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Autistic Teen Killed By School Resource Officer Inside High School

October 17, 2009 at 1:06 pm by Morbid

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina – There was a disturbing shooting incident at Carolina Forest High School on Friday involving an autistic teen and the school’s resource officer. On Friday morning 15-year-old Trevor Varinecz asked to speak with resource officer, Marcus Rhodes. The two went inside his office and shut the door. Teachers described hearing shouting from inside the office and when they entered, witnessed Varinecz attacking Rhodes with a large knife. Rhodes was stabbed multiple times and in self-defense, returned fire hitting Varinecz multiple times. Both of them were taken to Conway Medical Center where Varinecz was pronounced dead, and Rhodes was later released. Rhodes has been been an employee of the Horry County Police Department for almost ten years. Neighbor’s say Varinecz wasn’t a trouble maker, but rather a functioning autistic teenager whose parents integrated him into normal activities. No word on why Varinecz wanted to talk to Rhodes, or how the altercation started.

This is the second death at this high school with the last few years. Back in 2006, Friday’s incident marks the second time in three years a Carolina Forest High School student has died in a violent incident on the school’s campus. In June 2006, 18-year-old Natalia Holmes was stabbed 15 times and run over by a vehicle by her estranged boyfriend in the school’s parking lot.

The teen had two knives on him. The officer was able to get one away from him, but was then attacked with the other. Of course, the NAACP weighed in: “There are serious questions that must be aggressively investigated,” the NAACP said in its statement. “Was the officer trained in the techniques to work with individuals with autism, or mental illness? Did the officer use all available means to contain the situation without using deadly force? Should school resource officers be allowed to carry guns in schools?”

Trevor’s mother told reporters, “he was a wonderful boy. We can’t understand what happened… He was not violent, he was never violent. We just don’t know what he was thinking.” She went on to say that Trevor was finding it very difficult to make friends.

Myrtle Beach Film Crew Arrested For Filming Simulated Blowjob (dreamindemon.com)
S.C. teen shot after high school stabbing (msnbc.msn.com)
Teen Student Shot Dead After Stabbing Cop (news.sky.com)

Autistic Teen Killed By School Resource Officer Inside High School

Tags: autism, Shooting, South Carolina, Stabbing

22 Comments

Comments

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Dr.Keegee

It’s my understanding that people that have certain forms of autism can exhibit episodes of uncontrollable rage. It’s apparent that Trevor was enraged -possibly due to this type of rage. However the fact that he evidently prepared himself with a large knife makes me wonder if something else was troubling this young man.

Without knowing any other details I’ll express my sympathy to the young man’s family and especially to the officer involved. I hope he heals both physically and emotionally, although I suspect the emotional healing will take much longer.
missycaro

My daughter has autism and enters “episodes” of uncontrollable tantrums. Usually they do occur after hurt feelings, sleepiness, hunger, etc… I feel badly for both involved here. Something must of been troubleing the teen. I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t have something to do with being bullied by peers. He probably went into the office to talk about it and lost his self control. So sad.
defenestratethis

I’ve worked in Special Ed. at the elementary, middle and high school levels…you know, aiding kids with varying degrees of autism, bipolar disorder,mental retardation, A.D.D., schizophrenia, anger managemet issues and/or all of the above. I feel for this cop. At the highschool level, kids are often bigger than you, and with the combination of whatever their diagnosis is and raging hormones..ya just never know whats gona happen. Sounds like this man had no choice, poor guy…so sad for EVERYONE involved. Another sad truth is that these kids are often seen as easy prey for sexual predators and the like, hope it wasnt anything like that. Also, many parents see the classroom as free daycare, and being overcome with all the pressure of daily life and raising a special needs child, are often too fatigued to enforce any kind of discipline and/or guidance at home. Kids come to school sometimes with unresolved conflicts from home, and school personel ends up bearing the brunt of their emotional despair.
Dirk

I thought being autistic meant others’ consciousness is a non-factor. Why kill them, then?
WryBread

Stabbing another person multiple times does not sound like a “functioning austic teenager,” it sounds like a crazy dangerous teenager who should not have been in a public school.
missycaro

Sometimes when my daughter is having a lot of fun. Very excited moments playing with anyone. She might just slap the heck out of them. Immediately she has a shocked look on her face. She says “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” over and over again. She knows that you are not suppose to hit. Still when extremely excited she loses it. When she’s angry she hits herself and walls.
Veronica

Autistic people are known to have the potential for sudden, uncontrollable violence (not all, of course, but the potential is there). From what I understand, it’s part of their reality that something might set them off. Did he have no history of violent outbursts at all? It seems a leap to go from no history of violence to attempting to stab someone to death. Either way, you have to wonder how he ended up with a knife that he was able to conceal and keep on him. I would have expected him to have more supervision than that.

Maybe this is just a freak tragedy.
Rawrehz.

there was something going on in that kids mind…
too bad he died such a short life but seems if he had escaped this tragedy, another one would’ve probably resurfaced later down the road.
CassieMomma

Now this is tragic.

Stabbing another person multiple times does not sound like a “functioning austic teenager,” it sounds like a crazy dangerous teenager who should not have been in a public school.

