I hate having to make these posts.

I hate having to make these posts. Hate it. HATE IT.

Last Tuesday, one of the students who attends the school where I teach, J, went missing. On Wednesday, his body was found. On Thursday, we found out that another of our students had been arrested and confessed to the murder.

We may never know what really happened. The story has been changed several times. The one that he's going with right now is that J gave him a ride home and made a sexual advance. He says he then beat J with a wooden rod, took his body to the field where it was found, and attempted to burn his body. However, the inconsistencies have been numerous (first he said that J grabbed the rod first; when J's body was found, his hands and feet had been bound; he changed the location of the attack twice before the police discovered blood in his father's backyard; a fake Facebook account with J's name showed up while he was missing, so police believe that multiple people are involved).

What infuriates me almost as much as the senselessness of the tragedy is the reason that he gave for committing it. No one believes the sexual advances story, luckily, including the police. But the fact that it even went through his head, "if I say that he came on to me, it will be more understandable," sickens me. I know that it isn't what really happened but the fact that he attempted to claim gay panic makes my blood boil.

My thoughts and prayers are with J's family, as their ordeal is far from over. If you are the praying type, please say an extra one for his family and friends. Several of my students are having trouble dealing with understanding why and how this happened. I hate that they are being exposed to such evil, especially since the evil has come in the form of a classmate.