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BOSTON GLOBE, June 8, 1998

Northampton confronts a crime, cruelty

By Jordana Hart, Globe Staff, 06/08/98

NORTHAMPTON - With his earring and black eyeliner, Matthew Santoni was a popular target for boys at Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School.

They would surround him, students recall, and spew ''homo,'' ''faggot,'' and ''queer'' at him, their words striking with rapier intensity.

Two weeks ago, Santoni, 15, apparently snapped. He allegedly stabbed to death a classmate, Jeffrey LaMothe, 16, amid the trendy boutiques and restaurants of downtown Northampton. LaMothe, according to many, was a ringleader of those who made Santoni's life miserable with their teasing.

While hundreds of teenagers came from schools all over the region to LaMothe's wake and funeral in Easthampton, described as the greatest convergence of young mourners ever at Sacred Heart Church, many other people focused on Santoni: Had teasing been the root of his rage?

LaMothe's murder cut to the core of this counterculture college town. The affluent center of Massachusetts farm country, Northampton is also known for its open embrace of gay couples, many of whom have moved here from around the country to open businesses and start families.

''We think of Northampton as very progressive, so to hear that this kind of harassment is going on in our school system and that it might have led to such violence is very hard to accept,'' said Rebecca Lockwood, who runs youth programs, including one for gay and lesbian teens, at the Franklin Community Action Corporation in Greenfield, north of here.

''There is no excuse for that level of violence, no matter how persecuted you feel,'' Lockwood added. ''But I think it gets really intense around sexual orientation, especially for young men. To be perceived as gay contradicts what young men are taught about being masculine.''

Santoni never said he was gay, and he apparently was teased simply for his style of dress.

Now, amid increasing reports of school shootings and other acts of violence among young people across the country, specialists are paying more attention to youth culture and how harshly it treats those youngsters who are somehow different. Sexual orientation is but one subject of teasing: Looks, weight, family background, ethnicity, and race all register as fodder for teasers.

''The psychological damage of taunting, name-calling, exclusion, and other ways kids victimize kids is very extensive,'' said Ervin Taub, a professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, who studies aggression among teenagers. ''It is a significant issue, and one just beginning to be recognized.''

Taub warned that parents and teachers must recognize when it is time to step in. ''Adult passivity communicates things to kids. Perpetrators tend to interpret this'' as tacit approval, he said.

On the sprawling campus of ''the Voke,'' with its squat, red brick buildings set alongside wide-open fields, students said teasing is a familiar part of school life. Santoni, they said, looked like he was gay. And in the corrosive culture of high-school teasing, any distinguishing characteristics are fuel for taunts.

''It's all the time,'' said junior Becky Ely, 17, surprisingly stoic as she described a year of torment at the vocational school. ''The boys call me slut, bitch. They call me a 10-timer, because they say I go with 10 guys at the same time. I put up with it because I have no choice. The teachers say it's because the boys think I'm pretty.''

Santoni's lawyer, Alan Black, said the boy, from nearby Florence, pleaded not guilty in Northampton District Court May 26 to a charge of murder. He is being held without bail at Plymouth County House of Correction and will be arraigned in Hampshire County Superior Court tomorrow.

Sources said Santoni had complained to administrators about the harassment, and that LaMothe was suspended from school. Ely said she, too, recently complained about the teasing to school officials, who have declined comment on either case.

The jabs at students like Ely and Santoni are hardly unique to this school of 516 students. Taunting and teasing have long been as basic to American high school culture as proms, geeks and jocks, specialists say. Just ask the overweight teenager in thick glasses. Or the girl who everyone says went all the way on a first date. Or the guy with an earring called ''homo'' or ''faggot.''

''Teasing happens a lot,'' said Joseph Laboute, a ninth-grader at Smith Vocational. ''If you know them, you know how much they can take. But it is different if it's someone you don't know.''

Smith Vocational itself is in a curious situation, existing as it does in what may well be one of the nation's most socially tolerant towns. Principal Veronica Carroll says the school has students who come from 29 towns - ranging from Northampton and Amherst to tiny farm towns like Goshen and Hatfield.

''I think of the school as a safe haven, but it is a lot of work to make it safe,'' said Carroll, who started teaching there in 1976. ''There is less tolerance among kids in general.''

Carroll declined to speak about the stabbing and what may have led to it. Since LaMothe's murder, she said, teachers have been meeting with students in small groups to talk about grieving and tolerance. ''We have lost two students,'' she said. ''There are rumors about taunting and about what kids were saying.''

