Principals, Bus Driver Ignored Pleas for Help from High School Student Beaten with Metal Pipe for Being Gay
Jayron Martin, a 16-year-old student at Langham Creek High School near Houston, was attacked by a group of students on November 12 because he's gay. Martin said he heard the boys were planning the attack and asked two principals and a bus driver for help, but was ignored.
Martin's fears were confirmed when he was chased off his school bus and assaulted for seven minutes by a boy with a metal pipe while eight others watched. The attack was stopped by a property owner nearby who scared the gang away with a shotgun.
Said Martin, who is afraid to go back to school: "All they kept saying was, ‘We going to get you. We going to fight you,’ and all that and so when they started coming after me they were like, ‘You’re not going to be gay anymore.’ They just kept hitting me...You don’t understand, I was just running for my life and nobody was like there at all. Nobody was doing anything for me."
Martin suffered a concussion, cuts and bruises. The 16-year-old who beat him has been arrested. No other arrests have been made.
Watch the report from KHOU, AFTER THE JUMP...
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Posted by: Harris of Hollywood | Nov 19, 2009 5:37:27 PM
I actually went to this high school and graduated in '07. This story does not surprise me at all and its very disheartening and disgusting to hear. I never came out while at Langham because of the rampant homophobia there. I'm so sorry this had to happen to this poor kid.
When I went there, there was not even a GSA (even though the school is about 3500 students). However, I heard one had been started recently, but you had to be a junior or a senior to join with parents' permission. There is no support in these schools for these kids and it makes me sick.
Posted by: Foster | Nov 19, 2009 6:47:35 PM
THIS one I'd call a Hate Crime.
Posted by: JT | Nov 19, 2009 6:55:48 PM
All this can be attributed to the Republican Party, the right and religious organizations with their hate speeches who give the green light to bigotry and discrimination towards gays.
The Democrat Party and the left are not much better. All they do is talk the talk but take little action. Gay's are literally stuck between a rock and a hard place.
The only thing the gay community can do is start pulling their support (money) from candidates, especially those who have been in office for sometime who continue to state they support gay rights, but do little in action.
Protests are about the only way any action will be done. A protest at this school and bus company needs to happen until all adults involved are fired and all the children involved are charged as accessories. The Houston gay community needs to organize something for this child. We need to protect our own, since it is apparent our schools and goverments aren't. The new hate crime law should go into effect in this instance.
This is a child we are talking about and parents expect that their child, no matter who that child is, will be protected when at school or on a bus.
Posted by: CB | Nov 19, 2009 8:18:49 PM
The bus driver and principal should be charged with criminal facilitation. They knew a crime was about to happen, they had a responsibility to do something about it, and their inaction led to the crime occurring.
Posted by: esurience | Nov 19, 2009 8:48:05 PM
Too bad the redneck homeowner didn't pull the trigger.
Posted by: Wheezy | Nov 19, 2009 10:58:21 PM
I graduated from Langham Creek in 2006. o_o
I actually had a lot of pride in it, though I'll have to admit that my rose colored glasses were bought with the same white upper middle class affluence that helped nestle me against the protective bosom of honors classes, safe from the unwashed masses.
Posted by: solidork | Nov 20, 2009 2:04:50 AM
I'd be contact the ACLU, gay groups and anyone else if I were this boy to get them to come to his aid in teh media and force these "officials" to take action again the thugs who broke the law and attacked him. This kind of outrageous stuff can't just be swept under the rug.
Posted by: Eric | Nov 20, 2009 5:02:35 AM
Dear Mister_Eves,
I think you are extremely right on your appreciations. Homophobia is not only the fear of gays, but of being gay yourself, as is racism, and other types of discrimination. Everyone tries to "fit in" in our society, and the fear of not belonging is big, big, big. We see cloned people all around, people with no personalities other than following the leaders of the gang or pop stars. The target should be: yes, you are different, everyoneis different and that is OK. There is a German word for that syndrom: Zusammengehörigkeit.
