See all 36 photos taken at Murchison Middle School by 1,023 visitors. Then, for the first time in his life, Smithwhose father, Ralph Smith, was the pastor at Hyde Park Baptist Churchyelled out the Lords name in vain: Goddammit, he killed him!. Then she prayed to God for grace toward John. SAVE SCHOOL. That gave us some time to talk. Ray spoke to him directly: Thank you for what you did for us.. She saw him instead in dreams, and when she lit candles, she remembered how he once laughed at her Catholic rituals and then said, Were doing a pact. Chalk dust. Given that no one had ever explained anything about Johns treatment and release from custody, some worried that he might still be capable of committing a violent act. Maybe better to ask how Im getting through. Their son, Ian, was an eighth grader by thencoincidentally, the same age as Rods students when he was killedand she wanted him to know where his dads grave site was, in case he ever wanted to visit. That summer, he returned to the city of his youth and enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin. Website. The gifted and talented teacher, Rod Grayson, was fatally shot by one of his most prized students. What transpired next is based on the recollections of eight eyewitnesses in the classroom as well as those of others at school that day. I try and pay attention to my own pain and not expect more from myself than I can give, knowing I will be a fraud if I do. Many shared memories of Mr. Grayson, as they still called himhow he had once taken the entire class to New Orleans to see a King Tut exhibit; how he had helped his students launch a magazine called Serendipity Doo-Dah; how he was sharp and interesting and challenged us to think outside our normal convention. Someone posted a forty-year-old newspaper clipping with the headline Gifted Student Shoots Teacher and, beneath it, a photograph of their thirteen-year-old classmate shielding his face from cameras. It started after the shooting. John, their quiet resident genius, had come out of his shell! He has done all the system has asked of him. At the same time, I dont think the opposite of that is to deny what happened to us. SYNOPSIS THE AUSTIN SCHOOL SHOOTING tells the story of the teacher Rod Grayson who was shot to death on the morning of May 18, 1978 at Murchison Junior High School in Austin, Texas. 3700 N Hills Drive Austin, TX 78731 Map Phone: (512) 414-3254 Fax: (512) 414-4570 Principal: Chara Harris Campus Website No one seemed to believe him. A new site had been erected, called the Memorial to Fallen Educators, which was designated as a national memorial in 2018. There, they began to see John Christian on campus. You know, theres been that conversation. A few years before the fortieth anniversary, Ray was visiting Austin and jogging around Lady Bird Lake when he thought he saw John. Only later in the evening, when they gathered for beers at a bar in their old neighborhood of Northwest Hills, did someone ask the question that was on all of their minds: Has anybody heard from John? Twenty-nine children were handpicked for Eichenbaums and Graysons classes. The other, Richard Coons, was one of the states most prominent psychiatric experts at criminal trials, one whose judgments often resulted in murder defendants being sent to death row. Extracurriculars Band Choir Orchestra Dance / Cheerleading Newspaper / Yearbook National Junior Honor Society Keyboarding Overall School Rating. Jo Anne Christian materialized in the administrative office, her palms flat on the counter, as she demanded, Wheres John? Soon, the Austin police arrived. I think John had reached a point where he was never going to be good enough. Principal Brad Clark sent out a letter Wednesday where he announced he has "decided to step down" due to "recent challenges." It wasn't a mass shooting. As the bus pulled away, one of them noticed other Murchison students in their classrooms, faces pressed against the windows, staring. Nothing is ever gonna happen to that guy. Overall Score 59.81/100. Level Middle School. Cathy Olson Muths 1978 yearbook portrait. Though Grayson resisted playing favorites, he became especially close with one student in particular who shared his love of stage acting: John Christian. Of course, few Murchison students paid much attention to such distinctions. Not anywhere. On May 18, 1978, one of my 8th grade classmates at Murchison Junior High now Murchison Middle School walked into a classroom and shot his English teacher to death. A gurney rolled past her, a sheet pulled over the body. Later, Ray went outside and pulled his bicycle from his Honda. . Lamar Middle School Choir . He hadnt seen his old classmates in years, and they hugged and tearfully greeted one another. His wife, Laura, herself a teacher at Austins LBJ High School, had given birth to their son, Ian, earlier that day. Her husband nodded and offered a sad smile. Thats especially true when no resources are spared to treat a violent adolescent, as was the case with John Christian. Murchison Elementary School Calendar 2022-2023 School Year Calendar with grading periods, student holidays, etc. On May 21 st, Austin ISD and Murchison Middle School hosted a groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the start of construction on the school's modernization project.The project will include a 6 th grade addition, library and administration relocation and a new bus loop.. . Murchison ISD PO Box 538, Murchison, TX 75778 Phone: (903) 469-3636. One former classmate, Cathy Olson Muth, was home from college, eating with her family and friends at a restaurant in Northwest Hills, when she happened to see a familiar reflection in a mirror. The mans initials were J. Linda Coffee Argued Roe v. Wade. We were all interested in women, but he wasnt the uninformed idiot I was. Then the images resurfaced out of nowhere. His eyes were wide open. 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 was like no other teacher I ever had, Terry said. It is a school in Austin Independent School District district. Claim this business. The shower lacked hot water and the power outlets in the bathroom were inoperable. Rebecca Leamon remembered how Grayson gently encouraged her to challenge her shyness. Andre Terry, a former student of Rod Graysons who witnessed the shooting, photographed at Murchison in February. The following school year, they were bused to different high schools. Prep Sportswear has your school's t-shirts, sweatshirts, jerseys, and hats! . I get no satisfaction from feeling like Ive found some secret. 