Saturday night before last, a 21-year-old known as “Scout” Schultz was shot dead at Georgia Tech. The shooter was a campus cop. Scout, a Tech undergrad, advanced on cops with a knife. He was taunting them to shoot as he advanced. He ignored warnings to stop. A cop fired once. The bullet struck Scout’s heart. He was pronounced dead at Grady Memorial Hospital 30 minutes later. It was discovered that the pocket knife’s blade was closed.

By all accounts, Scout was mentally ill. He was smart as a whip, per reports, and quite active in the “GT Progressive Student Alliance.” That’s code for left-wing. More to the point, Scout was an activist for campus “LGBTQIA” causes. Wonder what that is? Ready for this? Here goes: “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, Intersex, and Allies.”

Scout claimed to be “intersex,” which is said to be a result of genital abnormalities. Atlanta news reports are suggesting Scout’s mental illness grew out of stresses associated with his supposed abnormality. This without documentation or sourcing about Scout’s condition other than the say-so of his mother and his own assertion.

Scout’s mother, Lynne Schultz, did claim that her son suffered on-again, off-again depression. He had a history of such dating back to his boyhood, she said. Scout, per Schultz, had used a belt to try to hang himself a couple of years before. From the Atlanta Journal Constitution report (see link below): “Diagnosed with depression at a young age, Scout’s mental health often wavered.”   

From ajc.com:

Scout Schultz, according to the mother, chose to identify as nonbinary, neither male nor female, and was classified as intersex, meaning a person has biological or physiological characteristics that aren’t necessarily fully male or female. That’s different from “transgender,” where people feel they know what their gender is and that it’s not the gender they were assigned.      

In lockstep with political correctness, ajc.com borrowed from the Associated Press guidelines when dealing with someone who’s intersex, referring to the person as “they.”  

LGBTQIA activists -- with a helping hand from the Atlanta Journal Constitution -- were quick to assign a reason for Scout’s mental illness, one that’s relevant to their cause and serves their political agenda. Of course, as the left and its allied grievance groups do, Georgia Tech was blamed, in part, for Scout’s death. Why?

“Scout committed suicide, and students have received inadequate help from campus mental health services,” the [GT Progressive Student Alliance] demands letter reads.    

Isn’t it Georgia Tech’s primary mission to educate? Per the demands letter, cops whose lives are at risk need training to “deescalate” confrontations. That’s a lot to ask from cops with a would-be assailant making for them, weapon in hand, at night… cops who often have to make split-second life or death decisions. Scout’s knife blade may have been shut, but cops didn’t know that in the moment. Tasers and pepper-spray may not stop an adrenalin-pumped attacker. The mentally ill can kill, too.     

It’s quite possible that Scout was troubled for reasons that didn’t originate with his supposed “intersexuality.” That, in other words, his sexual tumult might have been an outgrowth of other troubles. But that doesn’t suit the progressive narrative. A tragedy must never go to waste.

The ajc.com doesn’t explore what the many causes could be for a young boy’s depression. Was the cause(s) pedestrian, as in biochemical imbalances? Social environment (unrelated to sexuality), at home, school, or elsewhere? Or some combination? Might Scout, then a mere boy, not have been tormented in the least by sexuality?

For the ajc.com, Scout appears to be the victim of a lifetime of sexual identity stresses. Then, again, the newspaper may be unsure. A so-called expert seems so. 

One more slice from the ajc.com report:

A recent national study found that 40 percent of transgender and non-gender-conforming people attempt suicide. But Jeff Graham, executive director of Georgia Equality, cautioned against jumping to conclusions.

An intersex person might or might not have greater mental health issues, because growing up intersex or transgender can carry a stigma and be highly stressful, he said. However, Graham stressed, “What‘s important for folks to recognize is there may have been some health issues involved, but mental health issues are not necessarily related to our gender identity.”

If Scout was confused by “they” sexuality, an assumed expert, Jeff Graham, sheds no light.

Note the article’s claim of a “recent national study” has no attribution. But the suicide attempt rates may well be high among intersexuals. At least, they’re reported as high among transgenders. Deeply troubled people may be more prone to try suicide, in any event -- or at least contemplate it. Deeply troubled, as in minds so disturbed and emotions so jumbled that a man fancies himself a woman trapped in a man’s body -- or visa versa.

What Scout’s death should be about isn’t efforts to score points for leftist politics and promote LGBTQIA causes – or whatever the cool marginalia du jour. It shouldn’t be about marching with fluttering rainbow banners – tromping down streets and sidewalks in fist-pumping righteousness. It shouldn’t be about blame-games to extract concessions from an organization and gain leverage. (Georgia Tech president, G.P. “Bud” Peterson has just created a fund for “student mental health and wellness initiatives.”) Nor should it be about faddish Associated Press guidelines referring to a man or woman as “they.”

It wasn’t, as Rolling Stone headlined, “Georgia Tech Shooting Shows Schism Between LGBTQ Community and Police.”

What happened to Scout was really about Scout, a young man with an apparent long history of mental woes, who though having reached his majority, had no business alone on Georgia Tech’s campus on a Saturday night. Who attempted suicide previously, and who evidently nursed a death wish to fruition… who, in the process, threatened cops’ lives. A young man who needed ongoing, routine mental health treatment and monitoring -- which weren’t the responsibilities of an engineering school.

Yet, this troubled young man’s death becomes a prop to push political and social causes… to demand concessions and entitlements… to impose upon society an agenda at odds with time-honored norms – norms consistent with nature -- the imposition of which damages the health and well-being of society.

His name was Scout. And his death wasn’t about a cause.