Though the tall, slender, floppy-haired boy seldom spoke up in class except to correct someone elses error, John seemed immune to the self-doubt that consumed his peers. One of his new classmates came across a newspaper story that identified John by name and described him as schizophrenic. The classmate wondered, Why is he at our school? On the way to the police station, someone spontaneously led the group in singing church hymns. Given that no one had ever explained anything about Johns treatment and release from custody, some worried that he might still be capable of committing a violent act. That same day, John reportedly destroyed a map he had designed for a school assignment. AUSTIN, Texas (FOX 7 Austin) - The principal of Murchison Middle School has announced his resignation. Texas Purple Hull Pea Festival Is More Than an Event. Official Facebook page of the Murchison Matadors! Murchison Middle School. Grayson 40 Years Later, and invited former classmates and teachers to join. I was on the field just outside the window when it happened.. Several classmates agreed to gather there. Hugging her daughter close and wanting to scream, Davis carried on a banal conversation about his job and about her church. Extracurriculars Band Choir Orchestra Dance / Cheerleading Newspaper / Yearbook National Junior Honor Society Keyboarding Of course, few Murchison students paid much attention to such distinctions. At night, according to George Scott, they sometimes argued heatedly. I have nothing but good things to say about him in the settings I see him in., While George Scott fully acknowledged the magnitude of the tragedy for the victims of that days events, he also explained that in his view, his brother has done remarkably well, given the terrible thing that happened. Laura Grayson at her Austin home in February. It all felt surreal, Ray said. Their father didnt have that much emotional range. Pencils. fatally shot his teacher, 29-year-old Rod Grayson, three times at Murchison Junior High School. Tel: (512) 414-3254. www.murchisonmatadors.org. The next morning, while the rest of his family filed out the front door to their respective daily destinations, John stayed behind, hiding in a closet. Grayson fell from his stool and collided with the student desk in front of him, where Peyton Smith sat. Still, Ray kept talking. What happened? Joshua Blake 1989-1993. She led several of them into a nurses examination room and told them to stay there. We played backfield a lot because we were both bad. Accountability Ratings Good. And though sentencing laws vary widely across the country and have evolved over time, the system has historically tended to ask a great deal more of juvenile killers. John hugged him. Everything stopped that day as we tried to process it. Rebecca Leamon remembered how Grayson gently encouraged her to challenge her shyness. As she would later say, At that point, as a mother, as a teacher, as a human being, as pained as I was that Rod was dead, I felt sorry for that kid. He asked himself, What now? Elaine Moore, a former student of Rod Graysons who witnessed the shooting, photographed at Murchison in February. But the puff of gun smoke prompted Smith to look more closely at his teacher. And that year, he was growing more and more bitter about his father.. Then there was Johns pedigree. Website. Murchison is one of two middle schools in the Austin Independent School District to have the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program, which it has hosted since 2002. There he is! someone exclaimed, directing their attention to a figure outside the classroom window who was heading down the grassy hill beside the football field. For Rays part, the last he had seen of John was when his friend had disappeared into the back seat of a police car. The two boys sat in the cafeteria. It was a defining moment in my life, added Marilyn Eichenbaum DuVon, Graysons teaching partner at Murchison. As he would write on the Facebook group that Ray dedicated to Grayson, That moment is still as raw and real and technicolor today as forty years ago.. Murchison Middle School Murchison Middle School corporate office is located in 3700 N Hills Dr, Austin, Texas, United States and has 38 employees. 4 stars . I still only slow dance, because Im not too rhythmic. A few days after the shooting, Bazar visited his friend at the Gardner Bettsjuvenile detention facility, in South Austin. John returned to his passion, drama, and also became the news editor of the school paper, the Bagpipe. Its so good to see you, exclaimed the classmate Smith had last seen with a hunting rifle in his hands. As University of Texas professor Marilyn Armour, the founder of the Institute of Restorative Justice and Restorative Dialogue, told me, There are some people who believe that the amount of time served, the severity of the punishment, will bring some measure of closure or satisfaction. Like many Austin professionals, he knew the Christians socially. Murchison Middle School is a public middle school in Austin. So for eighteen months or thereabouts, you have them confront their defense mechanisms and talk about their core issues. There were only two people close enough to hear what I said, John remarked. Jacobe Bennett 1990-1994. Instead, without