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. He said something about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Murchison Middle School: Austin Schools: TX Schools: Subsidized Lunch: 15%: 42%: 47%: Subsidized Lunch: What the Numbers Mean. Then again, he also said of being buried, Thats not where I am., She knew that. Yet John continued to hover over his life like a spectral question mark, both inexplicable and utterly familiar. So as a result, I just have to process what Ive got. 5 5 out of 10 . April 13, 2018. He had heard from Ray that I had looked into the story and was curious why I had dropped it. It doesnt take any effort to stand in one spot and go in circles.Write soon,Love, John, Letter to former classmate Elaine Moore, from Timberlawn. 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. Cathy Olson Muth, a former student of Rod Graysons who witnessed the shooting, photographed at Murchison in February. It struck me as odd that I had never heard about his sons having killed a schoolteacher, particularly since I had been a staff writer at Texas Monthly for most of the nineties. One of his new classmates came across a newspaper story that identified John by name and described him as schizophrenic. The classmate wondered, Why is he at our school? 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. Ive been up here now for a year and three months, some of which has been real hell, the rest of which has really been good. Virginia Tech. 6:22 a.m.: The two boys allegedly threatened a clerk with the gun, demanded money and also stole beer and other items during a robbery at the DK convenience store, 1733 Brown St. and Murchison. Project also includes adjusting and relocating programs with interior renovations, courtyard infill, new addition and removal of portables. 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. Its all just speculation, Peyton Smith, one of the students present in that classroom, told me in his Austin law office last September. The noises: the gunshots, the screams, the scraping of chairs. 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. 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. Laura couldnt help but wonder if she would have gotten a different answer had her last name been Christian. None of us will talk to you, he said. The story, written in unsparingly graphic language, was about robots that prowled the streets and castrated men. A map of the classroom on the day of the shooting, drawn by Mitsuno Baurmeister. Accountability Ratings Good. Where is he now? Getting answers is what brings resolution, Armour said. She led several of them into a nurses examination room and told them to stay there. Where he had mesmerized Murchisons gifted and talented, Laura taught mostly those who were socially disadvantaged or at risk. 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. Murchison Middle School, Austin, TX Real Estate Listings and Homes for Sale. Home; Our Staff" . Now that shes retired, Laura is hoping to travel to Emporia to see her husbands name among the others: a roll call of more than 120 heroes, a list that grows every year. Even though he had no experience teaching, I could tell he would provide the right fodder for these kids, she said. Eichenbaum was outside the office when she heard the screams from the classroom and at first laughed to herself: Oh, Lord. Address and Phone Number for Murchison Middle, a Public School, at North Hills Drive, Austin TX. Yet to those who experienced the shooting at Murchison Junior High School, it remains, even after four decades, mercilessly unforgettable. What did Ronnie Earle do about it? They shouted out questions as Graysons students were herded into a school bus that would take them to police headquarters to be interviewed. In 1995, after the first installment of that money arrived, Laura and Ian sought to fund a bench that would be dedicated to Rod, situated on a trail he loved on Lady Bird Lake. The anguish that has plagued the Murchison students presages the kind of long-tail trauma that many of today's witnesses to shootings will be burdened with for the rest of their lives. Murchison Middle Public 6-8 3700 N Hills Dr Austin, TX 78731-3092 (512) 414-3254 District: Austin Independent School District (ISD) SchoolDigger Rank: 473rd of 2,254 Texas Middle Schools Per Pupil Expenditures: $10,888 Students who attend Murchison Middle usually attend: High: Anderson High School Feeder schools for Murchison Middle: James Neff, a reporter from the Austin American-Statesman, rang the doorbell. 3.0 22 Reviews. And that year, he was growing more and more bitter about his father.. As she would later say, At that point, as a mother, as a teacher, as a human being, as pained as I was that Rod was dead, I felt sorry for that kid. Twenty years overdue. Close. After getting his teaching certificate, he had applied for the Murchison opening. Ray wasnt entirely sure how his outreach would be received. Official Facebook page of the Murchison Matadors! District Austin Independent School District. (John went on to study at the universitys prestigious law school. This Texan Was a Master of a Curious Midcentury Art Form, the Industrial Musical. Hes definitely made the most of the opportunity that hes gotten., But George Scott went on to say that he, like the witnesses to the shooting, has been haunted by the incident. In 1984 the system asked 12 years in prison of a fifteen-year-old Colorado boy named Jason Rocha, who suffered from depression but had committed no prior acts of violence before he shot his thirteen-year-old friend to death. 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. City Employees Are Heading for the Exits. But it never came. To the astonishment of his classmates, the normally reserved John Christian proceeded to enter an alternate universe that bore no relationship to Stowes novel. That movie Dawn of the Dead had just come out. Press secretary George Christian (far left) at the White House with President Lyndon B. Johnson (far right) and foreign policy advisers on October 11, 1967. It all felt surreal, Ray said. The subject line was Question for youMurchison shooting. 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