![]() ![]() Little did I realize he’d been grooming me. ![]() I transferred to the high school where he taught, feeling I could leave the years of pain and terror at school behind me. I had “talent.” Finally someone saw who I was and accepted me–he made me feel special, unique. The male drama teacher was especially supportive, attentive, and encouraging. The summer before ninth grade I took a drama class at a nearby high school and discovered that I loved becoming someone else on stage. I experienced this first-hand and became the target of a sexual molester. The sexual predator has an acute awareness of the “wounded” child and offers the lure of comfort, understanding, and friendship to create a false sense of trust, inevitably with the sole intent to satisfy his sexual appetites. Only then would it all stop.Ī bullied child who has become a social outcast yearns to be accepted, to have a friend, and is particularly susceptible to an adult role model. At times it became so unbearable that I pictured myself running into the street in front of oncoming traffic-only then would I find relief. I endured the daily pain of harassment at school crying myself to sleep at night or praying for hours that someone or something “fix” me, make me like the rest of the boys. But I knew I was not okay, not accepted, and only wished I wasn’t me. I was called gay, faggot, and sissy before I knew what the words meant. This same teacher also allowed fellow classmates to talk about my “gayness” when sharing during “current events.” If I tried to stop them, I was told to sit down and not interrupt. Even my fourth grade teacher asked me why I was such a sissy, and then told me all the teachers talked about it (me and my “affliction”) during lunch in the cafeteria. ![]() I was taunted, teased, and threatened from the second grade through my senior year in high school. Each morning before school I wondered how to make myself as inconspicuous as possible to avoid being tripped, having my locker vandalized, or my books getting knocked out of my arms. As a gay man, I have been on the receiving end of ridicule, prejudice, and hatred most of my life.Įvery day throughout elementary school in Burlingame and San Mateo in Northern California, I withstood bullying and name-calling. My mother and younger sister are devout Evangelical Christians who continue to “pray for me” to be delivered from homosexuality. My brother-in-law, married to my older sister, is Muslim. Return the joy you have us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.My name is Felix Montano and I am a gay 48-year-old first generation son of Cuban-American immigrant parents. “Somebody somewhere at some point is going to recognize the sculpture and then your game is up. “If you nabbed Buckminster in the hopes of displaying him in your yard or garden, maybe think twice and anonymously return him. ![]() Witcombe isn’t sure of what motivated the theft of Buckminster, but does have a message for whoever is responsible: RELATED: ‘Merry Driftmas’: Westcoastees launches line of driftwood art-inspired Christmas sweaters, shirts It was recovered by police a few days later. The sculpture was later relocated to the Oyster River Nature Park trail, but disappeared again in July 2019. It’s not the first time a member of his driftwood menagerie has gone missing.įergus the Fox disappeared in 2018 from his log in the Beaver lodge Lands, but reappeared the following week. “Whoever owl-napped him unscrewed the claws from the stump as well,” said Witcombe. Witcombe said the owl sculpture didn’t leave of his own accord. RELATED: Campbell River artists looking for a spot to put a 20-foot long driftwood salmonĪ photo of his Buckminster’s empty perch with just the screws sticking up verified the flight. “It really sucks that in times when people need every tiny scrap of joy they can, someone makes the deliberate choice to remove one of these pieces of joy.”Īfter initial reports came in that Buckminster might be missing, Witcombe put a call out on his Facebook page to see if anyone could confirm he’d flown the coop. “Buckminster the Grey Owl at Stories Beach has been owl-napped and is no longer there. A beloved animal sculpture is missing from its perch on Stories Beach, just south of Campbell River.ĭrifted Creations artist Alex Witcombe confirmed Buckminster, the Grey Owl’s disappearance on his Facebook page March 28. ![]()
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