At the same time, the handsome and witty young teacher (I think every girl had a crush on him, including me, said one student) was an attentive, empathic big-brotherfigure. (512) 414-3254. Schools Near Murchison Middle School. We hung back and prayed the ball didnt come our way. Talking about it lessened the burden. Everyone knew Johnhe cut a figure, said Logan Bazar, one of his closest friends at Murchison. He was a friend.. The former press secretary declined to supply information about whom his son was living with or how the determination had been made that John should be treated on an outpatient basis. I didnt want that story to get out.. Still, Ray kept talking. The morning of May18, after finishing his workshop, Ray climbed into his burnt-orange Honda Element. After years of counseling and prayer, John Ray decided he had finally developed the emotional fortitude to revisit the formative trauma of his youth. John Ray came home to a shattering quiet. Nearly a month passed before Statesman reporter Guillermo Garcia was tipped off that John had moved in with a Dallas family. I cant really describe it. A few days later, Ray drove twelve hours northwest to Littleton, Colorado. Later, Ray went outside and pulled his bicycle from his Honda. George asked Neff about the schoolteacher who had been shot. She warned him that he needed to study hard for the upcoming test. As they caught up, someone inevitably brought up the students at Santa Fe High School. I think John had reached a point where he was never going to be good enough. Im not proud of that., As Ray explained it, The tragedy is that Mr. Grayson was killed. Even for those of us who werent in the classroom, there is a chilling kind of flashback that happens with every school shooting, he wrote me. We played backfield a lot because we were both bad. It occurred to him that he might be able to comfort his Murchison Junior High classmates, even as he leaned on them. Now a whole other generation gets to spend the next forty years of their lives dealing with this shit. School List List. How do I deal with it? he recalled. She was told by city authorities that no space was available. It is a school in Austin Independent School District district. As a juvenile, he was entitled to anonymity. Jacobe Bennett 1990-1994. Overall School Rating. 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. I remember making that conscious decision.. He had a notebook in front of him that he had been filling with random musings. As an ordained nondenominational minister, he is decidedly unorthodox: he tends to preach outdoors, in natural settings; he wears cowboy boots and untucked denim shirts; and he has a Christlike mane of hair. So did the Austin press. She handed back the paper, slack-jawed. Ray spent the rest of the evening at the home of a former classmate whod settled in Northwest Hills. Murchison Middle School - located at 3700 N Hills Dr, Austin,TX 78731-3092. find Murchison Middle Schoolrating, student, staff and STAAR statistics and scores . (John went on to study at the universitys prestigious law school. The anguish that has plagued the Murchison students presages the kind of long-tail trauma that many of todays witnesses to shootings will be burdened with for the rest of their lives. Some of the students extended their middle fingers to the press in hopes of stopping them from taking pictures. Class had already started without him. Cycling had become one of his preferred forms of therapy, and he went for a long ride that day, south to Barton Springs. That afternoon, his math teacher, Anita Sybesma, reminded him that he was doing poorly in algebra. Virginia Tech. She screamed and contemplated throwing herself out of the car, onto the highway. But two other things happened that might have signaled Johns downward spiral. He started a private Facebook group, titled simply Murchison/Mr. 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. AUSTIN, Texas (FOX 7 Austin) - The principal of Murchison Middle School has announced his resignation. A gurney rolled past her, a sheet pulled over the body. He did tell Garcia that his son had to remain in Dallas for treatment and we are, of course, not living there. Garcia also spoke to someone he described as being familiar with the case who told him that Timberlawn psychiatrists felt that to continue the on-site care would effect a regression in the boys mental health. Hed done some reading on Hitler and the Nazis, which wasnt uncommon for boys our age. The names engraved on two granite slabs include teachers from Sandy Hook, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Santa Feand, yes, Wilbur Rod Grayson, from Murchison Junior High. Elaine Moore, a former student of Rod Graysons who witnessed the shooting, photographed at Murchison in February. George agreed to meet Garcia at his office on the eighteenth floor of the American Bank tower, in downtown Austin. Still, none of them understand what drove him to kill the teacher he seemed to love as much as they did. AUSTIN (KXAN) Several weeks of torrential rain brought significant flooding to some Austin Independent School District campuses. The noises: the gunshots, the screams, the scraping of chairs. Ive been very hesitant to open the issue, and I probably should have. Two of the students, John Christian and John Ray, would be giving an oral presentation of a chapter from Harriet Beecher Stowes classic novel Uncle Toms Cabin. It was a curious spectacle, one that Americans had not yet come to dread: a young white man with a firearm. According to his classmates, he was the smartest one in the whole group, a great student and a really good artist with a wry wit who drew political cartoons that could have been in any newspaper. His preternatural maturity meant that he always got cast as the older person in the school plays, and he dressed like a grown-up (often in striped short-sleeved shirts and crisp slacks). All Austin Schools. And then, as Davis would write in her 2015 book Unafraid, I could smell everything. 