Family of g*y boy slain in Calif. blames school?

Question

he family of a g*y teenager who was fatally shot in class blames the school district for allowing their son to wear makeup and feminine clothing to school - factors the family claims led to the death.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/08/14/state/n222123D59.DTL

Do you think the family would have sued the School District if they did not allow him wear makeup or women's clothing?

Answer 1

The poor boy was a ward of the court and living at a shelter for abused, neglected and emotionally troubled children when it happened, so how the family can be asking for damages is beyond me.  These people obviously didn't care that much about him when he was alive, but because they found someone they could get money out of it, its suddenly not their fault their son was in that home and had so many problems, it's the schools fault???  It's just another money grab, and its just so sad they're using this boy's death to try to pull it off.

Answer 2

Poor kid, he had serious issues. I imagine there was some sort of abuse there.

The family has no right to sue the school district and they should have done their job as parents, which they failed at.

  

Answer 3

We have become a very litigious society - whenever something bad happens, the first thought is "Who can I sue ?" It seems like it's more important to find someone to blame rather than fix the problem. In this case, I'd say it was failure on the part of the parents to sit their son down and explain that while obviously not illegal, going to school in drag might offend some less open minded people and he could be the target of derision. An adult in drag in a big city would not attract as much attention, but a teen in school dressed like that is a walking target. I'm more concerned that a gun was in the classroom - for that, the school should have to answer to. The school should have had a sit down with the student and his parents and explained the risks of the student dressing like that though. If he were my son, I would have said "Don't go to school like that, at home or with your friends, fine - but not school." It wouldn't hurt if the school instilled a dress code either. Nowadays it seems like kids are more concerned with what everyone else is wearing instead of worrying about doing their schoolwork. I hate to say this because I would have flipped if this happened when I was in school, but maybe uniforms aren't such a bad idea. Less distractions and less students targeted for being different.

Answer 4

Based on the following quote from the same article, I think maybe the parents are just out to make a buck: "King (the victim) was a ward of the court and living at a shelter for abused, neglected and emotionally troubled children at the time of the shooting."

The school should be held responsible for a lack of security, but that doesn't make it necessary to sue the school.  Perhaps that school just needs to implement some precautionary steps to prevent weapons from getting in the school in the future.  They might need to offer education to students regarding bullying & respect for people's differences.

I pretty much think this law suit is just another example of how screwed up our world is.  Everybody's trying to make a buck.

Answer 5

Still doesn't justify murder because someone dresses different.

They should sue the parents of the boy who did the shooting.