Newsweek has a damning long feature in its current issue on the murder of Larry King, the gay teenager who was shot to death at his school computer lab by another student.

So many other versions of the story do not go nearly so deep into detail, saying merely that Larry wanted to be the other kid’s “valentine.” Newsweek really does the story justice by filling in the details leading up to the appalling, almost unbelievable, crime.

The take-away point is that instead of regulating behavior that made school a deeply uncomfortable place for all parties, school authorities were enslaved to a political correctness that led them to believe that wearing make-up and high-heels and behaving obnoxiously was somehow a healthy, schoolhouse-appropriate expression of sexuality for a 15-year-old male.

Even when administrators knew harassment was taking place (both towards and from Larry) they looked the other way or fell back on a line that lets students get whatever they want “unless it’s causing a classroom disturbance.” Of course, it was causing one, but even so school authorities were reluctant to act. To think that they were doing Larry, or the wider gay community, any favor in this matter is simply extraordinary.