Police have not concluded an investigation into the brutal beating of 16-year-old Caitlin Meuse in Concord, Mass., that came soon after she had a confrontation with another girl at school while participating in a 'Day of Silence,' to support gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender kids.
Police should do their job, and follow all possible leads in solving the crime. But neither the police nor the school nor the community should dismiss the possibility that this act was a hate crime, possibly inspired by Meuse's bisexuality or her participation in a gay-supportive activity.
It seems some in the community already have.
Assistant Superintendent Nadine Binkley told the Concord Journal she thought it was 'unfortunate' that people were wondering whether or not the attack was a homophobic act. 'There are a lot of rumors at this point,' said Binkley. 'Nothing is substantiated by fact. Unfortunately people are trying to make a tie between the two events.'
'There were scores, maybe even hundreds, of students that participated in the Day of Silence,' Arthur Dulong added. Dulong is the principal at Concord-Carlisle High School, where Meuse is a junior. 'There is just no reason to think the two events are related. None at all.'
Sixteen-year-old Meuse thinks there is every reason to do so.
On Wednesday, April 9, Caitlin was participating in the 'Day of Silence' when she says she and several other friends (who were also participating in the action) had a heated confrontation in the school hallway with a girl who disapproved of the Day of Silence. Meuse says the girl started shouting anti-gay insults and obscenities at them.
Meuse couldn't respond to the verbal attack, because it was a Day of Silence. So she pulled out a pen and started to write a response in a note to the girl. But when she tried to give the girl the note, the girl blew up into more obscenities, says Meuse. Meuse says she then alerted school authorities about the encounter—breaking her Day of Silence—because she felt the incident shouldn't go unreported.
The following day, at about 7:15 in the evening, as Meuse was walking home from a friend's house who lives just a few doors down the block on the same street in town where Meuse resides, Meuse was attacked and beaten. A neighbor found the teenager lying unconscious on the ground, with wounds to her head and neck. Her injuries landed her in the intensive care unit at Boston Medical Center. Meuse suffered head injuries, deep cuts, serious swelling, several missing teeth, and a broken nose. She also hurt her shoulder and arms, probably when she fell to the ground from the attack. Luckily, Meuse did not suffer any long-term brain damage.
Meuse, who does not remember the details of the attack, says police have speculated she may have turned around to face her attacker and was hit repeatedly with an object such as a baseball bat or tire iron.
Meuse says she is 'absolutely convinced' that the attack is related to the confrontation she had at school. 'I'm not extremely happy with how the police are handling this,' she told me. 'It's pretty obvious to everyone but the police' that it's connected to the incident at school. She believes there are too many things that too many things connect the incidences for them to be a coincidence. In addition, she says another girl who was in the confrontation at school and participating in the Day of Silence has since received a telephone threat.
Because it is ongoing, the police are not commenting on the investigation except to say that they are looking into several leads, including the possibility of a hate crime related to the Day of Silence at school. They are also other following other leads that do not have anything to do with the school.
Meuse says those other leads include the possibility that an ex-boyfriend—whom she recently broke up with—may be involved, a theory she finds implausible. Also, she said that there were rumors she was a drug user and that the crime is related to her owing money to drug dealers. She admitted that she had 'experimented' with drugs, as so many teenagers do. But she says she does not use drugs regularly, and that she does not owe anyone money for illegal substances.
Meuse says she can't help but feel victimized a second time. Not only was she beaten up, but now she feels as if she is being turned into the bad guy, with her reputation at stake and possibly ruined.
That shouldn't be happening. Regardless of why Meuse was beat up, she was the victim here.
The police are doing their job by following every possible lead. But they should not give short shrift to the possibility that this was a hate crime.
The school is, by all accounts, a place that fosters tolerance and diversity. Even if the attack is related to the confrontation at school and the 'Day of Silence,' it's hard to see how anyone would try to hold the school responsible for the beating, which took place after school hours and off school grounds.
Yet that makes the premature comments of school officials denying that the two had anything to do with each other all the more surprising and inappropriate. We don't yet know what happened here, and for school administrators to be definitively stating that there is no connection is just irresponsible. It might also send a message to students that the school is not willing to fully support them and back them up when push comes to shove on the issue of protecting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender kids.
And that would be a loss not just for Meuse, but for everyone.
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