believe
that all students
should be free to be themselves
without the fear of
name calling,
bullying or harassment.
Hundreds of thousands
of students
will take a vow of silence
on April 25th
as part of the 12th Annual
National Day of Silence.
They'll honor the memory
of 15 year-old Larry King
and the countless other students
who have had their voices
taken from them
simply because of
their sexual orientation
or gender expression.
He wasn't afraid
to be who he was.
Everyone was making fun of him.
I didn't know
what my friends would say
if they saw me round him,
so I just kept my distance.
I felt guilty
'cause I know there are times
that I said things
to make fun of him.
I feel extremely guilty.
He had asked me,
"How come you feel so
comfortable with yourself?
How can you act,
you know, openly gay?"
and I told him, "Larry",
no one's gonna
kill you for who you are.
Everyone's different,
"and that's just the way
the world is."
And a year later,
he was shot to death
because of how he was.
Larry would always be
in my heart,
no matter what.
I got this when I was 18.
It says, "In loving memory
of Larry King".
He taught me things, you know,
just to be who you are,
stand up for yourself, you know.
I mean, I stood up for myself,
but to be strong.
It helped me open up more
and not care about what
people say or how people think
about the way I dress
or the way I look.
The truth hurts
When you turn eighteen
But the truth gets
Even less easy
But what do ya know?
When he first got shot
I used to think, like,
what if it was me?
People just find out
that you're gay,
and then they'll just go
after you.
It was the day of the murder.
Once we were able to leave
the school campus
she was really scared,
and then, you know,
she just looks me and she says,
"Mom, I'm gay."
Okay. It was a surprise.
She wore pink,
she wore Spandex, everything!
It wasn't the colors.
Her hair, her pony tail
went from up here to lower,
and I don't know, it was just
different little things
that I would look at her
and say.
I just wanted her to be sure
that's what she wanted,
and I let her know that it was
gonna be really tough.
My mom took it good,
not all the way,
like, accepting,
but she said
that if that's what I wanted,
then she would be there for me,
and my dad just blew it off.
The father of Brandon McInerney,
the Oxnard boy accused of
killing a classmate,
was found dead this morning,
just hours before his son
was to appear in court.
The Medical Examiner
says the 45-year-old
died from a blunt force
head injury related to alcohol.
The toxicology report
is pending.
The day he died,
I put the biggest smile
on my face.
I didn't give a shit, you know.
Like, I cried,
because I had to be the one
to tell Brandon, you know.
I honestly felt that way.
And even when James
told Brandon,
the first thing
Brandon said was,
"I knew it was gonna happen.
I just didn't know when."
He didn't even cry.
I was the only one crying,
and that's what scared
the crap out of me.
I did not want to leave him,
like, when they told us,
like, that we had to go.
I didn't want to go.
I was afraid of
what he was gonna do,
and ever since that took over,
he shows no emotion, or whatever.
Like, Brandon always
showed emotion
until that day.
There it goes.
The kid on the right
is doing nothing,
and McInerney
just stands up and boom,
starts whaling away on him.
He's not used to
following the rules,
and I believe that he's a bully,
and he's kind of a thug.
I mean, clearly,
there might have been words
spoken between them,
but you can see from the film
it's completely unprovoked.
The kid walks out. McInerney,
who's kind of
doing his laundry or something,
he sees him,
and he just runs over there
and the same thing,
he starts beating the guy up.
I don't know.
Nice!
It doesn't surprise me
that they're having
a difficult time
coming up with a defense.
Here's one of my subpoenas.
I have, like,
a case full of these.
Yeah, it's just...
And I get these all the time,
and when they call,
I ignore them,
simply because
nothing's going on.
It's like every time
they show up for court,
there's a reason
why it isn't going.
One thing built upon
the previous thing
to drag out the case,
which is another,
a not uncommon defense tactic,
try to wear everybody down
and hope that they get
a lesser plea
or the witnesses go away.
That's kind of
defense lawyer 101.
They wanted him to accept
a life sentence.
From the get go,
we told them, well,
first of all, he should
have been in juvenile court.
We explored
and tried those issues,
and tried to set them up
for appeal, etcetera,
but the system
is only as fair as the players.
Mclnerney, who is being held
at the Juvenile Justice Center,
will turn 17 January 24th.
