A Bronx teen accused of stabbing his classmates in retaliation over alleged homophobic bullying has been found guilty of manslaughter.
On Monday, Judge Michael Gross found Abel Cedeño guilty on charges of manslaughter, weapons possession, and assault for fatally stabbing 15-year-old Matthew McCree and stabbing Arian Laboy when he attempted to intervene at the Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation in 2017.
Cedeño’s lawyers asked Gross to allow their client to remain free until he’s sentenced, in order to receive psychiatric counseling and medication. But Gross denied the request, saying that could take place in prison.
Cedeño was taken into custody after the verdict was read and could face up to 50 years in prison after he’s sentenced on Sept. 10.
The teenager had originally been charged with murder for stabbing McCree, but was was eventually reduced to one count of first-degree manslaughter.
Prosecutors argued that Cedeño had brandished the knife on social media days before the incident, showing he planned the attack beforehand. In fact, they claimed that McCree and Laboy had not bullied Cedeño at all.
But Cedeño’s lawyers argued that he had been the victim of homophobic bullying over the years, and used the knife in self-defense.
Cedeño testified in court last week that he had endured years of homophobic bullying because of his sexual orientation.
“They pulled my hair, they pushed me, called me derogatory gay slurs,” he said.
Police claim that McCree and Laboy, as well as others, had been throwing broken bits of pencils, pen caps, and balls of paper at Cedeño’s head during history class. Cedeño allegedly excused himself to go to the bathroom, and returned with a switchblade knife.
Cedeño testified that his classmates had been harassing him in class. He claimed he didn’t remember stabbing anyone, but remembered being attacked.
“I yelled, whoever threw that is a [expletive],” Cedeño said of the classmates throwing things at him. “Matthew got up and said ‘it was me’… he pushed Mr. Jacoby to get to me. I used my right hand to take out the knife.”
McCree’s mother, Louna Dennis, said she was grateful for the verdict.
“I’m just so happy I got justice for my son,” she said.
A man has been arrested and charged in an attack on a 17-year-old transgender girl at Miami International Airport on July 20.
Alexander Love, 29, an Ohio resident most recently staying in Miami, faces charges of first-degree attempted murder with a deadly weapon and attempted premeditated murder for stabbing the victim at least 18 times and attempting to throw her off a fourth-floor balcony.
Miami-Dade police say the unidentified victim is a transgender girl who is in the process of transitioning. It's unclear whether she was attacked due to her gender identity.
A federal judge ruled that a D.C. public high school must allow a Christian sports organization that denounces homosexuality to form a chapter at the school.
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, of the District of Columbia, ruled earlier this month that D.C. Public Schools violated the constitutional rights of members of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) when it suspended -- and later barred -- the group from Jackson-Reed High School in Northwest Washington.
As recently as 2022, the club had previously been allowed to exist, to meet on campus, and to enjoy the benefits of being an officially recognized student club or group.
LGBTQ youth are more likely to experience persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness, demonstrate suicidal ideation, and engage in riskier personal behaviors.
The latest annual iteration of a youth health survey finds that LGBTQ youth were more likely to suffer from poor mental health and, last year, were more likely to experience suicidal thoughts than their cisgender and heterosexual peers.
According to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, published biennially by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than three in five LGBTQ high school students reported experiencing "persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness," with more than half reporting their mental health condition as "poor."
The survey poses various questions to thousands of high school-age children, from public and private schools, between grades 9 through 12, across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. While past surveys had included data on sexual orientation, the 2023 survey was the first to include questions about respondents' gender identities.
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