any sort of plan, he walked outside, across the lawn, under the canopy of oaks and the great magnolia tree, and onto the sidewalk. Advertisement. But Ray had not so much as acknowledged his own emotional scar tissue until one morning in April 1999, when he was driving through the University of Arkansas campus and heard on the radio about the mass shooting at Columbine High School. How do I deal with it? he recalled. Today, because of the absence of information, those who watched John shoot their teacher are still left wondering about a fundamental question: Has he ever expressed any remorse? Austin, Texas,, Texas, John, their quiet resident genius, had come out of his shell! Murchison Middle School serves 1,246 students in grades 6-8. Ray, now 56, lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, with his wife and three daughters. Johns mom, Jo Anne, was an accomplished lawyer and patron of Austins arts scene. The subject line was Question for youMurchison shooting. Nather, as it turned out, had attended Murchison in 1978 and had been outside during gym class when John emerged from the school entrance with a rifle in his hand. Edlio Login Powered by Edlio. Of course, juveniles are often named by the media in cases involving murder. Tehama County Arts Council will co-host a California Creative Corps Listening Session at 724 Main St. in Red Bluff starting at 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5. Minton hired two psychiatrists to evaluate John and supply expert testimony. I felt trapped. Many of the details surrounding the incident and its aftermath have gone unreported, leaving the victims with unanswered questions that have derailed their own attempts at recovery. As Dr.Jerry LewisIII, who worked at Timberlawn from 1982 to 1994 and whose father was the chief psychiatrist during Johns stay, put it, The idea was to not just use behavior modification to change a boys aggressive antisocial behavior but also to use psychotherapy to get him to appreciate the fact that his behaviors are attempts to ward off deep and painful feelings. It was George. Home > United States > Austin, TX > Murchison Middle School . When Neff replied that Grayson and his wife had an eleven-month-old son, the reporter watched as something seemed to collapse inside the father. In any such scenario, however, the process can succeed only if both sides participate. Bring on the Shiplap? Murchison Middle School 3700 N Hills Dr . Im going to bring a gun tomorrow., He wasnt laughing. In 1995, after the first installment of that money arrived, Laura and Ian sought to fund a bench that would be dedicated to Rod, situated on a trail he loved on Lady Bird Lake. Murchison Middle. The shooter was the son of LBJ's former press secretary. Community Parents Students Staff. But he had yet to make peace with the incident. Theyd come over the hill and kill everyone around me. She sued the Christians for negligence a year after Rods death. Coldwell Banker Realty can help you find TX real estate, homes and apartments for rent near Murchison Middle School. It serves 1240 studentsin 6 - 8 with a student/teacher ratio of 13.8:1.Its teachers have had 9 projects funded on DonorsChoose. He looked him up in the phone book and left John a voice mail: Hey, I know this is weird, but I would really like to get together and talk. He never heard back. In the ensuing years, I gave little thought to the Austin tragedy. Some of the students extended their middle fingers to the press in hopes of stopping them from taking pictures. I will never get over losing Olivia. West Texans Are Learning What It Means to Live in Bear Country, The Top 50 Texas BBQ Joints: 2021 Edition, The Campaign to Sabotage Texass Public Schools. I had this recurring dream. Still, the fury was as oppressive as the grief. It occurred to him that he might be able to comfort his Murchison Junior High classmates, even as he leaned on them. How am I supposed to process that? Getting answers is what brings resolution, Armour said. In 1988 the system assigned 206 years in prison to a Montana boy named Kristofer Hans who, as a fourteen-year-old, had murdered a teacher and wounded three others after he received a failing grade. It has 1,392 students through grade 6 to 8. Elementary Schools in Austin. Murchison ISD PO Box 538, Murchison, TX 75778 Phone: (903) 469-3636. I try and pay attention to my own pain and not expect more from myself than I can give, knowing I will be a fraud if I do. On Friday. He could see that someone had tried to wipe away the blood, but traces remained. Rays pro bono lawyer was outmatched by the legal team assembled by the young drivers father. The perfume I sprayed on my T-shirt that day., Later, she began sharing her trauma with a small group of Christian women. Schools Near Murchison Middle School. . We were all interested in women, but he wasnt the uninformed idiot I was. I know these words may make me sound noble or wise, but understand, if I knew another way that was easier, one that I didnt see ending me up as an utter shipwreck, Id take it in a heartbeat. The notes were the beginning of a book manuscript that a literary agent was urging him to write. She saw him instead in dreams, and when she lit candles, she remembered how he once laughed