Carroll also said teachers have suggested starting a Gay/Straight Alliance, similar to those at 140 other Massachusetts high schools.

Lockwood, the youth-center counselor, said gay youngsters at meetings in Greenfield and across the state talk constantly about being harassed, and what it feels like to be ignored, or hear students toss around anti-gay invectives.

''I sat alone in French class because no one would sit next to me,'' said Emily DeLisle, a 10th-grader at Bromfield High School in Harvard, who came out to her parents and schoolfriends a year ago. ''Kids told new students to stay away from me because there were rumors that I was gay. It never bothered me not to fit in with the popular kids, but I want friends and I want people to like me.''

Meanwhile, Northampton residents continue to stuggle with the realization that their city, known for its acceptance, is not immune to acts of taunting and violence.

Last week, hundreds of people gathered on the steps of Northampton City Hall for a rally against hate crimes, propelled by a May 23 attack by four young men on two others perceived to be a couple. Since that attack, which was reported to police, two others have come to light, said the Rev. Victoria Safford of the Unitarian Society, who has presided over same-sex marriages.

Teaching tolerance ''is difficult, painful and dangerous, but it must be done,'' Safford said. ''It is not that we have bad, homophobic children. We have frightened adults who have not done their own homework, and until they are willing to face that, we will continue raising violent and homophobic children.''

Date: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 23:53:25 -0400 (EDT)
From: ac245@osfn.rhilinet.gov (Tina M. Wood)

Subject: MA: Schoolyard mockery ends in murder charge

Reported schoolyard mockery ends in murder charge for 15-year-old

Associated Press, 06/09/98 18:49

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (AP) - Like many 15-year-olds, Matthew Santoni combined a thin skin with a penchant for wild dress, according to some schoolmates. These days, he wears plain jail garb.

He was kept behind bars Tuesday without bail on an adult charge of murdering Jeffrey LaMothe, 16, his classmate at Smith Vocational High School and a fellow city resident.

The younger boy's lawyer said the differences on the day of the killing stemmed from the victim having taunted his client repeatedly in the past, claiming in derogatory language that he is gay.

``That seemed to escalate that day,'' said defense lawyer Alan Black.

The killing has been especially disturbing to this college town with its strong gay community. Many residents pride themselves on equal treatment for homosexuals.

The 15-year-old, who was charged earlier in a lower court, was arraigned Tuesday in Hampshire Superior Court. Wearing a goatee and crewcut, he checked with his lawyer and then entered an innocent plea in a clear voice.

His bail hearing, which had been expected, was delayed for one week to give the judge time to read lengthy legal arguments from both sides. Black said he wants his client released without bail to await trial.

He said he might mount a self-defense case and suggested that a lesser charge, like manslaughter, might have been more appropriate for prosecutors to lodge.

Prosecutor David Ross refused to comment on details of the case.

The teen-ager remained a prisoner at the Plymouth County Jail, where the state holds juveniles accused of serious crimes. His lawyer said he had no criminal record: ``He's a scared ... child - a 15-year-old without any contact with the system - bewildered.''

Authorities have released few details of exactly what happened on May 22, when the two teen-agers tangled. The younger boy took out a knife and killed his unarmed classmate in broad daylight on a downtown sidewalk, police say.

The 15-year-old's lawyer says his client was minding his own business eating pizza when the older boy apparently approached him.

On Tuesday, a pile of leaflets with the title ``Resolving Conflict,'' apparently left by someone troubled by the killing, lay at the crime scene. Seemingly oblivious, young people strolled by in the brilliant afternoon sunshine.

Students at Smith, a public school, say the two teen-agers were at odds for months over the older one's mockery. They say the younger one loved theater, sometimes dressed in showy clothes and at least once wore eyeliner to school, making him a target for nasty teasing. They say he was very angry about the name-calling by the older teen-ager and others.

The defense lawyer would not comment on whether his client is gay. But Sarah Groom, another schoolmate, says she had been his girlfriend.

The dead boy's father, Arthur LaMothe, of Southwick, said he never mentioned any problem with his classmate.

He said he didn't know if his son had mocked the other teen-ager. But he suggested that, if so, it would not have shocked him.

``My honest feeling is, they're kids,'' he said. ``Boys will be boys.''

  ______   Tina M. Wood                     ac245@osfn.rhilinet.gov
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