Yesterday Lawrence King, a 15-year old student at E.O. Green Junior High in Ventura County, California was shot by a fellow student with whom he'd had an ealier "altercation" over the fact that other students perceived him to be gay.

Today Lawrence King was declared brain-dead and placed on a ventilator awaiting the possible donation of his organs. His assailant, another student who was 14-years old, was caught minutes after the shooting and is now in custody.

The teenager sometimes wore feminine clothing and makeup, and proclaimed he was gay, students said.

"He would come to school in high-heeled boots, makeup, jewelry and painted nails -- the whole thing," said Michael Sweeney, 13, an eighth-grader. "That was freaking the guys out."

"Freaking the guys out." And the acceptable response to any perceived threat to a man's masculinity is violence, and not only violence but deadly violence.

And again we're reminded of the dangers gay students and youth face in America's schools: