VICTIM MOVES ACROSS STATE TO ATTEND DIFFERENT SCHOOL (LAST OF THREE PARTS)

Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy. -- "Lord of the Flies."

Copyright 1999 Southeast Missourian

JACKSON -- Stuart and Bobbie Venable said goodbye to their son Aug. 27. They watched him drive away to spend his junior year of high school living with a relative in western Missouri.

"When he left, we were being real strong," said Bobbie. "... But we were sending our 16-year-old across the state."

Stuart says he was never angrier than he was at that moment.

Their son had been saying he wanted to move away almost immediately after the March night seven friends wearing masks kidnapped him at a party, terrorized him with a chain saw and hung him on a cross as a prank. The parents of one of the boys videotaped part of the goings on, and the videotape later was shown at a birthday party. At least a few seconds of the video were seen in a language arts class at school.

The Venables pressed charges, and seven juveniles ages 15 and 16 agreed to punishments for actions that would have been charged as misdemeanor assaults had they been adults. As the school year ended, there were cracks and incidents at school involving people who weren't in on the prank.

The boy thought he had no choice but to leave, and his parents agreed.

"I don't want you to go to a high school that's not a safe place," Bobbie told him, angry over the administration's handling of the incident.

But some of the boys involved in the prank pleaded with him not to leave. They felt bad, said Stuart, who adds, "I still believe there are some friendships that can be saved and developed."

Two of the seven are never seen or heard on the videotape.

"I try to go to bat for them," Stuart says. "... Hell, you had adults validating it."

The two girls who watched were not charged. None of the adults was charged.

Many people's lives have been affected by the misbegotten prank.

The Venables' 7-year-old son, Major, won't sleep anywhere but in his parents' bedroom now. "He's angry," Stuart says.

The boys involved in the prank did community service and underwent counseling.

"My son has become kind of distant about it," said a father of one of the boys. "He doesn't really understand. All the parents knew about it. As far as he was concerned, everybody was OK with it. Then they went ahead and did it, and everybody was charged with a crime."

At the Football Jamboree that precedes each football season, the father said, people were saying unkind things about the boys.

"They're calling these kids criminals, and they're not," he said.

The prank simply got out of hand, he said, adding that "things do when you have 16-year-olds involved."

He is upset with the juvenile office, which pulled the seven teen-agers out of class during finals. "They told our kids specifically this was a family matter and not to speak about it," he said. "The next day, it was all over the media with the juvenile office being quoted."

Juvenile Officer Randy Rhodes said the press release was issued in response to requests from various media that had heard about the incident. The office routinely reports crimes, though more detail was given about the kinds of disposition the boys would have had had they been adults.

The father said his son originally was the one who was picked by the boys to be the target of the kidnapping. "My son would have been OK with it," he said.

As for what the Venables' son might have been experiencing when the chain saw was run next to his hooded head, the father said, "He knew he was never in any danger. They were all pals."

That's not necessarily true, says Dr. Doris Skelton, who is coordinator of counseling programs at Southeast Missouri State University. "That was proved at Columbine."

The presence of adults probably made the teen-agers feel their actions were approved, she said. "There is less need to think twice about it and less need to check their own decision-making."

The parents' involvement seems the most incredible part of the story to people who hear about the prank. Stuart says he feels the parents who videotaped the scene "are incredibly stupid." He adds: "I want to be friends with the kids, not the parents."

The Venables have filed claims with the homeowners insurance companies of both the parent where the kidnapping occurred and the parents where the mock crucifixion occurred.

But the Venables can't retrieve the life they were leading before that night in March. "I think about the next two years and being cheated out of that," Bobbie says.

The Venables have deep roots in Jackson. Stuart's maternal grandfather, G.M. LaPierre, served on the Jackson Board of Aldermen and the Jackson Board of Education.

Stuart's father, Gerald, played Jackson High School football in the days before face masks.

Stuart, a laboratory technician at the city's wastewater treatment plant, played center for Jackson High School teams coached by the late Paul Webber. Last year he was the analyst for radio broadcasts of the team's games. He is a past-president of the Tribal Council, the Jackson High School booster club.

Bobbie, who drives a school bus and is a floral designer, helped plan her 20-year high school reunion around a home football game. They love Jackson and the football team. "There's nothing like the Friday night lights," Stuart says.

Their son was on the baseball and football teams. Last year, as he was about to make the trip with the football team on their first away game, he was heard cursing by assistant principal Clay Vangilder. Vangilder punished the boy by not allowing him to go on the football trip. Stuart agreed with the school's decision.

He hoped the school would mete out some kind of punishment to the boy they have identified as the leader of the assault on their son.

On Aug. 10, Stuart went to the regular meeting of the Jackson Board of Education and, in closed session, questioned whether the boy qualified as the "creditable citizen" the Missouri State High School Activities Association requires of students who participate in extracurricular activities.

But the board decided that all those who were involved in the incident were qualified to participate. The superintendent, Dr. Ronald Anderson, said the district followed MSHSAA guidelines to the letter in making the determination. Those guidelines allow students who have committed a crime to participate as long as they have fulfilled their punishment.

The board could be sued by players who were prevented from playing even though they met MSHSAA requirements.

"Generally you are limited to conduct that occurred at school," says Steve Wright, a Columbia attorney who represents the district in some matters.

He said that is true unless the player has violated a specific team rule such as the ones against smoking or drinking.

Stuart's response: "We forgot to put a rule in about crucifixions."

Wright represents 80 school districts throughout the state and says some have more stringent citizenship policies than those provided by the MSHSAA. On the other hand, he said, "Parents in many communities feel the school district has no business saying what kids can or cannot do during the summer."

Wright advised the district not to try to impose more stringent athletic eligibility rules after the fact.

The question would be moot if the Cape Girardeau prosecuting attorney's office hadn't reduced its original, stiffer charges, says McClard. Those charges would have activated the Safe Schools Act and would have automatically barred the students from activities such as sports.

In 25 years as a teacher, McClard said, "This is the weirdest thing I've ever dealt with."

Allowing the students to play sports was a judgment call based on doing what was best for them, he said, adding:

"Do you rehabilitate, or do you punish? We're dealing with kids who are 16. They still don't act like adults."

He is concerned the school's excellent reputation will be tarnished and said camps of different opinion are forming.

A group of people who support the Venables' position reportedly plans to take the issue up with the board when it meets again Tuesday. Petitions addressed to the school board are available in some stores.

"If the board tells me it is appropriate in a classroom setting to see my son crucified on a cross, then I will walk away," Stuart says.

The Venables' position has nothing to do with football.

Stuart says, "As long as I'm welcome, I will continue to support the Jackson Indians."

But he acknowledges that some people fear that what he's doing will hurt the football team.

"I don't care about that," he said. "All I care about is raising two healthy boys."

The Venables' older son just finished the second week of his junior year at his new high school. He already started making new friends before he left Jackson and is making more. He is not playing football but is developing some of his other interests.

"He has learned a hard lesson a lot of other kids don't learn for a long, long time," Bobbie says.

"I think he'll be a good man," Stuart says. "A good dad and a good husband. Because he wouldn't say, 'This happened to me once,' and he wouldn't just let everybody say, 'I'm sorry, let's go on.'"

He came home for a visit Labor Day weekend. He is tired of being a victim, Bobbie says.

"You want to find an end," Stuart says, "but I don't know what that is.

"Every night I ask, 'Am I going too far?' I come back that you don't do this to another human being."