mick silver
10th May 2012, 04:45 PM
Mitt Romney forced to apologize 'after he held down gay taunt classmate and chopped off his hair' during school 'attack'
Republican presidential candidate shouted 'Atta girl' at male student who was a closeted gay
Behaved in 'sour' fashion to fellow student on a scholarship
By Daniel Bates (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=&authornamef=Daniel+Bates)
PUBLISHED: 11:10 EST, 10 May 2012 | UPDATED: 13:45 EST, 10 May 2012
Comments (195) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142469/Mitt-Romney-held-gay-taunt-classmate-cut-hair-school-attack.html#comments)
Share (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142469/Mitt-Romney-held-gay-taunt-classmate-cut-hair-school-attack.html#socialLinks)
Mitt Romney has been forced to apologize today for forcibly shaving the head of a high school classmate who was regularly taunted for being gay.
The Republican presidential candidate grabbed tearful John Lauber and hacked away with a pair of scissors because he thought his bleached blond hair was ‘wrong’.
Mr Romney also supposedly mocked another student who was a closeted gay by shouting ‘Atta girl!’ when he tried to speak in class.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/10/article-2142469-13066915000005DC-626_634x434.jpg Family politics: Mitt Romney (left) in 1962 with his mother Lenore and father George who became governor of Michigan
The damaging claims come a day after Barack Obama said he was in favour of gay marriage.
Mr Romney has made it clear he opposes it but issued an apology for fear of being seen as homophobic.
He said: ‘Back in high school, you know, I did some dumb things. If anyone was hurt by that or offended by that, obviously I apologize.
More...
Obama's sudden support of gay marriage nets him $1MILLION in just 90 minutes as Republicans accuse him of 'playing politics' (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142198/Gay-marriage-Barack-Obamas-shift-sex-marriage-nets-1m-90-minutes.html)
Clooney to hold fundraising dinner for Obama in his own home (and it’s set to make a record-breaking £12million) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142263/Clooney-hold-fundraising-dinner-Obama-home-s-set-make-recordbreaking-12million.html)
Santorum endorses Romney as GOP nominee after bitter contest as he concedes Obama 'must be defeated' (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2141051/Santorum-endorses-Romney-GOP-nominee-bitter-contest-concedes-Obama-defeated.html)
Single mother Bristol Palin says Obama is wrong to endorse same-sex marriage... because children need a mother and a father (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142589/Single-mother-Bristol-Palin-says-Obama-wrong-endorse-sex-marriage--children-need-mother-father.html)
‘But overall, high school years were a long time ago'.
Interviews with Mr Romney’s former classmates at the $54,000 a year Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, reveal he was fond of jokes that were mostly good-natured by sometimes had a hard edge.
After the shaving incident Mr Lauber ‘seemed to disappear’ from life in school and was later expelled for smoking and died in 2004 of liver cancer.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/10/article-2142469-1306691D000005DC-783_634x416.jpg Torment: The Republican presidential hopeful was said to have taunted students who were known to be gay and those from poor backgrounds at the exclusive Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Decades after it happened he ran into one of Romney’s friends who helped hold him down and told him: ‘It was horrible. It’s something I have thought about a lot since then.’
The incident supposedly happened in the summer term in 1965 when Mr Lauber, who was a year below Mr Romney, came back from Spring Break with his hair dyed blond and styled so it was draped over one eye.
EDUCATING ROMNEY
Mitt Romney attended the Roosevelt Elementary School in Detroit, Michigan.
From the 7th grade, he was enrolled at the Cranbrook Academy, an exclusive, boys-only private school in Bloomfield Hills.
He was not known to be a particularly stand-out student but was a member of the cross-country team and pep squad.
He graduated high school in 1965 and began studying at Stanford University - then left to undertake missionary work in France.
He went back to college at Brigham Young, graduating in 1971 with a degree in English.
He went on to earn dual degrees from Harvard Law and Harvard Business School.
According to the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mitt-romneys-prep-school-classmates-recall-pranks-but-also-troubling-incidents/2012/05/10/gIQA3WOKFU_story.html?hpid=z2), Mr Romney would not let it go and told his friend Matthew Friedemann: ‘He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!’
A few days later Mr Romney assembled a posse which found Mr Lauber, tackled him to the floor and held him down whilst the future governor of Massachusetts snipped away.