The victim, Lawrence Forbes King
would have turned 18,
and that case is now
going to return to court
on Valentine's Day next year.
This is the first time
when he put Samantha McInerney
and I was, like, my gosh.
"Hey beautiful, I wish
I could tell you in person"
how much I love you,
but it will have to be
on paper for now.
I'm going to buy
a marriage packet,
"and I will send it to you
whenever."
When I think about a guy
being the one to marry,
like for the rest of my life,
he's definitely probably
my number one pick,
'cause he's, like,
the only one that's ever cared.
I just love him... way too much.
When I first looked
at these drawings,
the first page when you start
seeing lightning bolts,
is it doodling, is it?
Okay.
When I started getting
a little farther
into the notebook,
where I was noticing drawings
that stood out to me
to be unusual.
It's not just the book
in his backpack,
it's going through these books.
12th SS, The History
of the Hitler Youth
Panzer Division,
volume one and two.
You oughta go to any backpack
in the city of Oxnard
of any kid
in the school district,
they're probably
not going to have
volume one
and volume two of this.
This isn't just doing history.
This is not Anne Frank.
The doodling that I saw
in my kids' notebooks
were really very interesting,
but the swastika,
they would copy and those
who were artistically inclined
the whole Adolf Hitler
with the mustache
and the hand and the "heil",
and, you know,
walking into class after being
taught some of these things,
the very next day,
it would be perfectly normal,
"Heil!" for kids to come in
and say, "Heil!"
This particular image
was the most disturbing for me,
seeing the hand crushing
the Star of David
and the blood
coming from it as cracks.
It's hard, because
I know Holocaust survivors.
This is a very,
very strong message.
It's very, very powerful.
To me, it's... this is somebody
who would want
to see this happen again.
It very quickly looked to me
as though I was dealing with,
at the very least,
a budding white supremacist,
who very well may have
acted against his effeminate
and far
physically smaller victim,
either because of his sexuality
or because of his race,
knowing that,
that Larry King was biracial.
This is where
Brandon and his friends
used to hang out.
Brandon had, like, a thing
for calling people nigger.
He called me a couple of times,
and I kinda lost it,
and I hurled off
and I socked him in the head
in the middle of class,
and I didn't get in trouble,
in fact,
because I told my teacher
what had happened,
and she wasn't gonna
put me in trouble for that,
and so, I was really mad at him,
and after that, he never
really ever called me
nigger or anything.
I'm afraid of people
who feel very strongly
that juveniles
should not be tried as adults,
because they want to be
on the case so bad
that they'll lie
in jury selection
when you ask them their feelings
about a certain subject,
and I'm really afraid of
the stealth homosexual haters
in this case.
I believe they're gonna present
some kind of
a gay panic defense,
that somehow Larry King,
based on what he did or said
provoked Brandon
into doing what he did.
This trial finally starts
after several years today.
Defense attorneys
told the jury that,
while McInerney
indeed killed King,
it was not a premeditated
act of murder.
Brandon
may have been bullied too,
by Larry, in fact.
Larry had, reportedly,
told people the two were dating
but had broken up,
and just a couple of days
before the shooting,
classmates say
Larry had asked Brandon
to be his Valentine,
and Brandon's friends joked
the two would make
gay babies together.
What Larry was doing to Brandon
was an extreme form of bullying.
It was an extreme form
of sexual harassment.
When playing basketball
at lunch,
Larry had wobbled
onto the court,
interrupted the game
in front of all Brandon's
basketball buddies,
and asked him
if he would be his Valentine.
To have any guy ask you
that in front of all your peers,
but to have a guy who's wearing
high heels and make-up,
that would be, like,
the ultimate humiliation.
It was very disturbing
to all the boys
and so they, you know,
kind of talked about it
in a guy way, macho way.
It's bad enough to have this kid
who wears girls' clothes,
you know, breaking
all the rules,
but then, you know,
guys don't hit on guys.
If you want to
really insult a guy,
you call him gay.
Brandon was thinking that
he needed to get rid of Larry,
he needed to save everyone
from this, you know,
this scourge that had
come up on the school.
When I think of Larry,
I think of, like,
butterflies.
There's a picture of him,
holding, like a,
I think it's a caterpillar,
with him just, like, smiling.
