Subj : Was only a mater of time...
To   : RACHEL L. AKERS
From : TODD HENSON
Date : Wed Mar 14 2001 01:23 am

> 
> 'Jesus luvs u'
> 
> Tempest often spent hours in her bedroom writing poems and other reflections 
in
> the small notebook she kept beneath her bed. The notebook was a birthday gift
> from her mother. It had a picture of pop star Ricky Martin on the cover.
> 
> Tempest, a tall, slim blond who got her name because she was born during a
> violent storm, wrote about typical youthful concerns: crushes on boys; her 
dog,
> a shar-pei named Buddy; trips to her grandmother's house. She wrote about
> family, calling her mother, "the best mom ever."
> 
> She also wrote about the pain she increasingly endured during school.
> 
> Although Tempest had a few friends, many of her classmates had teased her
> constantly since elementary school. They teased her because she wore dark
> "Gothic" clothing to school. They teased her because she read books about
> Wicca, a pagan religion often associated with witchcraft. Her classmates 
often
> taunted her with Christian hymns.


Sorry, but this isn't about religious "intolerance", primarily. Goths are
going to be picked on 
regardless of their religious beliefs. The "Christian" hymns were nothing
more than yet another 
excuse to taunt her, and the fact that they were sang/spoken in a
*taunting* manner would 
indicate that the people singing/speaking them weren't even Christian in
the first place, but were 
using them simply because they knew it would annoy the girl.

Stop inventing dragons to slay, when there's plenty enough already.


> Now people aren't chanting Jesus luvs u. They're singing it.


> "I'm sorry if I said mean things to you," one of Tempest's classmates wrote. 
"I
> didn't mean them. It was the easiest way for me to hide what was wrong with
> me."


Sadly, such worthless apologies are too little, too late for the victims.
Those punks knew better.


> "I am sorry that it led to this," was the message written on a placard. "None
> of it should have happened. If only they had understood, then you would still
> be alive."
> 
> Lincoln Park school officials and grief counselors have been working with the
> students.
> 
> "The last thing we want to do is make our students feel guilty," said Lincoln
> Park Middle School Principal Robert Redden. "But, maybe there is a lesson to 
be
> learned here: that we should strive to treat each other with more kindness."


Those kinds do not DESERVE the luxury of being spared the guilt they richly
deserve!

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