Still, as a juvenile, he could not be charged with murder and tried as an adult. The familys position, which has remained unchanged over the years, is that a thirteen-year-old boy fell into a deep, perhaps psychotic state of depression and committed a terrible misdeed. Their father didnt have that much emotional range. ), 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. 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 And I may yet do it. Walking away, Smith felt a sense of disgust. Everything stopped that day as we tried to process it. In 1978, an eighth grader killed his teacher. John stepped into the doorway. Updated: 10:45 AM CST February 7, 2019. Yet to those who experienced the shooting at Murchison Junior High School, it remains, even after four decades, mercilessly unforgettable. He was a friend.. The driver of the Escalade was a well-to-do lawyers son who hailed from Highland Park and who was attending the University of Arkansas. Then, as we spoke, he started to cry. We were all interested in women, but he wasnt the uninformed idiot I was. Instead of going to trial and serving time, John Christian was sent to a private mental health facility in Dallas, TX. (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. Several classmates agreed to gather there. Andre Terry, a former student of Rod Graysons who witnessed the shooting, photographed at Murchison in February. According. 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. The former press secretary told the reporter that his son got the weapon here at the house, I guess. 3700 N Hills Drive Austin, TX 78731 Map Phone: (512) 414-3254 Fax: (512) 414-4570 Principal: Chara Harris Campus Website John graduated from high school on schedule, in May of 1982. John Christian is sitting right behind me, she whispered to her mother. When Rod Grayson interviewed on June 20, 1977, for the job of teaching the gifted and talented students of Murchison Junior High, he was an unemployed 28-year-old. Another Murchison student, David Mider, ran into John at the Texas Tavern, in the UT student union, and learned that the boy who had killed one of Miders favorite teachers was now studying at UT. Murchison Middle School - located at 3700 N Hills Dr, Austin,TX 78731-3092. find Murchison Middle Schoolrating, student, staff and STAAR statistics and scores . 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. That movie Dawn of the Dead had just come out. Rolling past the high school, wandering through the memorial sites and services, Ray felt curiously at home with the grieving, as if his own trauma had been given permission to voice itself. 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. The agenda for that day had already been set. Laura Grayson holding a framed photograph of Rod. School Address (Store Correction) 3700 N Hills Dr Austin . Logan Bazar, who hadnt been present during the shooting, was dispatched to Graysons classroom to retrieve his personal effects. Nor did it match in sheer bloodshed the later infamy bestowed upon campuses that we now recite as a mournful litany: Columbine. Earlier that same year Minton had managed to get a drug charge thrown out against Cofers estranged son. Scaled Score: Student Achievement: 87 . Pencils. Still, none of them understand what drove him to kill the teacher he seemed to love as much as they did. It was a curious spectacle, one that Americans had not yet come to dread: a young white man with a firearm. Then his tall, lean body thudded heavily to the floor. I dont know. He also said, I dont want to say anything that might hurt my boy.. The reason was that a location near the University of Texas at Austin decided to stay open past the 11 o'clock regular closing time to allow students at the university to buy things after a late . (John went on to study at the universitys prestigious law school. Like others who had experienced the Murchison shooting, Nather remained perplexed by the aftermath: the swiftness of the court proceedings, the secrecy that attended Johns road to recovery, and the seeming normalcy of his adult life. Cathy Olson Muth, a former student of Rod Graysons who witnessed the shooting, photographed at Murchison in February. . Chalk dust. Read parent, student, and teacher reviews of Murchison Middle School - Austin, TX | GreatSchools. 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. In the end, this is the only path I see that makes sense, that has any hope, however long the shot. Like many Austin professionals, he knew the Christians socially. Ever since then, whenever I walk into an unfamiliar place, Im always looking for a way out. A few weeks before the shooting, Grayson was at home grading papers when he handed one of them to his wife and said, Tell me what you think about this. It was a short story written by John. One person close to John told me that he has felt great sadness over the years for what he did. Virginia Tech. There is also the manner in which the collateral victims were dealt withor, more precisely, not dealt with. He was always either kind of happy or kind of pissed. Even in his more upbeat moments, recalled the elder son, George was an emotionally distant patriarchone who, like most men of his generation, avoided talking about feelings or the traumas of his own youth, such as the death of Georges father when he was quite young. . Ray listened to the others recite the latest reports about their former classmate, the shooter, John Christian, the son of President Lyndon B. Johnsons former press secretary George Christian: He lives a few blocks from here. Rod had once told Laura that when he died he would like to be ferried in a boat downriver in the manner of a Viking funeral or maybe sent off into space. District Austin Independent School District. Cities in Texas. Back in the early nineties, Laura happened to meet a woman who had worked as an intake officer at the Gardner Betts juvenile facility, where John had spent two weeks immediately after killing her husband. And if you publish this story, it will destroy our family.. | Austin, TX 78727 | P: 512-594-2200 | F: . 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. Later, Ray went outside and pulled his bicycle from his Honda. Marjory Stoneman Douglas. 10 weeks after broken fibula . And Andre Terry, one of Murchisons few African American students, who was bused to school from the East Side, would one day credit his junior high school teacher for pushing him to follow his artistic impulses and become a fashion designer. Can you believe it? John asked, referring to the shoelaces and belt that the authorities had taken from him for fear that he might attempt suicide. 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. 