It's for Larry.
The last tattoo
I'm ever getting.
It says hope.
Day two took
such an emotional turn
that we're told
the bailiff had to keep
restocking the courtroom
with facial tissue,
because of all the tears.
About a half a dozen students
testified,
saying the same thing,
that King was a loner
who was ignored
until he came out and started
wearing make-up and heels,
and that other students
randomly mocked him.
One of them, though,
that had the most
riveting testimony,
was a girl known simply
as Mariah T.
She was a friend
of Larry King's,
was also sitting behind him
when those fatal shots rang out.
Just spell your name.
M-A-R-I-A-H.
Thank you.
Miss Fox?
- Hi, Mariah.
- Do you remember that morning?
Yes.
What did you see
Breathe. You okay?
Do you want to take a break,
Mariah?
Why don't we take a break?
Thank you for everything.
Walked into the courtroom,
and I remember seeing her look
over at the defendant,
and she gets up
on the witness stand.
I asked her one or two questions
and she just lost her mind.
She turned away
from the defendant
and she just kind of collapsed
and started sobbing.
Everyone asks me
how I would react
if I ever saw Brandon,
and I always would say that,
like, I would attack him,
but at the same time, like,
and I know
what it's like to be alone,
and unfortunately
that's what he turned to,
because that's what
he was taught.
I mean, look at this place,
it's gorgeous.
It's a beautiful view.
This is a public area,
anybody can come here,
but the reality is,
not anybody can come here.
Something as simple as
a memory board
for a friend that died,
they take the time,
not just to commemorate
that he was a surfer
or to talk about his persona,
but to put
the nautical sign on there.
It's this diamond,
and that "X" right there.
The SSL, Silver Strand Locals,
is a gang moniker.
The acronym, SSL,
it's often done in graffiti
with a kind of a runic
lightning bolt looking "S",
very similar to the
Schutzstaffel "S"
from the Nazi era.
You think of beach, you think,
like,
white surfers or something.
White is a minority now.
You don't see
a lot of white people,
like fully white people,
like me, like, white, like,
or, like, like Brandon,
like, we were white, like.
You will, like, you see like,
tan people, you see,
like, you can just tell
when someone...
It's not a bad thing.
Brandon had at least
one mentor that we know of
who is a dyed-in-the-wool
neo-Nazi racist skinhead.
Matt Reaume told us that
Brandon McInerney's
half brother, James Bing,
knew that Brandon was getting
into white supremacy
and brought him to Matt Reaume
specifically to educate him.
Matt is white, they said
a white separatist, you know.
Matt doesn't hate you
because of your skin color.
He believes, you know,
a white man
should have a white wife,
a black man
should have a black wife.
A black woman should have
a black husband, you know,
just to save your,
your ethnicity.
It could have been me
the whole time
instead of Larry.
I don't really feel like
being surrounded by people.
Sometimes I just feel
like a ghost.
I watched the movie,
"Boys Don't Cry".
That made me have
nightmares, too.
Even dressing like a boy
could get you killed.
I had a dream that
that was gonna happen to me.
I just kept having
the flashbacks.
I'd be driving,
and just start crying.
I'm just never
gonna see the world
the way I did
before February 12th.
If I fall and break my leg,
easy, I know
what the problem is,
but with the post traumatic,
you don't know
what's gonna set it off.
My family couldn't handle it.
They couldn't
handle the anxiety,
the crying, the despair.
I had overdosed on drugs,
I had tried to commit suicide,
and I almost did it,
because I was on a life support
for three days.
I'm really excited to see
Mariah and Marina,
I really am. I've missed 'em.
The last time
I physically saw them
was literally the day
I walked off the job.
What I've learned is that
truly nobody's
ever prepared for any of this,
and everybody just thinks,
"The cops and the school,
they've always got it handled."
They don't have shit.
I think the day of the shooting
was the first day
I dressed like a guy.
Yeah.
And when I saw you,
you know, like, hey,
and then I couldn't
recognize her.
But I love it. I like it a lot.
The week before the shooting,
I had an epiphany.
I was out monitoring
the students after school,
and I saw
this pretty little girl,
and she had really short hair
with these dangly
pretty earrings,
and these high heeled boots
and beautiful little figure,
and then she turned around
and I saw it was a boy.
