Dawn Boldrin took note when a subdued Larry King showed up for her class at E.O. Green Junior High in Oxnard dressed in his school uniform without the flashy boots and makeup.
The teacher heard he'd been roughed up the day before by boys put off by his effeminate manner. So, as she walked her eighth-graders to the computer lab on Feb. 12, 2008, she pulled him aside.
"Look Larry, you can't shove this into people's faces," Boldrin recalled warning the 15-year-old who had a habit of taunting those who made fun of him. "That's as wrong as them saying there's something wrong with you."
That was the last time she felt whole as a teacher, a mother and a wife, Boldrin said in a recent interview at her Camarillo home, the first time she has talked to the media about what happened that day.
Within minutes, one of Larry's classmates, Brandon McInerney, stood up in the lab, pulled out a gun and shot him twice from behind as Boldrin shouted, "What the hell are you doing, Brandon?"
Larry died two days later, and McInerney, 15, awaits trial on a first-degree murder charge in what prosecutors say was a hate crime. After many delays, the pretrial hearing is set for Monday in Ventura.
For Boldrin, the slaying was the beginning of an 18-month emotional descent.
Unable to get through the day without sobbing, she went on disability. Larry's parents sued her and other school officials for failing to prevent the shooting. Earlier this year, the 40-year-old lost her job.
She has twice been hospitalized for depression. Therapy hasn't erased the smell of gunpowder that morning or the sight of Larry lying in a pool of blood.
"I've definitely been cracked apart, and I'm trying to fit the pieces back together," the petite woman said.
In the months after the shooting, Boldrin refused to talk to reporters about what happened. She decided to open up now "because it's time."
"I don't want to relive that day. I almost feel like I repel people," she said. "But you almost feel compelled to explain it at some point."
This spring Boldrin, a teacher for 10 years, was placed on an inactive teaching list and her position was eliminated.
The district declined to comment, saying it was a personnel matter. Boldrin said officials told her the move was a needed cost-cutting measure, but she believes administrators view her as "damaged goods." In her darkest moments, she agrees.
