People often like to say that there are two kinds of people. This comparison is usually used to describe two people on different sides of the spectrum — for example, happy and sad people. These people would sit on opposing sides, unable to find a middle ground. However, I believe that there are many types of people, and how these people interact within the middle ground shows who they are as a person.
On Nov. 7, 18-year-old Luke ‘Sasha’ Fleischman was riding an AC Transit bus in Oakland, Calif. when he fell asleep mid-route. Suddenly, an unprovoked teenager aboard the bus set the skirt of sleeping Fleischman on fire. Fleischman was awoken to flames engulfing his calves and thighs.
The Daily Mail reported Fleischman’s reaction to this horrific event.
“My first instinct was kind of dumb,” Fleischman said. “I started waving it around trying to put it out with air, but that just fanned the flames and made it bigger.”
Although Fleischman was able to put out this fire by employing the “stop, drop and roll” technique we are taught as children, this incident could have ended much worse.
This attack on Fleischman is believed to be a hate crime targeting Fleischman’s appearance. While Fleischman has the general appearance of any other teenage boy, he enjoys wearing skirts, is known as Sasha by others and refers to himself as gender-neutral or agender.
According to nobinary.org, “agender (aka genderless or non-gender) is an identity under the nonbinary and transgender umbrellas. Agender individuals have no gender identity and/or no gender expression.”
Officials concluded this was a hate crime when the suspect, 16-year-old Richard Thomas, admitted that he lit Fleischman’s skirt on fire because of his homophobic fears.
It’s a sad world we live in where individuals are targeted by others for merely being themselves. In addition, it’s unfortunate that hate crimes are not unusual in this day and age.
By definition of fbi.gov, hate crimes are defined as criminal offenses “against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.”
As a result of this hate crime, Fleischman had to spend three weeks in the hospital to undergo multiple surgeries to treat the second and third degree burns he received on his legs. On the bright side, Fleischman was able to be released from the hospital before Thanksgiving, so he was able to spend the day with his family.
From this unfortunate act of prejudice, two interesting results emerged. The first result was Fleischman believing that the court should not charge Thomas as an adult.
According to an article by Fox News, Fleischman attempts to be forgiving. While admitting that Thomas should know better than to pull such a “prank,” Fleischman took his age into account.
“I don’t want to be too harsh because people do dumb things, especially when they’re teenagers. If I had my way, I’d have him tried as a juvenile,” Fleischman said.
Thomas is currently being charged as an adult with aggravated mayhem and felony assault with hate crime enhancements.
I believe that it was right for Thomas to be charged as an adult. He was able to make the conscious decision to light the clothing of a complete stranger on fire because he wasn’t comfortable with the life the stranger chose to live; therefore, he should be able to deal with the consequences of causing another human being physical pain.
While Thomas may not be accepting of Fleischman’s life choices, many people are. Not only have tens of thousands of dollars been raised by family and friends to help pay for medical bills, but members of Fleischman’s school joined the cause by wearing skirts in celebration of “Skirts for Sasha Day.”
There are so many different kinds of people who are going to look, dress, act, and speak differently from the next person. It’s all about how these diverse people approach someone unlike themselves that shows who they are.
Senior staff columnist Kelly Schafler is a print journalism junior and may be reached at [email protected]