It clicked.
This is Larry, and this is what
all the rumblings are about,
and now I understand.
He came into my classroom
before school with make-up on.
I told him
he needed to wash it off
because we were working
on his behavior issues.
He wasn't supposed to
draw attention to himself,
and wearing make-up as a boy
is definitely
drawing attention to yourself.
I saw Brandon
sitting on the bench,
very angry and upset.
Brandon's friends,
they were laughing at Brandon.
That's when
I first noticed Larry.
He was kind of
parading back and forth.
It seemed like he was trying
to get Brandon's attention.
Nobody else at E.O. Green
hated Larry to the point
that they wanted to hurt him.
Brandon suggested
they jump Larry,
they beat him down,
but nobody
would help him do that,
so he was basically
gonna do it all by himself.
Brandon's dad was gonna
take him to school,
and he walked outside,
and Brandon
actually forgot the gun
and had to go back in
and get it.
Now there's an opportunity
where fate
has actually made you forget.
The one key element
you need to commit a murder
is the weapon
and instead of maybe
taking a clue or, you know,
getting scared
he's gonna get caught,
he just no, oops,
I forgot the gun.
I gotta go back in and get it.
Even though Brandon was consumed
by these feelings,
there was a chance
to stop and think.
Larry was called
out of the class,
and during Larry's absence,
Brandon began to have
second thoughts.
You know, he had his hand
in his sweatshirt pocket
where the gun was.
He was, at that point, thinking
maybe I won't do this.
The ultimate trigger
was Larry saying,
"I've changed my name
to Letitia."
When he heard that,
it just obliterated
any reserve or restraint
that he had.
That took it to another level.
This guy, who is doing
these things to me,
is not going to be calling
himself by a girl's name.
The admissions that Brandon made
to Dr. Hoagland were so damning
and corroborated
the entire prosecution theory.
I thought it was over.
He did not pull a Columbine.
He did not go and shoot
everybody he could.
He shot Larry King because
he didn't know what else to do
to make it stop.
It's not a murder.
When you make this decision,
use your common sense,
use your heart, use your soul,
remember that he was 14.
Mr. Wippert would ask you
to violate the law, you know,
use your heart,
and 39 times he reminded you
that the defendant
was a 14 year-old boy.
We talked about the fact
that it's gonna be difficult
that your emotions come in,
but you have to
check them at the door.
The law requires you to do that.
There is absolutely no way
that the facts of this case
could ever be
voluntary manslaughter,
because no reasonable,
average person
would ever do
what the defendant did.
And it's sad, it is.
It's tragic, it's awful.
It's also a done deal.
Was it a momentary
act of panic or a cold
The jury has been unable
to reach a verdict
after deliberating for days.
In fact, the judge in this case
has declared a mistrial
just a short time ago.
The jury is saying they could
not come to an agreement,
with seven jurors believing
that he was guilty
of voluntary manslaughter,
five saying they believed
he was guilty of murder.
He's looking at life in prison,
and that's not an option.
We want a date, certain,
that he can look
at a calendar and say,
on this date, I'm gonna get out.
He doesn't wanna go
through this process again,
and none of us wanna go
through this process again.
But if we have to,
then we have to.
We'll have some talks with
the District Attorney's Office,
and see if there's
any kind of resolution
that all parties can live with.
None of the jurors believe
that this was a hate crime.
Until another day.
Until another day.
This is what I poured for you,
it's really good.
Trader Joes. 3.99.
Everybody's
telling me about that.
I'm telling you, it's so good,
and they have Cab,
they have Merlot,
and they have Marbach.
We bonded because
it was so frustrating
to hear things in court
and, and there were times
we were all crying in court,
and we couldn't talk about it.
I know.
Brandon's an intelligent kid.
Everybody said it.
You know, I feel
he's an intelligent...
But I feel he's such a kid.
He's immature!
I feel... You know,
when I looked at him,
and he was sitting
at that table,
my heart broke for him,
as a mom and a grandmother.
None, not one of us thought
that he was a white supremist.
Never.
Now. His assignment
on Adolf Hitler.
Could it have sparked
his interest in that...
Well, I wanna know
a little more about this.
He's 14, of course he did.
He's a kid.
And they love to draw
at that age.
Yes, they doodle
and crosses and...
and he's combining symbolism.