I agree.
missycaro

It might sound like a crazy dangerous teenager, but it was a teenager with Autism.
http://www.dreamindemon.com Morbid

Added another video that states the boy had two knives on him. Oh, and the NAACP has concerns of course.
Veronica

The NAACP? I must be missing something, unless the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People shares an acronym with some Autism association…

Kind of like the problem South Park had — NAMBLA: North American Man-Boy Love Association or North American Marlon Brando Look-Alikes?
E Diddy

I have nothing personal against people with learning disabilities, but for God’s sake put them in their own schools where they can be around people like them, and attended to by trained professionals that know how to control them. You cannot prepare a developmentally challenged child for the real world when you have them slapped into a school system that tiptoes around the fact that they’re retarded and not, and will never be, as self sufficient as a child of average intelligence. I’d have shot his ass too if he got stabby on me. I feel for the kids mom and the officer involved. Now that I think about it, I do have something against people with learning disabilities. They’re fucking stupid.
backlash

for God’s sake put them in their own schools where they can be around people like them, and attended to by trained professionals that know how to control them. You cannot prepare a developmentally challenged child for the real world when you have them slapped into a school system that tiptoes around the fact that they’re retarded and not, and will never be, as self sufficient as a child of average intelligence. I’d have shot his ass too if he got stabby on me. I feel for the kids mom and the officer involved. Now that I think about it, I do have something against people with learning disabilities. They’re fucking stupid.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have been visited by a Nobel Fucking Laureate…
http://www.dreamindemon.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=12 Athena

With the exception of the last two sentences, I have to kind of agree with the guy.

We’ve got no business placing impaired students in inappropriate environments simply because they’re “almost” normal. At the end of the day, they’re not normal and need special care. Doing otherwise puts them and those around them at risk. This might have been prevented at a facility that specialized in dealing with students like this.
missycaro

WOW, I can’t believe all of this. Firstly I have no problem with schools specifically for people with special needs. My child is in a public school system and has been since age 3yrs old. She has been taught so much by children with no special needs. She has come such a long way thanks to these children, but that’s not all. My daughter taught something to these so called “normal” children also. She has taught them compassion. I hate that as we grow into adults. Some of us lose our sense of compassion. I hope that you can go your entire life without someone you love being afflicted with a disability. Only then will you learn what it’s like to hear or see words like this. We don’t just rake them into a box because they have a “defect”. We would all be in that box.
missycaro

One more thing. If you pay attention to what is going on. There are a freakin’ LOT more “normal” children committing big time crimes in school. I’m not even talking about stealing a pencil. I’m talking about killing eachother. This is one incident. Look at all the “normal” kids and count the incidents of killing sprees. If we do seperate the children based on them being different. Then who will ever teach these kids to be compassionate? You are therefore teaching that you can not except individuality. That anyone in “need” is a shame and something to be unaccepted. They won’t except eachother and there will be more violence.
Senna

What a terrible, sad situation for all involved! When I saw the headline “Autistic Teen Killed By School Resource Officer Inside High School,” I clicked on the link ready to say horrible things about the officer, but after reading the article, I don’t think that would be fair. It seems the officer did everything humanly possible to save his own life and spare the young man’s. When it became apparent that it was either him or the young man, he chose to preserve his own life. No one should blame him for that. I feel so bad for the officer, the young man and the young man’s family.

This situation almost reminds me of my own teenage years. Like the young man in this article, I have high-functioning autism. My teenage years were the worst in my life. I was often the target of intense bullying. It was bad enough when my peers would do it, but when the teachers would start in, it was almost unbearable. I never actively thought about killing them, but sometimes I just wished they’d all disappear. I didn’t care if they moved away, died or were abducted. I just didn’t want to bear the brunt of their cruelty any more. I wonder if this young man was feeling a similar way? Maybe he felt genuinely threatened by someone, armed himself and went to the officer for help. But the officer, reacting as most people would to weapons carried by a student, was perceived as threatening, which triggered the young man’s “fight or flight” response. I’m only speculating, of course, and I’m not making excuses, but I know that I sometimes perceive people as being threatening when they don’t mean to be and my “fight or flight” response kicks in, however my response to any perceived danger is usually “flight.”
Senna

Missycaro, I think your daughter is one lucky person to have a mom like you! I wish my mom had been so accepting of me when I was younger, instead of acting embarrassed all the time. She’s changing her attitude about it, but it’s taken 30 years. It makes me happy to know there are “normal” people out there who try to understand and accept us as we are. I was going to make the point that more “normal” people commit crimes, so why not segregate them, too, but you beat me to it.
missycaro

Awwwwww that was so sweet of you Senna. I think it was great that you put the effort into writing about how it made you feel. Someone who actually knows how it feels to be in those exact shoes. I’m very glad to hear that your mother is now on her way to a more layed back attitude. Even if it’s taken her 30yrs. I am happy that you can finally see the change. Good luck!
Disgusted

Its individuals such as yourself that need to be segregated away from society so your crap and way of thinking doesn't spread. You are most definitely not someone of average intelligence. People like you make me SICK!! Maybe next time you'll consider keeping you opinion to yourself and spare the rest of us from your small minded thoughts.
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