Teacher at John Tyler High School stabbed to death

**Ninja0980** · September 23rd, 2009, 08:03 PM

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...BPAQwD9ATAQGO3

TYLER, Texas — A special-education teacher who had a passion for music was fatally stabbed Wednesday morning in a Texas high school classroom, and police took a 16-year-old student into custody.

Todd R. Henry, 50, worked with students at John Tyler High School who were either emotionally or behaviorally challenged, according to his older brother, Jody Henry.

"He loved it," the elder Henry said. "He told me it was his calling. He had never been happier than when working with these kids."

District Superintendent Randy Reid said the male suspect approached his teacher about 8:50 a.m. and stabbed him in the neck with a sharp object. A teacher's aide and two other students were in the classroom, and the aide subdued the suspect before calling district police, Reid said.

When he picked up that guitar you could tell that it came from his heart and soul. It brought so much joy to his life and joy to the people who heard him play."

On his Web site, Todd Henry gave an inkling of how powerful he believed music to be. "I know that music can be a direct link to feelings and passions and is therefore a powerful tool," he wrote.

What a waste. A good man and teacher by all accounts killed by one of the very students he was trying to help.

**katyk** · September 23rd, 2009, 08:09 PM

http://www.toddrhenry.com/Links%20Page.htm

Link to his website. So sad.

**Pene784** · September 23rd, 2009, 08:50 PM

It does seem like the good ones die young. (And the mean nasty ones live too damn long)

**Zsu Zsu's Petals** · September 23rd, 2009, 10:22 PM

I've been considering going into Special Ed... this kind of thing scares the crap out of me.

**Just my luck sucks** · September 24th, 2009, 01:24 AM

RIP Todd R. Henry, your calling and passion was great, your life too short.

Jam with the angels Todd.

**Rawrehz** · September 24th, 2009, 03:06 AM

Very sad.
I hope there are more updates as to what this male suspect will be punished with. The teacher sounds like a great effin guy who died too young, too inspiring. He seemed to love his work but his work didn't love hime in the end.
I can only wonder what this case will end with ............

**Dakota Valkyrie** · September 25th, 2009, 07:54 AM

A 16-year-old student accused of stabbing his teacher to death at a high school has a “lengthy history” of mental illness, his attorney said Thursday.

Jim Huggler said he planned to seek a competency hearing after a juvenile judge ruled Thursday that there was probable cause for a murder charge. The boy has not been formally charged by Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham, who has declined to comment on the case.
[...]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...s/6636090.html

Sixteen-year-old Byron Truvia is accused of the stabbing murder of John Tyler teacher, Todd Henry. Byron's family is telling the public he is not a monster and suffers from mental conditions. They also say their hearts go out to Todd Henry's family.

Byron Truvia and his family evacuated from New Orleans, when Hurricane Katrina hit.
[...]

"My grandmother, she got killed in 2007," said Geniece. "My uncle murdered her and so it's just a lot of things been going on the past four years."

Shirley says Denise, Byron and Geniece's mom, is still mourning the loss of her mother.

"Her brother killed her mom," said Shirley. "He just snapped and the mother surprised him, flew in and surprised him Easter and went to his house, his trailer, came in and he beat her to death."

Denise did not want to talk on camera, but Byron's sister says he suffers from some mental conditions.

"He has a little problem as far as depression and anxiety," said Geniece.

She says Byron had just served two years for allegedly beating their other sister, but she can't believe he could commit murder.

"He wouldn't do nothing like that," said Geniece. "Because...Byron he come home, he eat...he lay down, watch TV, do his homework [and] that's it. You know, he ain't never killed nobody, you know. I just don't understand."

Geniece says her brother had gotten into some fights at school but made good grades and liked sports. She says just like the victim's family, they too are grieving.

"He's very smart [and] intelligent," she said. "He goes to church and everything, and I just want to say that my heart goes out to the Henry family and I'm real devastated about the situation. I'm hurt as well as them."

http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11194291

He ain't never killed nobody???? Well, there's a first time for everything.

**Dakota Valkyrie** · May 30th, 2010, 08:51 AM

Todd Henry's death in a Tyler classroom last September was a predictable horror story.

Cops and educators, judges and doctors, counselors and prison guards shuffled a throwaway kid named Byron through institution after institution – until he buried a butcher knife in the special education teacher's chest.

Even Henry saw it coming, saying weeks before he died that a kid in his class was going to kill someone. Describing the voices that told him to kill, Byron told a psychologist last month: "People already knew that something was going to happen like this."

Long before the classroom killing, state and local agencies exhaustively documented the 17-year-old's descent into madness and violence.

