jeffrey
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This story made me cry. The reason I posted it in Religious debates will be in my reply to this story...
HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- David Ritcheson hated being known as "that kid" -- the teenager who was beaten unconscious and sodomized with a plastic pole during a party where one of his assailants shouted "White Power!"
Ritcheson didn't want to stand out from his classmates because of the assault, but he acknowledged in an interview that "it was just really hard to hold your head up, even to walk outside with everyone almost in the world knowing what happened."
That anguish may have contributed to his decision to leap Sunday from a cruise ship to his death in the Gulf of Mexico.
A man at Ritcheson's home who identified himself as the teen's father confirmed the death Monday to The Associated Press. He declined to give his name or comment further, saying the family would issue a statement later.
Ritcheson, 18, rarely discussed his feelings and declined to get counseling after being attacked at the drug-fueled teen party in April 2006. A year later, he testified before Congress in support of a hate crimes bill.
In an interview with the Houston Chronicle this past April, he said: "I shouldn't care what people think or say. It's just the fact that everyone knows I'm the kid. It was bigger than Houston. It was bigger than Texas. It was bigger than America. Everybody in the world knew what had happened and everybody knew the details of it."
Ritcheson, a Mexican-American, was beaten and sodomized with a patio umbrella pole. He also was stomped and burned with cigarettes, and his attackers poured bleach on him before leaving him for dead. He was hospitalized for more than three months and endured 20 to 30 operations.
On Sunday, he was pronounced dead after being pulled aboard the Ecstasy, a cruise ship en route from Galveston to Cozumel, Mexico.
Full story here
HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- David Ritcheson hated being known as "that kid" -- the teenager who was beaten unconscious and sodomized with a plastic pole during a party where one of his assailants shouted "White Power!"
Ritcheson didn't want to stand out from his classmates because of the assault, but he acknowledged in an interview that "it was just really hard to hold your head up, even to walk outside with everyone almost in the world knowing what happened."
That anguish may have contributed to his decision to leap Sunday from a cruise ship to his death in the Gulf of Mexico.
A man at Ritcheson's home who identified himself as the teen's father confirmed the death Monday to The Associated Press. He declined to give his name or comment further, saying the family would issue a statement later.
Ritcheson, 18, rarely discussed his feelings and declined to get counseling after being attacked at the drug-fueled teen party in April 2006. A year later, he testified before Congress in support of a hate crimes bill.
In an interview with the Houston Chronicle this past April, he said: "I shouldn't care what people think or say. It's just the fact that everyone knows I'm the kid. It was bigger than Houston. It was bigger than Texas. It was bigger than America. Everybody in the world knew what had happened and everybody knew the details of it."
Ritcheson, a Mexican-American, was beaten and sodomized with a patio umbrella pole. He also was stomped and burned with cigarettes, and his attackers poured bleach on him before leaving him for dead. He was hospitalized for more than three months and endured 20 to 30 operations.
On Sunday, he was pronounced dead after being pulled aboard the Ecstasy, a cruise ship en route from Galveston to Cozumel, Mexico.
Full story here