at her Catholic rituals and then said, Were doing a pact. He was a friend.. It was jarring. . Ive talked about it with my wife quite a bit. Ive talked to my therapist about this. His classmates still wonder: What really happened? (When I spoke with Coons recently, he told me, My feeling overwhelmingly was that he was depressed.) The prosecution did not contest the recommendation by Coons and Matthews that John receive treatment rather than incarceration. Where he had mesmerized Murchisons gifted and talented, Laura taught mostly those who were socially disadvantaged or at risk. Austin was not big enough to hold all its grief on May 18, 1978, when two authority figures- a policeman and a schoolteacher- were shot to death hours apart while doing their jobs. A few kids saw John toss the firearm against the bicycle rack and then run up the slope. Home; Contact Info; My Other Website; Find a Home. On June 2, 1978, two weeks after the shooting, John sat outside a small courtroom at Gardner Betts while the two psychiatrists testified inside to Judge Cofer that John was acutely depressed and suffered from latent schizophreniathe latter being an inexact, catchall term that would eventually fall out of favor in the psychiatric community. Her husband nodded and offered a sad smile. Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston. For Mac OS users, there is a system setting that may not allow you to tab onto several types of elements in a web page. Twenty-nine children were handpicked for Eichenbaums and Graysons classes. Logan Bazar, who hadnt been present during the shooting, was dispatched to Graysons classroom to retrieve his personal effects. My editor at GQ ultimately decided the story would not work without the shooters participation. Still, none of them understand what drove him to kill the teacher he seemed to love as much as they did. SYNOPSIS THE AUSTIN SCHOOL SHOOTING tells the story of the teacher Rod Grayson who was shot to death on the morning of May 18, 1978 at Murchison Junior High School in Austin, Texas. 3 stars . According to the Texas state assessment result, 56% of students are proficient in Math learning and 61% of students are proficient in English/language arts learning. And beyond getting information, theres equally the need to express what role this particular event has played in their lives.. FPMS Falcon Theatre 78750 . You didnt know what to do with all the emotions, John Ray recalled. Okay, John. The gifted and talented teacher, Rod Grayson, was fatally shot by one of his most prized students. They all came from low-income backgrounds and were, with few exceptions, children of color. Murchison Middle School is a Public school that serves grade levels 6-8. It is a cornerstone of civilized societies that sharp legal distinctions are drawn between children and adults. 2 were here. No one seemed to believe him. Murchison Middle School is a middle school. There, he floated in the cold, clear water, feeling momentarily light. But Lauras pregnancy had scuttled such notions, and he went looking for a steady paycheck. On May 18, 1978, one of my 8th grade classmates at Murchison Junior High now Murchison Middle School walked into a classroom and shot his English teacher to death. In an instant, a familiar sensory pandemonium overtook him. For one thing, Ray barely remembered the details of that dayMay 18, 1978when a friend at his Austin junior high school walked into class and, in front of Ray and twenty other eighth graders, shot and killed their teacher, Wilbur Rod Grayson. Its all just speculation, Peyton Smith, one of the students present in that classroom, told me in his Austin law office last September. But no, I wasnt the Rob Draper who had gone to Murchison. Two teens, ages 13 and 15, have been charged with murder in connection with the stabbing death of 18-year-old Carson McCullough Smith, Austin police said in a news conference Monday. Another brought flowers. After the bell rang, Raywho had stood helplessly off to the side while his classmate went on his manic riffmuttered, John, when Mr. Grayson hears about this, hes gonna kick our butts., Dont worry, John replied. Schirpik drove him back to school and led him by his arm into the principals office. See all 36 photos taken at Murchison Middle School by 1,023 visitors. The worst John could expectunder state juvenile laws that would be toughened during the ninetieswas to be judged guilty of delinquent conduct and confined to a Texas Youth Commission facility until he turned eighteen. Then his tall, lean body thudded heavily to the floor. Nearby schools & colleges. Forrest Wilder writes about politics and the outdoors. . Nearly a month passed before Statesman reporter Guillermo Garcia was tipped off that John had moved in with a Dallas family. And he wants you to know that every candle you light helps to light the way.. But our initial conversation had been twenty years earlier, just after the Columbine High School massacre. I heard from Katie and now from you that youre now a Disco Queen. Accountability Ratings Good. Something in his psyche began to crack open. View listing photos, review sales history, and use our detailed real estate filters to find the perfect place. . 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