Andy DehnartAmazing Race 12 stars Kynt Cothron and Vyxsin Fiala visited E.O. Green School last week, as a result of the Feb. 12 shooting death of cross-dressing 15-year-old student Larry King.
Students “at the Oxnard junior high school had seen King being teased by students in the weeks before the shooting for being gay and wearing high-heeled boots and makeup, and that’s partly what drew Kynt to the school,” the Ventura County Star reports. On the show, Kynt (and Vyxsin) often spent time applying makeup, and he also wore gender norm-challenging clothing like tights.
The AP reports that King “used to come to school in makeup, high heels and earrings. And when the other boys made fun of him, he would boldly tease them right back by flirting with them. … On Feb. 12, another student, Brandon McInerney, 14, shot him twice in the head at the back of the computer lab at their junior high school, police say.”
Kynt told the Ventura County Star, “It’s horrific what happened to Lawrence. But these children are victims, too.” In addition to taking Vyxsin’s vegan pink cupcakes to the class, they “planned a vigil in King’s memory in West Hollywood,” the paper says.
English teacher Dawn Boldrin, who taught the class where Larry was shot, said that only The Amazing Race stars offered support. “These two people called. Nobody else called. Nobody else has offered,” she said.