When it was completed, the crowd cheered Romney as he walked out of the room.
The incident was recalled by five former Cranbrook pupils including Thomas Buford, a retired prosecutor, who helped hold Mr Lauber down.
He said: ‘It happened very quickly, and to this day it troubles me. What a senseless, stupid, idiotic thing to do.’
Phillip Maxwell, who is now a lawyer, added: ‘It was a hack job. It was vicious.’
Mr Friedemann, a dentist, also felt bad for not stopping it happening and admitted Mr Lauber was ‘easy pickins’.
Romney’s time at Cranbrook is credited with shaping into the hard-working, driven man he is today.
It was also the time in his life when sports and socialising governed his life more than at any other time.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/10/article-2142469-13034321000005DC-809_306x423.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/10/article-2142469-1304EF65000005DC-57_306x423.jpg
Opposition: Mitt Romney was forced to defend himself saying he was not homophobic the day after President Obama said he supported gay marriage
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/10/article-2142469-1306BCDB000005DC-536_634x380.jpg Family man: From right, Michigan Governor George Romney, his wife Lenore, daughter Lynn and son Mitt in New York, 1964
Friends recalled how he and his friends would be up all night larking around, the sound of his laughter filling the corridors at 2am.
In English class however things took a more sinister twist - Mr Romney had a habit of interrupting fellow pupil Gary Hummel, a closeted gay at the time, by shouting: ‘Atta girl!’
According to the Washington Post he also behaved in a ‘sour’ fashion towards scholarship student Lou Vierling when he found he he was from a poor area of Detroit.
Mr Romney’s wife Ann has claimed that contrary to his public image as a ‘tin man’, as one friend has claimed, he is actually a ‘wild and crazy man’.
It was a hack job. It was vicious.
Phillip Maxwell, former classmate of
Mitt Romney
And details about his pranks have come to light before, notably in the biography, ‘The Real Romney’, by Boston Globe investigative reporters Michael Kranish and Scott Helman
The problem with the latest revelations however is that they suggest a cruelty which voters might find hard to stomach.
Romney’s most famous such incident is also his most controversial - when he strapped his dog to the top of his car whilst on a 12-hour drive from Massachusetts to Canada in 1983.
Seamus the Irish Setter was put in a crate on top of the vehicle because there wasn’t room inside.
Among the claims in ‘The Real Romney’, is that Mr Romney once shouted: ‘Oh yeah!’ and gave an impromptu rendition of the Michael Jackson hit ‘Billie Jean’ at a meeting with other Mormons - whilst doing the Moonwalk.
While at Stanford University he dressed up as an anti-Vietnam protester to infiltrate what he thought was a plot to embarrass the college.
At Cranbrook he also once staged an ‘elaborate formal dinner’ in a busy corridor and another time impersonated a cop to scare two girls who were being driven around by two friends.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/10/article-2142469-13070594000005DC-762_634x505.jpg Togetherness: George Romney and family pose after he was elected Governor of Michigan in 1962. From left: daughter Mrs Lynn Keenan; son Mitt Romney; Mrs. Romney; governor-elect and daughter Mrs Jane Robinson
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/10/article-2142469-13066919000005DC-64_634x401.jpg Acceptance: The church at the exclusive Cranbrook school which Mitt Romney attended in his teens
When Mr Romney flagged them down he discovered some beer in the trunk as they had agreed would happen - but left the women terrified they were about to get into trouble.
Mr Romney’s spokeswoman Andrea Saul said: ‘Anyone who knows Mitt Romney knows that he doesn’t have a mean-spirited bone in his body.’
Obama's dramatic change of heart on the issue of gay marriage yesterday sent shockwaves through the political world.
But while gay rights advocates applauded Obama's announcement on Wednesday, Republicans accused the commander-in-chief of pulling off a cynical political manoeuvre.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus accused Obama of placating to voters.
Priebus said in a statement: 'While President Obama has played politics on this issue, the Republican Party and our presumptive nominee Mitt Romney have been clear.'
Obama's announcement also opened up the first major battleground in this year's election campaign.
