Larry King Case Summary

Background This case study involves a shooting that took place at E. O. Green Junior High School in Oxford, California. The school that is discussed in this case study is in considered to be in a urban city where a lot of gang violence takes place. In 1994, E.O. Green Junior High School was considered to be a California Distinguished School (Setoodeh, 2008). In order for a school to be a California Distinguished School, it must demonstrate outstanding gains in decreasing the achievement gaps in the schools educational program (California Distinguished Schools Program,2016). Larry King, a 15-year-old homosexual male, that attended E. O. Green Junior High School was shot due to his sexuality. King was born to a drug addicted single mother and therefore was taken away from their home due to neglection. At the age of two, Greg and Dawn King adopted Larry to provided him with …show more content…
The taunting of Larry being openly gay started while attending Hathaway Elementary School. Larry confided in his best friend, Averi Laskey, that he was gay. Averi accepted Larry and remained friends. The issues started rising when Larry started becoming more public with his sexuality. Unlike Averi, most of his school mates were not accepting of his sexual preference. The other students would call him names, distant themselves during recess, and even attacking his home. While Larry was in sixth grade, a group of girls started a “ Burn Book” about Larry, a book that is used by bullies to write demeaning insults about people that was disliked (Setoodeh, 2008). Even though this book was to consist of insults, there were some threats being made as well. One threat that was brought to the principal’s attention was, "I hate Larry King. I wish he was dead” (Setoodeh, 2008). In hopes to keep Larry safe, his parents removed him from Hathaway Elementary School to another elementary school to receive a new