Guest Post by Melissa Pope about California murder

The below is an entry from a guest writer - Triangle Foundation's very own Director of Victim Services (and an absolutely fabulous woman) - Melissa Pope.

Her essay is in response to the shooting of a gay middle school student discussed in this previous entry.
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By Melissa Pope, Director of Victim Services, Triangle Foundation

The Northern Illinois University community is beginning to heal after last week’s shooting rampage that claimed six lives. The focus is on the victims and their families and, of course, trying to figure out what made the assailant kill before taking his own life. While we may never know all of the details of what motivated this man to kill, we do not have a living killer to bring to justice.

With the murder of Lawrence King, a fifteen year old gay, gender-bending youth, we have an offender who is very much alive to suffer the consequences of his actions. It appears that King’s killer will be charged with first-degree murder and committing a hate crime. While nothing guarantees that this boy will spend the rest of his life in prison, clearly his life will never be the same.

Did you notice I called him a boy? King’s killer is only 14 years old. By law, he is still a child. We cannot talk about the death of a fifteen year old and call King a child without acknowledging that the killer is also a child.

As I write this, one part of me cries out for vengeance against this killer – child or not. I want to see him punished for taking the life of another human being. In all honesty, this part of me wants him to suffer so that he knows the pain he has caused King’s family and friends. But another part of me says that we must stop and look at this child to find out how to help him unlearn the hatred that lead to his heinous actions. I am not just talking about finding out how he became this hate-filled monster so that we can implement programs to prevent other children from developing this same revolting ideology. I am also talking about working with this child to bring him to a place of acceptance so that he is not lost forever in an internal maze of lies and intolerance, destined to be miserable.

At Triangle, we reach out to the victims of hate. We want them to know we are here to be with them, to advocate for them and to help them in any way possible. But we are also here for the offenders – to educate them so that they no longer harbor prejudices that can fester and erupt into volcanoes of violence. And we are here for the entire state of Michigan, to offer educational programming that highlights the price we all pay when prejudice is allowed in our homes, our schools, our work places and our society.

It hurts to admit that we will lose more children – some to murder, some to suicide and some lost to the hatred in their hearts. With every loss, we must remind ourselves to continue to strive for true equality for all people so that these losses diminish over time until they no longer exist.