Writing about the fifteen year old executed sitting in his eighth grade classroom, Cloud enlists reasons for not supporting increased resources for hate crime prosecutions. One day before his murder, he was accosted by at least 3 boys, including the assailant. Cloud maintains, “It’s not clear that officials [at the school] looked the other way,” while students tell media after the shooting they saw classmates taunt Lawrence King on previous occasions. He wore heels, jewelry, makeup, and painted nails. What happened to a school environment where a student feels comfortable telling their teacher or counselor someone is harassing themselves or a friend?

Cloud goes on to assert: “The task force is exaggerating the frequency of assaults on gay kids, the vast majority of whom make it through school safe and happy. GLSEN itself has published a great deal of survey data showing that most gay kids aren’t suffering the way King did.”

Reports of students fatally shot in classrooms with their peers is, fortunately, low. Mr. Cloud’s assumption that most gay youth are happy with their high school experience based on one three year-old poll that shows 1 in 5 gay youth are assaulted, however, is sad and misguided. Responding to statistics that 2/3 of gay youth are verbally abused, Cloud states, “It’s difficult to imagine the teenager who has never been painfully teased about something.”

Susan Kishner