Lawrence “Larry” King, 15, an aspiring lepidopterist, was shot to death last week at E.O. Green Junior High in Oxnard, California. According to reports, the reason he was killed was that he was homosexual.
I did not know Mr. King but as he was a fellow amateur naturalist, I feel his loss as a member of the community. By all accounts he possessed a gentle soul, a caring heart, and an inquisitive mind – in short, exactly the type of person we need more of in the world.
A posting on LEPS-TALK, a list server for lepidopterists, brought the news of Mr. King’s death to my attention. A message there posted by Brian Banker offers a far better tribute to Mr. King than I could possibly write, and as Mr. Banker indicated that his message could be shared anywhere, I reprint it here in memory of and respect for the life of Lawrence King.
We lost a young one of our own two weeks ago. On February 12, 2008, Lawrence “Larry” King, 15, was murdered by a classmate in his junior high’s computer lab in Oxnard, Ventura County, CA simply for being different, and for having a romantic interest in the wrong person. King was a budding entomologist whose specialty was Lepidoptera, and had a very good basic knowledge of butterflies for his age, in addition to being an all-around nice guy.
Guys, any one of us could have been Larry King. I easily could have been: I had no interest in sports or any other social pasttimes whatsoever, had very few friends, and had many a completely stupid and foolhardy crush at Larry’s age. Fortunately, I did not pay for this with my life. I can’t think of a single one of our ranks who didn’t grow up a misfit–a “stranger in this world”–and wasn’t picked on in some manner because of, if not directly from our hobby, the psychological makeup that is associated with it. This poor child, who came from a broken home and likely didn’t have a single permanent friend on the planet, nonetheless is touching many lives–in his appalling murder. It’s invariable: everybody mourns sweet kids like this after they die, but nobody wants to be near them when alive.
The most damning thing of all is that I can’t say for a fact that, had I been one of King’s acquaintances at the time, that I would have recognized him for the kid in dire need of a buddy that he was, rather than a target for constant scorn and cruelty. At the age of fifteen, I may well have been joining the jackals that made his life a living hell, or at least been too squeamish to get involved.
As Mr. Baker indicated in the original post, “please feel free to repost/crosspost this anywhere you feel like.”
Rest in peace Lawrence. You are missed.