Posted by: PEDRO M-G | Nov 20, 2009 5:58:35 AM
John in Boston: They guy was CHARGED and went to COURT but was found NOT GUILTY. And the judge actually criticised the police and our prosecution service for even bringing the case!
RE this matter: He should sue the living daylights out of the school and also sue the staff personally.
Posted by: Joe | Nov 20, 2009 7:32:45 AM
I sub in this district and this high school was my first sub assignment 3 year ago. Truly hate to hear this story.
This is Cypress-Fairbanks district not Houston ISD. Cypress-Fairbanks or Cy-Fair is a part of Houston but is it's own separate school district.
Posted by: Sub | Nov 20, 2009 10:44:52 AM
Not only should the district be sued, the Principal and Bus Driver need to be personally named in the suit and the little redneck shit who orchestrated this, charged and tried as an adult. I can only imagine what his parents must be like.
Yet another reason to never visit or spend any money in Texas.
Posted by: chasmader | Nov 20, 2009 12:13:57 PM
Aren't school bus drivers able to drop students at their homes if they fear attack?
Posted by: Mark | Nov 20, 2009 12:37:40 PM
Cheryl.johns@cfisd.net WRITE STRONG E-MAILS! This is the heartless "principal's" E-mail
Posted by: Chris | Nov 20, 2009 2:17:31 PM
I wonder if there is precedent, anywhere in the U.S., for police or federal authorities going after principals (and, let's just say, charging them, if they can't complete a successful prosecution)... perhaps there's some form of negligence when adults so completely fail to invoke their authority and powers, and thereby allow a hate crime to occur? Lawsuits are all good and well, but I'd like to see the police arrest a principal or two -- I think many more would start doing the right thing quite quickly.
Posted by: matt | Nov 20, 2009 11:16:24 PM
okay first of all, i attend Langham Creek high school and Jayron got exactly what he deserved.
You don't go around texting other guys pretending to be a female asking them how big their package is and having them send you pictures of their stuff off your phone.
Jayron is a fucking dumb ass, he's rude, inconsiderate, mean, loud, and annoying.
everyone who knows him knows he is not a good person.
like i said he got what he deserved.
Posted by: ihatejayron | Nov 23, 2009 3:00:56 PM
And the neo-cons, who defend that they are not prejudice or bigoted, claim there is no need for hate crime legislation. Ass clowns.
Posted by: jon | Dec 4, 2009 5:09:58 PM
Are you ready to Bash Back yet?
Posted by: New Jersey Girl | Dec 5, 2009 2:03:01 AM
You have to remember that there is two sides to every story. My best friends go to Langham Creek High School. This so called "victim" of a horrible hate crime was not just beaten because he was gay. Jayron was not the homosexual we see on the news that keeps his views to himself and doesn't try to call attention to his sexual orientation. Jayron Martin was known in the school as a "flamer." The underlying reason for the assault was, Jayron stole a girl's phone; posing as another student's girlfriend requested sexually explicit pictures. The other student was led to believe that he was sending the pictures to his girlfriend. Upon receiving these explicit pictures he forwarded the pictures to his homosexual friends. Several things were wrong in this story, "the metal pipe" was in fact, just the flimsy thin sign promoting a homeowner's preferred mayoral candidate. Its not like the assaultant had a crowbar. I am not saying that beating up Jayron was the right thing to do, but I have to step in and show the facts that have been "reported." this story is being portrayed purely as a hate-crime, when clearly, there are other factors.
Posted by: Phil | Dec 8, 2009 11:27:03 PM
This is crazy, I only graduated from this very school years ago, and there were handful of gay students in my class, a couple even living in a really bad neighborhood nearby, but never did anything like this ever happen. Always had the administration to that school sucked; they don't want to get off their asses and do the shit that they're supposed to be paid to do. So I'm glad that they're going to get bitten in the ass about this finally, but if only it were under different circumstances where an innocent kid didn't have to be beaten.
Posted by: Nikki | Dec 9, 2009 1:02:29 PM