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. The look on Georges face was a devastating sight, the son would one day write in an autobiographical essay: At that moment the veneer of the public figure had been stripped away, exposing the anguished soul of a father whose son had cried out for help in an unspeakably violent and destructive act., John was led out of the school building by police, and he hid his face from the cameras. But no, I wasnt the Rob Draper who had gone to Murchison. Murchison Middle School Pta. 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. The teachers receive an average of $46,008 per year. Then: Where is John, anyway?. As the bus pulled away, one of them noticed other Murchison students in their classrooms, faces pressed against the windows, staring. District Austin Independent School District. Austin was a small town in those days, so it was no surprise that Judge Cofer, like George Christian, had an LBJ connection: his father had been Johnsons attorney following his scandal-ridden 1948 U.S. Senate race. The Austin of 1978 was a smaller, simpler city, contentedly lacking in renown. . A few days later, my phone rang. . There, he floated in the cold, clear water, feeling momentarily light. Pencils. He enrolled at Highland Park High in the middle of his sophomore year. A few days after the shooting, Bazar visited his friend at the Gardner Bettsjuvenile detention facility, in South Austin. 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. Grades 6 to 8. I felt trapped. Cathy Olson Muths 1978 yearbook portrait. And while George Scott recalled his own childhood with fondness, Johns experience might well have been different. Im getting through now by trying to be more honest, trying to show up, pay attention and stay in the game. Both were busy during all hours of the day. Seared into his brain were two images: his friend John walking into the classroom with a rifle in his hand and his teacher lying on the ground in a pool of blood. Pine Middle School shooting. But no school shooting is quite the same. Then there was Johns pedigree. The shooter was Mr. Grayson's most gifted and talented student thirteen-year-old John Christian. Principal Brad Clark sent out a letter Wednesday where he announced he has "decided to step down" due to "recent challenges." It was jarring. 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. He knew only that he couldnt confront the past alone. It peeled back all the layers. Hes got his hands on your shoulders, and hes kissing your head. Earle has been ill for some time, according to his wife, Twila, who spoke to me on his behalf. How am I supposed to process that? Now Shes Auctioning Off Her Archive. Gunpowder. 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. He headed to a local coffee shop, where hed planned to meet a few classmates before driving to the cemetery, and on the way he heard on NPR that there had been another school shooting in Texas, in the town of Santa Fe, south of Houston. Testing Calendar, listing state and district assessments. I used to have a recurring dream that I was surrounded by people who seemed to think everything is fine, and I was trying to tell them that it isnt. AUSTIN, Texas An Austin school has found a new leader after its principal's sudden resignation. There was another connection that wasnt reported at the time. Show All News. Its crazy. 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. Then, as we spoke, he started to cry. Though Grayson resisted playing favorites, he became especially close with one student in particular who shared his love of stage acting: John Christian. School Address (Store Correction) 3700 N Hills Dr Austin . Ray, in the meantime, had continued to spend his post-Murchison years in a state of what he would tactfully term self-anesthetizing. A wayward path took him to Central America, where he was inspired to later attend seminary and become a spiritual directoressentially a roving ordained minister gravitating to those who had experienced trauma. And it is a medical fact that the adolescent brain is far from fully developedwhich means, among other things, that a violent youth, even a murderous one, is not inexorably destined to a life of brutal criminality. That gave us some time to talk. Bring on the Shiplap? Nothing. The hallucination portended something. The University of Texas at Austin UTeach Natural Sciences 103 W 24th Street, Mail Stop G2550 Austin, TX 78712 Phone: (512) 232-2770 Fax: (512) 232-1491 The shower lacked hot water and the power outlets in the bathroom were inoperable. As John turned and walked out without another word, the classroom exploded into screams. If you fill out the first name, last name, or agree to terms fields, you will NOT be added to the newsletter list. Murchison Middle School . . Middle School Football-Austin ISD 2022 - 2023 Sport: Football Level: Middle School Division 1 - North Zone 8th Grade A Team Overall District Division 1 - South Zone 7th Grade A Team Overall District Division 1 - South Zone 7th Grade B Team Overall District Division 1 - South Zone 8th Grade A Team