Yet John continued to hover over his life like a spectral question mark, both inexplicable and utterly familiar. This article originally appeared in the April 2020 issue ofTexas Monthly with the headline The Aftermath. Subscribe today. His knee was healing from surgery, so he ambled to his truck and gave chase. Austin schools - Murchison Middle School is located at 3700 North Hills Drive, Austin TX 78731. The mans initials were J. District Austin Independent School District. Schirpik drove him back to school and led him by his arm into the principals office. He was a Dallas eye doctor named John Eisenlohr, who was a prominent member (and later the president) of the Texas Ophthalmological Association, a group whose lobbyist was George Christian. Laura and Rod at their wedding, in Laredo, on August 19, 1972. There are 1408 students ranging from grades 6 to 8. The children, though, had questions of their own, above all: Is Mr. Grayson okay? Principal Brad Clark sent out a letter Wednesday where he announced he has "decided to step down" due to "recent challenges." The teacher waved them off. Even though he had no experience teaching, I could tell he would provide the right fodder for these kids, she said. Please switch to a supported browser or download one of our Mobile Apps. But because his father was a public figure, the boys identity was splashed across the front pages. I think it was all I could do just to be there.. Twenty-nine children were handpicked for Eichenbaums and Graysons classes. 1 star . They met up for the first time in years to talk about the grief theyd carried for two decades. 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. Cathy Olson Muths 1978 yearbook portrait. Murchison Middle School is a middle school. Cycling had become one of his preferred forms of therapy, and he went for a long ride that day, south to Barton Springs. Edlio Login Powered by Edlio. So the Murchison kids tried to move on. You look at the jigsaw puzzle, and there are huge pieces that are not there., Thinking back to that distant morning, Smith began to describe his proximity to his teacher; he had been the nearest student to Grayson when the shooting began. The following school year, they were bused to different high schools. Suddenly, he thought he saw a jumbo jet nosediving into Razorback Stadium. FOX 7 Austin AUSTIN, Texas - 2 AISD schools were cleared this afternoon after an investigation into reports of armed subjects. Official Facebook page of the Murchison Matadors! Hes a really great brother. Then he would instruct his students to write a free-form essay or short story based on a poem he would read aloud or a curious drawing he had sketched on the blackboard. Advertisement. It was John. . Murchison Middle School Principal Brad Clark abruptly resigned Wednesday, just more than a week after police charged two students who attended the school in connection with the fatal. Walking away, Smith felt a sense of disgust. I would remember this even if nothing had happened, because it was a constant theme in Johns life, the pressure he felt from his dad and the absolute lack of grace it seemed that he lived with. Laura had been a teacher before Rod became one, and she continued that work long after he died. What had kept him from writing it himself was that he hated the thought of bringing anguish to his former classmate John Christian. He started a private Facebook group, titled simply Murchison/Mr. Austinites enjoyed Sunday's winter weather, skiing and sliding down a hill at Murchison Middle School. Still, as a juvenile, he could not be charged with murder and tried as an adult. He enrolled at Highland Park High in the middle of his sophomore year. He knew only that he couldnt confront the past alone. At sixteen, he began to drink heavily. Show All News. 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. . School Address (Store Correction) 3700 N Hills Dr Austin . 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. The principal of Murchison Middle School is Sammi Harrison. He had super-high standards.. Jumping out of his truck and grabbing the boy, Schirpik barked, What did you do?. In fact, Ray barely remembered a single thing about that entire year. During their half-hour conversation, John took issue with a report in the media that he had said The jokes on you before shooting Grayson. But our initial conversation had been twenty years earlier, just after the Columbine High School massacre. And I may yet do it. Still, the fury was as oppressive as the grief. 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. (530) 529-7900 (530) 529-7933. Sandy Hook. His dad was the main topic of conversation, said Bazar. John hugged him. He took the time to learn things.. The Christian boy reportedly was a straight "A" student, but had been given al failing grade in. On the drive back home, Susie Gerrie Davis learned from her mother that Grayson had died. 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. Thats especially true when no resources are spared to treat a violent adolescent, as was the case with John Christian. 3700 N Hills Dr, Austin, Texas 78731. TW: Gun Violence PS: So very sorry there is a weird noise . 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. 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. I will never be over seeing Mr. Grayson murdered by a friend and classmate. Like most Austin journalists, I knew George Christian as a towering, back-slapping eminence. Then, on May 18, 2018, I received an email from a Washington, D.C.based journalist named David Nather, whom I had never met. They shouted out questions as Graysons students were herded into a school bus that would take them to police headquarters to be interviewed. John had been at Timberlawn for twenty months when a representative of the Christian family returned to Judge Cofers courtroom. 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. Everyone knew Johnhe cut a figure, said Logan Bazar, one of his closest friends at Murchison. As Davis recalled in Unafraid, until fully accepting Gods love and the injunction of forgiveness that came with it, I figured John had wrecked my life at fourteen. He asked himself, What now? ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The sense of injustice overwhelmed Laura. They added, But Mr. Grayson, John was acting so weird! Come celebrate with the Murchison Middle School Fine Arts Class as we open the doors to the public to share the talents of our students. Hed done some reading on Hitler and the Nazis, which wasnt uncommon for boys our age. The tragedy was set in motion by happenstance. But if I allowed anger to control me, what kind of life would I have made for Ian? she said. According to the Washington Post, more than 240,000 U.S. students have experienced a school shooting since 1999. Community Parents Students Staff. 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. It was Rods turn to stay home with the baby, so he called Murchison and requested a substitute teacher for his classes, beginning with GT English. He was a friend.. In the past month there were 44 homes sold in Murchison Middle School at a median sale price of $667,113 and 19 days on the market. George asked Neff about the schoolteacher who had been shot. Class had already started without him. His classmates still wonder: What really happened? I dont know. He also said, I dont want to say anything that might hurt my boy.. I get no satisfaction from feeling like Ive found some secret. normal? (John went on to study at the universitys prestigious law school. I dont remember talking to anyone specifically. Virginia Tech. Ten years later, in 2009, Rays youngest daughter, Olivia, who was ten years old, was struck by a Cadillac Escalade and killed at a street crossing on Razorback Road while her sister Hannah watched. She handed back the paper, slack-jawed. After years of counseling and prayer, John Ray decided he had finally developed the emotional fortitude to revisit the formative trauma of his youth. AUSTIN, Texas (FOX 7 Austin) - The principal of Murchison Middle School has announced his resignation. Peculiarities form the contours of the Murchison shooting. Schools Parenting Topics . Cathy Olson Muth, a former student of Rod Graysons who witnessed the shooting, photographed at Murchison in February. 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. Both recognized as highly capable, prominent and experts in their area. I felt lucky that he found any interest in me, because he was so much smarter and worldlier. 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. Jos R. Ralat is Texas Monthlys taco editor, writing about tacos and Mexican food. 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. 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