I doodle now,
especially when I'm not happy
about what I'm hearing,
and my hands go
faster and faster.
Where are the civil rights
of the one being taunted
by another person,
who's cross
They have to address that.
It's very important.
Clearly that wasn't addressed.
No, it wasn't,
and he had no one
he could turn to,
'cause the school was so pro
Larry King's civil rights.
But where was
Brandon's civil rights?
It was the high heels.
I think it was the make-up.
The behavior...
Because Marina...
Yes. She had a girlfriend.
They were told not to
hold hands in school,
so they stopped.
She got it.
She... Exactly.
Larry didn't get it,
and had he followed
her example...
We wouldn't be here today, no.
Here's an extra.
Yes. Thank you.
We were supposed to
not consider his age,
which is very hard to do.
That was the very first
thought I had.
He is so young.
How can I, Rosalie,
say that this kid
needs to go to jail
for the rest of his life?
It would have to be
so much more compelling
in every way for me
to even go down that avenue.
I do not think
it was first degree murder.
However, it was premeditated.
He had a plan to resolve
this terrible problem,
because no one was taking
care of this problem.
By murder, or just to maim him?
We don't know.
And then he's having
second thoughts about doing it.
But then, the green light
when he says,
"Hey, Larry, I hear you're
changing your name to Letitia,"
to him that's a green light.
He pulls out the gun
and shoots him.
Yeah.
He was solving a problem.
I picked a terrible jury.
Juror number 11 wrote
a letter to Judge Campbell.
"It is a tragedy,"
and propaganda filled
witch hunt.
You all know
this was not a hate crime.
You all know the victim
had a long history
of deviant behavior.
"Yes, I said deviant."
As you can see,
she cc'd Judge Campbell,
me, Mr. Wippert,
ABC 20/20, the Venturer,
Star, Fox, LA and God.
Everybody's so worried
about Brandon.
My God, he could get 52 to life.
He shot a kid
in the back of the head,
point blank range,
and premeditated and lied...
Watched the back of his head
for 20 minutes.
I feel bad for Brandon,
he made some bad mistakes,
and he's a... he's a kid.
Do you hold him accountable
for the rest of his life?
I'm not a judge
but I can sure tell you
that they made a murder victim
the cause of his own murder.
I've never seen that before.
It was a seven-five split
for manslaughter.
How many of you believed
Brandon should have been tried
as an adult
for first degree murder?
Not one of you.
The District attorney's Office
refused to talk publicly,
but said in a statement
they believed Brandon
is capable of killing again.
And just this week,
a California court
gave the green light
for DA to retry Brandon again
for first degree murder
as an adult.
These jurors are now wearing
Save Brandon bracelets too.
They also told us
they're raising money
for Brandon's defense
for the retrial.
To see the jurors
going on television
with a Free Brandon bracelet
and all that,
are you gonna have
that kind of compassion
for a, admitted shooter
if it was your kid?
If you've got me
walking through your door
in the middle of the night
to give you the one bit of news
that you never ever,
ever wanna hear.
How are you gonna feel then?
Are you gonna keep
that bracelet on?
This is my only tattoo.
Obviously it's a show of support
for Brandon.
It felt like
the right thing to do.
I don't know how to explain it.
I don't know that I will ever
be able to express
what it is about this kid
that means so much to me.
I just... I love him.
He's just like one of my
favorite people on the planet.
His spirit,
his energy and his...
I don't know what it is,
and I don't suppose
I need to know what it is,
but I just, I love him.
I just, I think he's fantastic.
Every time I look at it,
I'm happy.
There was a surprise plea deal
tonight
in the case of a gay
junior high student
shot to death by a classmate.
How do you plead to that count?
Guilty.
He pleaded guilty
to second degree murder,
voluntary manslaughter,
and use of a firearm,
in the death of his classmate,
Larry King.
Well, he is gonna spend
the next 21 years
of his life in prison,
no possibility of parole.
The Ventura County DA's Office
and attorneys for
Brandon McInerney
reached that deal
in a Ventura County
courtroom today.
Brandon McInerney's
mother left, weeping,
also not talking to reporters.
Some of the jurors
in the first trial
were here to support McInerney.
And I was kind of shocked,
like, 21 years, really?
