MC Quixote

Origins of the FACE Movement Part 5

Unfortunately, we have to go back to the day Miguel was shot and killed to understand how the FACE Movement started. Miguel died the year before I came to Kearns High.

I remember the first time my dad and I drove up to the school and I saw this pair of high tops hanging from a telephone wire in front of the school. It kind of scared me at first. Then, I heard the rumor that these hanging shoes represented the murder of Miguel, and that terrified me.

People say that it was Miguel's girlfriend who grabbed his gym shoes out of his locker after she heard he got shot. Then, after Miguel died, she made sure to hang them in front of the school to remind everyone of the tragedy.

Everyday I go to school, the first thing I see out front, are those hanging shoes. It makes me think about Miguel before I walk through the school doors. I pay respect to his family and loved ones. I mourn his shortened life and remember that this place can be brutal.

I've heard a lot of different versions about what happened that day, so all I can do is try to put them together with the scattered facts and nonfacts.

Fact: We know there was an altercation with two students that started at the high school and then continued in a bordering neighborhood off campus.

Fact: We know Miguel came back to the school office to get medical help.

Fact: We know Miguel was bleeding when he arrived at the main office of the school. 

Fact: We know that Miguel was taken to a hospital.

Fact: We know Miguel died in the hospital.

Fact: Miguel died of a gunshot wound to the stomach.

Fact: The shooter brought a gun to school that day.

Fact: The shooter brought a gun to the fight.

Fact: The shooter shot the gun more than once.

Fact: The gun, the shooter brought to school, was the gun used to fatally shoot Miguel.

The nonfacts, well, they have to start with the media quickly stating it was the result of gang related tensions and that Miguel was in a gang.

Nonfact: Miguel and the shooter had conflicts before.

Nonfact: The shooter didn't intend to shoot anyone.

Nonfact: The shooter and Miguel fought off campus.

Nonfact: Miguel went to watch a fight between the shooter and one of his friends.

Fact: Miguel was 16 years old and the person who killed him was 17 years old.

Fact: The charges against the murderer were reduced from first degree homicide to third degree homicide.

Fact: The person who killed Miguel was sentenced to five years in prison.

Question: Why such a short sentence for taking someone's life?

Nonfact: The murder was the result of a Polynesian / Latino conflict.

Fact: Miguel was Latino/Mexican, and the shooter is Polynesian/Samoan.

And all my detective work leaves me angry, time to write a song.