Romney himself did not swipe at Obama directly, but affirmed his own views on same-sex unions during an Oklahoma campaign stop, saying: 'I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142469/Mitt-Romney-held-gay-taunt-classmate-cut-hair-school-attack.html#ixzz1uVuBNQrY
Republican presidential candidate shouted 'Atta girl' at male student who was a closeted gay
Behaved in 'sour' fashion to fellow student on a scholarship
By Daniel Bates (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=&authornamef=Daniel+Bates)
PUBLISHED: 11:10 EST, 10 May 2012 | UPDATED: 13:45 EST, 10 May 2012
Comments (195) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142469/Mitt-Romney-held-gay-taunt-classmate-cut-hair-school-attack.html#comments)
Share (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142469/Mitt-Romney-held-gay-taunt-classmate-cut-hair-school-attack.html#socialLinks)
Mitt Romney has been forced to apologize today for forcibly shaving the head of a high school classmate who was regularly taunted for being gay.
The Republican presidential candidate grabbed tearful John Lauber and hacked away with a pair of scissors because he thought his bleached blond hair was ‘wrong’.
Mr Romney also supposedly mocked another student who was a closeted gay by shouting ‘Atta girl!’ when he tried to speak in class.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/10/article-2142469-13066915000005DC-626_634x434.jpg Family politics: Mitt Romney (left) in 1962 with his mother Lenore and father George who became governor of Michigan
The damaging claims come a day after Barack Obama said he was in favour of gay marriage.
Mr Romney has made it clear he opposes it but issued an apology for fear of being seen as homophobic.
He said: ‘Back in high school, you know, I did some dumb things. If anyone was hurt by that or offended by that, obviously I apologize.
More...
Obama's sudden support of gay marriage nets him $1MILLION in just 90 minutes as Republicans accuse him of 'playing politics' (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142198/Gay-marriage-Barack-Obamas-shift-sex-marriage-nets-1m-90-minutes.html)
Clooney to hold fundraising dinner for Obama in his own home (and it’s set to make a record-breaking £12million) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142263/Clooney-hold-fundraising-dinner-Obama-home-s-set-make-recordbreaking-12million.html)
Santorum endorses Romney as GOP nominee after bitter contest as he concedes Obama 'must be defeated' (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2141051/Santorum-endorses-Romney-GOP-nominee-bitter-contest-concedes-Obama-defeated.html)
Single mother Bristol Palin says Obama is wrong to endorse same-sex marriage... because children need a mother and a father (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142589/Single-mother-Bristol-Palin-says-Obama-wrong-endorse-sex-marriage--children-need-mother-father.html)
‘But overall, high school years were a long time ago'.
Interviews with Mr Romney’s former classmates at the $54,000 a year Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, reveal he was fond of jokes that were mostly good-natured by sometimes had a hard edge.
After the shaving incident Mr Lauber ‘seemed to disappear’ from life in school and was later expelled for smoking and died in 2004 of liver cancer.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/10/article-2142469-1306691D000005DC-783_634x416.jpg Torment: The Republican presidential hopeful was said to have taunted students who were known to be gay and those from poor backgrounds at the exclusive Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Decades after it happened he ran into one of Romney’s friends who helped hold him down and told him: ‘It was horrible. It’s something I have thought about a lot since then.’
The incident supposedly happened in the summer term in 1965 when Mr Lauber, who was a year below Mr Romney, came back from Spring Break with his hair dyed blond and styled so it was draped over one eye.
EDUCATING ROMNEY
Mitt Romney attended the Roosevelt Elementary School in Detroit, Michigan.
From the 7th grade, he was enrolled at the Cranbrook Academy, an exclusive, boys-only private school in Bloomfield Hills.
He was not known to be a particularly stand-out student but was a member of the cross-country team and pep squad.
He graduated high school in 1965 and began studying at Stanford University - then left to undertake missionary work in France.
He went back to college at Brigham Young, graduating in 1971 with a degree in English.
He went on to earn dual degrees from Harvard Law and Harvard Business School.
According to the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mitt-romneys-prep-school-classmates-recall-pranks-but-also-troubling-incidents/2012/05/10/gIQA3WOKFU_story.html?hpid=z2), Mr Romney would not let it go and told his friend Matthew Friedemann: ‘He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!’
A few days later Mr Romney assembled a posse which found Mr Lauber, tackled him to the floor and held him down whilst the future governor of Massachusetts snipped away.
When it was completed, the crowd cheered Romney as he walked out of the room.