No chance of parole, really?
It seems an awful long time
for a kid
who had no prior record,
who didn't do any torture,
kidnapping
or any of the other things
that I would consider
to be appropriate
for a 21-year sentence
with no possibility of parole.
There's more to the story
than just what you see.
I'm sorry.
Just hanging back
so I don't get down there,
but I don't think
I have anything at this time.
I'm sorry.
It just sucks.
Larry doesn't get to
come back in 21 years.
I was just thinking about Larry.
We're not gonna see him
smile anymore,
not gonna see him grow up.
We ended up getting a resolution
which was the best
that we could have gotten.
It was still way too high.
It's still way too high.
Everything we did
in this was a fight,
but at the end of the day,
what really matters
is Brandon is gonna get out.
He has a date for his calendar
that he can look forward to.
I would next like to
thank the people
who have helped me
get to this point,
my family
for keeping me motivated
and always supporting me,
my lawyers.
Their hard work
have put me in a position
to put this diploma to work.
Lastly, to the people
I haven't mentioned.
No, your support
hasn't gone unnoticed.
Thank you.
He's sent a letter.
First thing
I got it in the mail.
I did not open it.
I was too scared.
"It's cool you found out
about my graduation.
"I would have been an idiot
not to try and get my diploma.
"I can't tell you enough
how sorry I am
"for all the pain and guilt
I've caused you,
"but I need you to know,
"none of this
is your fault at all.
"It is no one's fault
but my own.
"Please know that,
"and I am definitely
not angry with you,
"and I never was.
"I've moved on
from what happened,
"and I hope I can help you
do the same.
Love, Brandon."
Graduates traditionally
move their tassels
from the right side
to the left side
of their graduation hats
to indicate they have completed
this phase of studies
and now are ready
to move on to the next.
Move that tassel!
When you ask me
if Larry died in vain,
the answer to that,
with or without any trial
is yes.
He simply shouldn't have died.
The trial of Brandon McInerney
is neither here nor there
when it comes to Larry's death.
It highlights
how intolerant we are,
that intolerance
is to such a degree
that people bring it with them
wherever they go,
even in the jury box,
and until we become
a little more forgiving,
a little more open-minded,
I think, as a society,
then tragic events like this
will continue to be in vain.
"God grew a garden
and planted a seed
"and every so often,
had to pull out a weed.
"He cared for the seed, so much.
"He knew every hair
on its head and such,
"for this seed was a child
who would love and laugh
"but the love of a family
he'd only get half,
"who'd be a great child
but adopted while young,
"growing up with maybe
your daughter or son.
"He'd care for the animals,
birds and bugs,
"and if anyone was sad,
he'd give them hugs.
"He'd only use the kindest
and softest tone,
"but God knew a secret
that to us was unknown.
"This seed's life was short
"and would die
while still young,
"but while still alive,
this seed would have fun.
"This seed's name was Larry,
and he was my good friend,
and he stayed like that
all the way to the end."
This is it.
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
My love my love my love
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
If I was gay
I would think
Hip-hop hates me
Have you read the YouTube
Comments lately?
"Man that's gay"
Gets dropped on the daily
We become so numb
To what we're saying
A culture
Founded from oppression
Yet we don't have
Acceptance for 'em
Call each other
Faggots behind the keys
Of a message board
A word rooted in hate
Yet our genre
Still ignores it
Gay is synonymous
With the lesser
It's the same hate
That's caused wars
From religion
Gender to skin color
The complexion
Of your pigment
The same fight
That led people
To walk outs and sit ins
It's human rights
For everybody
There is no difference!
Live on and be yourself
When I was at church
They taught me
Something else
If you preach hate
At the service
Those words aren't anointed
That holy water
That you soak in
Has been poisoned
When everyone else
Is more comfortable
Remaining voiceless
Rather than fighting
For humans
That have had their rights
Stolen
I might not be the same
But that's not important
No freedom 'til we're equal
Damn right I support it
I don't know
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
My love my love my love
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
No law is gonna change us
We have to change us
Whatever God you believe in
We come from the same one
Strip away the fear
Underneath
It's all the same love
About time
That we raised up...
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
My love my love my love
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
Love is patient
I'm not crying on Sundays
Love is kind
I'm not crying on Sundays
Love is patient Love is kind