At 9, Byron tried to stab his brother. At 13, he brought a knife to school, fought without provocation and choked a child on a school bus. At 14, he chased his brother with a meat cleaver. Months later, he stabbed his younger sister in the back with a steak knife.

In a Texas Youth Commission juvenile prison, Byron repeatedly attacked guards and other inmates and was caught with razor shards in his cell. After his arrest on murder charges at 16, Byron taunted juvenile jail guards, saying he could kill them if he felt like it. This spring, he was caught pocketing a plastic knife in a mental hospital.

Yet bureaucrat after bureaucrat seemed bent on making a deranged child someone else's problem. Byron was pushed from school to treatment center to prison and back in a pattern that, on paper, looks like treatment by transfer.

Official fears about what Byron might be capable of went largely unshared until Henry died. Fragmented educational, mental health and justice agencies appeared incapable of communicating with one another, even after state psychologists declared Byron too sick for juvenile prison and unstable enough to warrant locking up every knife in his family's home.

"I'm not mad at Byron. I just want him put where he can't hurt anyone ever again," said Henry's widow, Jan. "I'm angry at the system. It failed Todd. The system put [Byron] in my husband's classroom. Todd didn't have a chance. And that can never, ever happen again."

Byron is jailed, awaiting pretrial hearings. His court-appointed lawyer, Jim Huggler of Tyler, echoes Jan Henry's assessment. He says Byron needs what he has never gotten – consistent mental health treatment.

"He hasn't just fallen through the cracks. The system keeps throwing him through the cracks," Huggler said. "Everything set up to prevent what happened to Mr. Henry was broken."

Experts say such disconnects are sadly common. The head of a Michigan juvenile agency recently told Congress that the problem of juvenile offenders getting little coordinated care until they commit horrific crimes is "the hidden secret that nobody wants to talk about."
[...]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...2.296f60e.html

A rather long article based on 7,000 pages of reports and forms (a five-foot stack of paper weighing 70 pounds) of the kid's history.

Horrifying on so many levels...

**DamagedGoods** · July 25th, 2011, 11:00 PM

Originally Posted by johnrichard

One hardly discussed issue over those days. But the present conditions proves that it has changed a lot more in a better way. That incident clearly lead to manage things at current level and it gives hope to the development process of John Tyler High School. We have to see the encouraging moves and have to be enjoyed it.

This is great. I'm going to make minor changes to this so I can use it tomorrow on one of my housemates, just because i love confusing people.

**DamagedGoods** · July 25th, 2011, 11:07 PM

Victim: "Hey have we got any eggs I can use?"
ME: "One hardly discussed issue over those days!"
Victim: "What?!"
ME: "You know, when we were talking about the eggs I bought last week."
Victim: "I don't remember that happening... ever."
ME: "Well the present conditions proves that it has changed a lot more in a better way."
Victim: "What the hell are you trying to tell me?"
ME: "You know, I have no fucking idea. But we have to see the encouraging moves and have to be enjoyed it."

Yeah I know I need to shut up now....

**Nell** · July 25th, 2011, 11:11 PM

Originally Posted by johnrichard

One hardly discussed issue over those days. But the present conditions proves that it has changed a lot more in a better way. That incident clearly lead to manage things at current level and it gives hope to the development process of [REMOVED SPAM LINK]. We have to see the encouraging moves and have to be enjoyed it.

BOT!

**Silvahalo** · July 25th, 2011, 11:49 PM

You know, he ain't never killed nobody, you know. I just don't understand."

At 9, Byron tried to stab his brother. At 13, he brought a knife to school, fought without provocation and choked a child on a school bus. At 14, he chased his brother with a meat cleaver. Months later, he stabbed his younger sister in the back with a steak knife.

In a Texas Youth Commission juvenile prison, Byron repeatedly attacked guards and other inmates and was caught with razor shards in his cell. After his arrest on murder charges at 16, Byron taunted juvenile jail guards, saying he could kill them if he felt like it. This spring, he was caught pocketing a plastic knife in a mental hospital.

And what part is it that the family
just don't understand?l sure he 'ain't killed nobody...'. but he was practicing for the real deal, best buds with death...cheering him on! such a tragedy.

Rest in peace Mr. Todd R. Henry.

**Dakota Valkyrie** · July 26th, 2011, 12:11 PM

Originally Posted by Nell

BOT!

Thank you for reporting this to the mods. Thanks for quoting the crap.

He's still not a bot. He's a spammer.

**Ninja0980** · July 26th, 2011, 01:43 PM

This is a case where the victim and perp were failed by the system ,his family and everyone else. Byron was given no help for his mental illiness and instead was simply tossed from one group or home to the next so they wouldn't have to deal with him. His family choose to stick their heads in the sand over his illiness. End result,poor Mr. Henry died.