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. Ray spent the rest of the evening at the home of a former classmate whod settled in Northwest Hills. Later on, students from Graysons classroom would see the shooter, John, at the strangest places: including law school. It was my first face-to-face meeting with Ray. He had a notebook in front of him that he had been filling with random musings. There, a reporter saw him sitting on a bench, visibly shaken. Eventually, he went home, where several friends and family members met him. Project also includes adjusting and relocating programs with interior renovations, courtyard infill, new addition and removal of portables. Jos R. Ralat is Texas Monthlys taco editor, writing about tacos and Mexican food. At night, according to George Scott, they sometimes argued heatedly. I heard that sentiment expressed by nearly all his Murchison classmates. Which was crushing but also fantastic. I have gotten through in the past by ignoring the events, denying their reality and power. John had been at Timberlawn for twenty months when a representative of the Christian family returned to Judge Cofers courtroom. This is particularly true for the 21 witnesses of the shooting, 8 of whom I spoke with; for Rod Graysons widow, Laura, whom I also interviewed; and for the killer, John Christian, who did not respond to repeated interview requests. Murchison Middle School 6 - 8 Austin Independent School District 3700 North Hills Drive, Austin, TX, 78731 Tel: (512) 414-3254 5/10 GreatSchools Rating 21 reviews Parent Rating 1,408. Hes practicing law. He was like no other teacher I ever had, Terry said. I cant really describe it. Her husband nodded and offered a sad smile. But as all the eyewitnesses I spoke with took pains to explain, the sight of John with a hunting rifle was a momentarily bemusing one. Austin, Texas, United States . Community Parents Students Staff. A new site had been erected, called the Memorial to Fallen Educators, which was designated as a national memorial in 2018. Shop your Murchison Middle School Matadors Apparel Store for the latest selection of Matadors fan gear! I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. Overall School Rating. 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. 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. A few years before the fortieth anniversary, Ray was visiting Austin and jogging around Lady Bird Lake when he thought he saw John. Lives were shattered, Smith said. . I think it was all I could do just to be there.. 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. What occurred in the next two minutes would be remembered through traumas kaleidoscope. Austin ISD Police responded to two separate incidents Friday afternoon to investigate reports of a gun on campus at Murchison Middle School and Northeast Early College High School. For one, there is the trajectory of John Christian: from gifted student to teenage killer to middle-aged tax attorney quietly working and living in Austin today. iCal Feed Instructions Print Export Customize Calendar View Jan 2023 Month Day List The shooter was the son of LBJ's former press secretary. On a smaller scale, restorative dialogues have been used in disputes between local police and their respective communities, including in Austin. School List List. The perfume I sprayed on my T-shirt that day., Later, she began sharing her trauma with a small group of Christian women. The teacher on the floor. Murchison Middle School. A map of the classroom on the day of the shooting, drawn by Mitsuno Baurmeister. Ive talked about it with my wife quite a bit. If Id just done more for John earlier, been around more, George said quietly. John wont talk to you. 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. Susie Gerrie Davis, a former student of Rod Graysons who witnessed the shooting, photographed at Murchison in February. He ordered that John be remanded to the care of the Timberlawn Psychiatric Hospitala private facility in Dallas for which the Christians would be paying the billsuntil his eighteenth birthday or until he had recovered. Then, on May 18, 2018, I received an email from a Washington, D.C.based journalist named David Nather, whom I had never met. Please switch to a supported browser or download one of our Mobile Apps. . Name Murchison Middle Suggest Edit Address 3700 North Hills Drive Austin , Texas , 78731 Phone 512-414-3254 Murchison Middle Details Total Enrollment 1,365 Start Grade 6 End Grade 8 Full Time Teachers 88 Emergency Shelter Yes Shelter ID 10775978 In any such scenario, however, the process can succeed only if both sides participate. What happened? AUSTIN (KXAN) Several weeks of torrential rain brought significant flooding to some Austin Independent School District campuses. Mott Elementary School; Murchison Elementary School; Northwest Leadership Academy; . I remember making that conscious decision.. Susie Gerrie Davis remembers his insisting on several revisions for a written assignment, telling her, I think you could do something pretty important with this gift of yours, and thats why Im requiring so much work from you. (Davis has since become the author of several faith-based books.) I was on the field just outside the window when it happened.. Its the Story of Shankleville, One of the States Early Freedom Colonies. But she could see Rods cowboy boots poking out. Austin Metro Area; Travis County; Austin; At-a-Glance. You ask how I got through? Sandy Hook. 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. AUSTIN, Texas An Austin school has found a new leader after its principal's sudden resignation. 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. Austin schools - Murchison Middle School is located at 3700 North Hills Drive, Austin TX 78731. The decision was not made public. Without ever consciously coming to this conclusion, most of the Murchison kids presumed that they had suffered two losses on May18, 1978their beloved teacher and their promising classmate. So in February 2018, Ray created the Facebook group, and he waited. They glumly acknowledged their own misbehavior. Middle Schools in Austin. At the time, that was unthinkable. Logan Bazar recalled how the teacher regularly let him out of class five minutes early so that he could avoid being jumped by two bullies. . . That summer, he returned to the city of his youth and enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin. Ray looked me upand, yes, I had just published my first novel. See all 36 photos taken at Murchison Middle School by 1,023 visitors. Nothing is ever gonna happen to that guy. For Ray, it was as if the next few years were completely erased. This Texan Was a Master of a Curious Midcentury Art Form, the Industrial Musical. Top 30%. But if I allowed anger to control me, what kind of life would I have made for Ian? she said. The following school year, they were bused to different high schools. 25 years ago, on May 18, 1978, John Daniel Christian walked into Murchison Middle School with a gun and in front of 30 8th graders shot their English teacher 3 times, killing him. As part of the 2017 Bond Program, AISD modernized spaces for the Matadors, including creating a three-story addition with classroom studios, three learning neighborhoods, makerspaces, science rooms and an open collaboration area. To change this setting: Overwhelmed by the torrent of memories, Ray announced to the Facebook group in March that he would be traveling to Austin a few days before the anniversary of the shooting for a previously planned writing workshop. John and I bonded on the soccer field. 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