Overall District We report on vital issues from politics to education and are the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering everything from music to cultural events with insightful recommendations. Laura Grayson holding a framed photograph of Rod. Austin City Center Austin 9km from Murchison Middle School Very Good 106 Reviews 4.1/5 Superior Double Room Breakfast Included View Deals This hotel is a bit old and needs updating. Cities in Texas. FPMS Falcon Theatre 78750 . | Austin, TX 78727 | P: 512-594-2200 | F: . The gifted and talented teacher, Rod Grayson, was fatally shot by one of his most prized students. And Cofer concurred with Mintons two experts. According to psychiatrists who questioned him later, he contemplated killing himself with the Browning .22-caliber hunting rifle that his parents had given him for Christmas. Ive talked to my therapist about this. ), In 1990, Susie Gerrie Davis was living in Fort Worth and reading a book at home while her two young children napped when she inexplicably started to cry. Jo Anne Christian materialized in the administrative office, her palms flat on the counter, as she demanded, Wheres John? Soon, the Austin police arrived. He received intensive psychiatric treatment, was deemed by professionals to pose no threat of further violence, and was released to live a quiet and productive life. Davis later called their former teacher Marilyn Eichenbaum DuVon, who then reconnected with other former students who were in Graysons classroom that day. Getting answers is what brings resolution, Armour said. Man. Murchison Middle School: Austin Schools: TX Schools: Subsidized Lunch: 15%: 42%: 47%: Subsidized Lunch: What the Numbers Mean. Elementary Schools in Austin. The pilot programs coordinator, Marilyn Eichenbaum (now DuVon), saw his potential right away. If you dont pass it, she said, youll fail the class. The prospect of failure loomed. John returned to his passion, drama, and also became the news editor of the school paper, the Bagpipe. Carlos Vasquez, 74, was arrested on . The perfume I sprayed on my T-shirt that day., Later, she began sharing her trauma with a small group of Christian women. A classmate heard him say, The jokes on you.. John Ray, a former student of Rod Graysons who witnessed the shooting, photographed at Murchison in February. One of them, Daniel Matthews, has since been recognized as a pioneer in the therapeutic treatment of pathologically violent juveniles. It doesnt take any effort to stand in one spot and go in circles.Write soon,Love, John, Letter to former classmate Elaine Moore, from Timberlawn. Rebecca Leamon remembered how Grayson gently encouraged her to challenge her shyness. Theyd come over the hill and kill everyone around me. Zillow has 106 homes for sale near Murchison Middle School in Austin TX. None of us will talk to you, he said. At night, according to George Scott, they sometimes argued heatedly. He spends much of his time offering spiritual solace to those who have experienced traumapeople who, according to Ray, have suffered and know my suffering and will call me on my bullshit.. The collateral continuing tragedy is this silence around the event. He added, I know a couple people whove said, We dont know where this [Texas Monthly] story is going. They dont want it to be a hit piece on the Christian family or something that says, This kid escapes justice. I dont want to hurt John. 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. Murchison Middle School corporate office is located in 3700 N Hills Dr, Austin, Texas, United States and has 38 employees. Im incredibly grateful for the sense of being found and rescued, in spite of myself, in spite of what could have been, in spite of all that is. I have not seen you in a long time. The next sound might well have been unsteady applause, since many if not most of the students were still convinced that they had witnessed an exquisitely executed dramatic performance. Why did John seem so unaffected? The 1978 killing of Rod Grayson wasnt the first murderous intrusion into the sanctity of Americas schools. Umpqua. Garcias story ran in the Statesman anyway. Jokes over., John held the gun at his hip, pointed at his teacher. On the way to the police station, someone spontaneously led the group in singing church hymns. 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. Two years before the shooting, a sixth grade classmate noticed that John had sketched a scene of a mass shooting, with red flames leaping out of the gun. 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. Accountability Ratings Good. Top 30%. And beyond getting information, theres equally the need to express what role this particular event has played in their lives.. 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. Armour is among the criminal justice reformers who have pressed for opportunities in which all stakeholders in a tragic event can come together and articulate their discontents and needs in the interest of restorative justice. Hugging her daughter close and wanting to scream, Davis carried on a banal conversation about his job and about her church. . Reached by phone, Earles assistant district attorney Jacqueline Strashun could not recall for sure if Cofer, who died in 2016, had disclosed the association but added, Judge Cofer was a very, very straight guy, probably the most ethical judge at that time.). The agenda for that day had already been set. He could see that someone had tried to wipe away the blood, but traces remained. 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