The incident was recalled by five former Cranbrook pupils including Thomas Buford, a retired prosecutor, who helped hold Mr Lauber down.
He said: ‘It happened very quickly, and to this day it troubles me. What a senseless, stupid, idiotic thing to do.’
Phillip Maxwell, who is now a lawyer, added: ‘It was a hack job. It was vicious.’
Mr Friedemann, a dentist, also felt bad for not stopping it happening and admitted Mr Lauber was ‘easy pickins’.
Romney’s time at Cranbrook is credited with shaping into the hard-working, driven man he is today.
It was also the time in his life when sports and socialising governed his life more than at any other time.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/10/article-2142469-13034321000005DC-809_306x423.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/10/article-2142469-1304EF65000005DC-57_306x423.jpg
Opposition: Mitt Romney was forced to defend himself saying he was not homophobic the day after President Obama said he supported gay marriage
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/10/article-2142469-1306BCDB000005DC-536_634x380.jpg Family man: From right, Michigan Governor George Romney, his wife Lenore, daughter Lynn and son Mitt in New York, 1964
Friends recalled how he and his friends would be up all night larking around, the sound of his laughter filling the corridors at 2am.
In English class however things took a more sinister twist - Mr Romney had a habit of interrupting fellow pupil Gary Hummel, a closeted gay at the time, by shouting: ‘Atta girl!’
According to the Washington Post he also behaved in a ‘sour’ fashion towards scholarship student Lou Vierling when he found he he was from a poor area of Detroit.
Mr Romney’s wife Ann has claimed that contrary to his public image as a ‘tin man’, as one friend has claimed, he is actually a ‘wild and crazy man’.
It was a hack job. It was vicious.
Phillip Maxwell, former classmate of
Mitt Romney
And details about his pranks have come to light before, notably in the biography, ‘The Real Romney’, by Boston Globe investigative reporters Michael Kranish and Scott Helman
The problem with the latest revelations however is that they suggest a cruelty which voters might find hard to stomach.
Romney’s most famous such incident is also his most controversial - when he strapped his dog to the top of his car whilst on a 12-hour drive from Massachusetts to Canada in 1983.
Seamus the Irish Setter was put in a crate on top of the vehicle because there wasn’t room inside.
Among the claims in ‘The Real Romney’, is that Mr Romney once shouted: ‘Oh yeah!’ and gave an impromptu rendition of the Michael Jackson hit ‘Billie Jean’ at a meeting with other Mormons - whilst doing the Moonwalk.
While at Stanford University he dressed up as an anti-Vietnam protester to infiltrate what he thought was a plot to embarrass the college.
At Cranbrook he also once staged an ‘elaborate formal dinner’ in a busy corridor and another time impersonated a cop to scare two girls who were being driven around by two friends.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/10/article-2142469-13070594000005DC-762_634x505.jpg Togetherness: George Romney and family pose after he was elected Governor of Michigan in 1962. From left: daughter Mrs Lynn Keenan; son Mitt Romney; Mrs. Romney; governor-elect and daughter Mrs Jane Robinson
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/10/article-2142469-13066919000005DC-64_634x401.jpg Acceptance: The church at the exclusive Cranbrook school which Mitt Romney attended in his teens
When Mr Romney flagged them down he discovered some beer in the trunk as they had agreed would happen - but left the women terrified they were about to get into trouble.
Mr Romney’s spokeswoman Andrea Saul said: ‘Anyone who knows Mitt Romney knows that he doesn’t have a mean-spirited bone in his body.’
Obama's dramatic change of heart on the issue of gay marriage yesterday sent shockwaves through the political world.
But while gay rights advocates applauded Obama's announcement on Wednesday, Republicans accused the commander-in-chief of pulling off a cynical political manoeuvre.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus accused Obama of placating to voters.
Priebus said in a statement: 'While President Obama has played politics on this issue, the Republican Party and our presumptive nominee Mitt Romney have been clear.'
Obama's announcement also opened up the first major battleground in this year's election campaign.
Romney himself did not swipe at Obama directly, but affirmed his own views on same-sex unions during an Oklahoma campaign stop, saying: 'I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142469/Mitt-Romney-held-gay-taunt-classmate-cut-hair-school-attack.html#ixzz1uVuBNQrY