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Michelle Pemberton / The Indianapolis Star
Darnell "Dynasty" Young, (left),high fives his twin brother Darrell Young (right), as his mother Chelisa Grimes watches. Dynasty, a gay student at Arsenal Tech High School, is on suspension and faces possible expulsion after using a stun gun to scare off a group of six kids who used gay slurs and threatened to attack him on campus.
A gay teenager who said bullying drove him to bring a stun gun to school -- and fire it in the air when he felt threatened -- may be expelled, a local media report says.
Darnell “Dynasty” Young, 17, was facing daily harassment from bullies at Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis who would taunt him, throw rocks and bottles at him and follow him home, according to the Indianapolis Star. A rumor also was spread that he performed sex acts in the bathroom. At one point, Young contemplated suicide.
"God gave me this life," Young said to the newspaper. "I love life. I'm trying to be strong.”
After reporting the bullying to the school more than 10 times, his mother, Chelisa Grimes, said she gave him a stun gun for protection, because school authorities weren’t doing enough.
"It has been a nightmare," Grimes told the newspaper. "I'm trying to fight for my baby's education."
Principal Larry Yarrell said the school had tried to look into the bullying reports, but Young was not always able to identify all of those who had harassed him. He said they had interviewed staff and students.
The school had been trying to help Young, who transferred there last year, Yarrell said, by recommending that he "tone down" his accessories.
"If you wear female apparel, then kids are kids and they're going to say whatever it is that they want to say," Yarrell told the newspaper. "Because you want to be different and because you choose to wear female apparel, it may happen. In the idealistic society, it shouldn't matter. People should be able to wear what they want to wear."
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But, they weren’t trying to place the blame on Young for the bullying, he said.
Young said the harassment escalated on April 16, when a group of students encircled him at school and threatened to beat him up. Then he took the stun gun, which he had stashed in his backpack for a few weeks, and fired it off in the air. The students dispersed, but within minutes, school police had arrested Young -- who was later suspended.
Stun guns are not allowed at school in Indiana and it is a misdemeanor to give a stun gun to a minor.
An expulsion meeting was held on Wednesday before an independent arbitrator who will decide if Young can stay at the school. A decision was expected within a few days, the newspaper said.
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