EDITORIAL - In the rural Central California city of Madera, Thomas Jefferson Junior High principal Benny Barsotti was concerned that one of his teachers did not show up for school or call in for a substitute. This was highly unusual for this teacher, who chaired the school's English department and was hired thirteen years earlier from the Stanford University Graduate Program. The teacher lived alone, just three houses south of the school, so Barsotti walked over to see if everything was all right. First, he knocked on the front door, but there was no answer. Then, he noticed the teacher's car was not in the driveway. For some reason, Barsotti walked around the house to the backyard and looked through two French doors that looked into the living room. He then got on his school radio and told the school secretary to call the police immediately.[1]
When Officer Sam Anderson arrived at the house three minutes later, he was directed to the backyard, where he attempted to gain entry. Once inside, he found what appeared to be a body covered by a large bath towel, leaning on the front door in a seated position on the floor, where a large pool of blood had formed. The officer noticed the wall and door behind the body were covered in blood splatter, with bloody handprints down the hallway to the back of the house and a trail of blood to the home's only bathroom. When the officer removed the towel, he found the bludgeoned nude body of Glenn Reitz, the 35-year-old missing teacher. Anderson placed the towel back on top of Reitz’s head and body as he found it, then backed out of the house while calling for a supervisor and two of the department's detectives.[2] Once detectives arrived and the crime tape went up, the rumors began, and this teacher, who always placed the needs of his students first, went from a position of respect to becoming that gay teacher who was killed in Madera.
