Rosenkrantz Case Stirs Evidence of Empathy--and Prejudice : Bias Against Homosexuality Appears Even Stronger Now at Calabasas High

The attitude toward homosexuals at Calabasas High School has grown worse since the murder case involving one of the school’s graduates, according to teachers and students at the school.

The case involved Robert M. Rosenkrantz, 19, who was convicted Monday of second-degree murder in the shooting death a year ago of a schoolmate who exposed Rosenkrantz’s homosexuality.

Had he lived, the victim, Steven Redman, 17, would have graduated from Calabasas on Thursday.

Rosenkrantz shot Redman 10 times with an Uzi semiautomatic rifle. Redman and Rosenkrantz’s brother, Joey, 17, had caught Rosenkrantz in a homosexual encounter. Joey Rosenkrantz had told the parents of the two boys.

It Was a Secret

Before the shooting, few, if any, of Robert Rosenkrantz’s classmates were aware that he was a homosexual, students said. Rosenkrantz testified at his trial that he had hidden his homosexuality for years for fear that he would be ostracized by his family and friends.

Since the shooting, school officials have stepped up efforts to fight prejudice against homosexuality and help homosexual students through the use of movies, speakers, a peer-counseling program and other methods, said Robert Donahue, Calabasas High School assistant principal.

But Donahue said he worries that the shooting of Redman by Rosenkrantz may have reinforced students’ hostility toward homosexuals.

“To have a young gay man go out and do what he did just confirms their attitudes that homosexuals are crazy as hell,” he said.

Hostility toward homosexuals is still so pervasive on campus that neither students nor teachers, if homosexual, dare reveal it, Donahue said.

He added, “I think a kid who is gay is probably in the worst position of any minority.”

Students’ Views

Jennifer Reich, 15, like several other students interviewed this week, put her view of homosexuality this way: “I think it’s a free choice; it doesn’t bother me at all.”

On the other hand, Jany Johnson, 16, said: “I’m totally against homosexuality. I think it’s abnormal.”

Marvin Brown, head counselor at Calabasas High, said that Johnson’s attitude is by far the more prevalent.

“On this campus, gay is not the thing to be,” Brown said. “That would be the last thing in the world you would want anyone to know.”

“This is strictly a straight school,” agreed Calabasas sophomore Wendy Bell, 16. “If there are gay people at this school, nobody knows about it. If people found out, they would verbally torture you.”

Junior David Brooks, 17, said that what has changed since the Rosenkrantz case is that “kids are more willing to talk about” homosexuality.

“In our psychology class today, they showed a film on homosexual youth,” added Marc Herman, 17, a junior. “People were quiet. You didn’t see what you would have seen two years ago, which is jokes.”

Gamut of Abuse

At any school, students known to be homosexual are the victims of insults, physical assaults, isolation and ridicule, said Gabe Kruks, who runs Temenos, a program operated through the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center. Kruks has counseled Rosenkrantz in jail and offered support and assistance to the youth’s parents and attorney.

Based upon studies by sexual researcher Alfred C. Kinsey suggesting that 10% of the population is homosexual, Brown, the school counselor, estimates that 130 or more of Calabasas High School’s 1,300 students are homosexual.

Even before the slaying of Redman, the school brought homosexual judges, lawyers and other professionals to speak to students. However, the program was discontinued for one year in 1985, the year of the shooting, school officials said. At any rate, results of such programs are mixed.

“The gay kids that are sitting in that classroom may have felt better, but the kids who aren’t gay are still sitting there saying that it’s wrong. And the gay kid has to go along with saying, ‘Look at that fag,’ because he doesn’t want to be different,” Brown said.

In a letter that Rosenkrantz wrote to Donahue last year shortly after his arrest, the youth suggested that the school set up a program to help the school’s homosexual youths, although he remarked that there was a good possibility that “no one may show up.” He added: “The fear is there and real.”

The combination of the Rosenkrantz case, three suicides in a five-year period and several fatal traffic accidents thought to be alcohol-related prompted school officials to set up their peer-counseling program.

Efforts are also under way to establish a program to identify and help students considered “high risk” because of sexuality conflicts, drug or alcohol abuse, suicidal tendencies or other problems.