Trouble Fitting In

[Paul Howell]

At http://www.sltrib.com/05282000/utah/52983.htm

Trouble Fitting In, Father says his son,
who vented his frustrations on the Net,
was made a scapegoat 

BY JOE BAIRD
(c) 2000, THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

   MILFORD Ian Michael
Lake didn't fit in this
southwest Utah railroad
town. On that everyone in this
close-knit community of
1,500 can agree. And most
believe the Milford High
School junior crossed a line
when he posted a Web site
disparaging faculty members
and classmates in
graphically vulgar terms. 
    But there is serious and,
perhaps, litigious
disagreement developing over how he became
marginalized and whether Lake's inflammatory home page
merited the seizure of his home computer and seven nights
in a juvenile detention facility. There is also the question of
the constitutionality of criminal libel charges he may soon
face. 
    David Lake, a Milford City maintenance worker, does not
dispute that his son messed up badly. Calling certain school
personnel "drunks" and some female classmates "sluts," as
well as casting doubt over the work ethics and competency
of several faculty members, are impossible to defend, he
says. But Lake also considers the response of Principal
Walter Schofield and Beaver County Sheriff Kenneth
Yardley an overreaction and complains that his 16-year-old
son is being made a scapegoat. 
    "Ian made some poor choices," says Lake, "but he didn't
think it was that big of a deal. For him, it was a tit-for-tat
thing. Everything he has done up to this point was in
retaliation for what other kids did, stuff that was just as
vulgar and just as hurtful. For me, the question isn't whether
Ian is going to be held accountable. It's whether the others
are going to be held to the same standard." 
    Lake is contemplating a lawsuit against the school district
and the county; the American Civil Liberties Union has taken
an interest in the case, as well. In the meantime, Milford's
residents are reeling -- not only from the incident itself, but
also from the subsequent news media attention. 
    "I've been really disheartened by the whole thing, and I
don't know where to put the blame," says Lorraine Antonio,
as she greets customers at the Trailside Gas Mart. "The
kids here are sweet. The families are nice. It's sad that it's
happened. And scary, too." 
    Milford residents got their initial look at the shocking but
unidentified Web site during the first week of May. Schofield
began receiving complaints from parents May 16. The
principal suspected Ian, who owned up to authorship.
Sheriff's deputies seized the boy's computer May 18 and
took it to the State Crime Lab for analysis. 
    That same day, 5th District Juvenile Court Judge Joseph
Jackson ordered Ian sent to Cedar City's juvenile detention
center because of safety concerns for him and the
community. Ian was released last Thursday and left for
southern California to stay with grandparents. There he will
remain until Beaver County Attorney Leo Kanell decides
whether to bring criminal libel charges. 
    If he does, it will be the first criminal libel case in Utah
involving the Internet. 
    Ian is scheduled for a hearing June 5. If charged, David
Lake says his son will plead not guilty "and prove that there
is a basis for everything said on his Web site." 
    Ian Lake planted his outsider flag, virtually, from the day
he arrived in town five years ago. David Lake moved his
family to Utah from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., seeking a
slower pace and refuge from the urban warfare of greater
Los Angeles. But the move uprooted Ian from the fast track
of malls and multiplexes to the outback. Milford not only has
no mall, but there is no theater and only a couple of places
to rent videos. The household income also took a
substantial hit. 
    It was a match made several levels below heaven. 
    Says David Lake: "Ian doesn't fit the Milford mold. He's a
southern California boy. It's been tough on him. It's been
tough on everybody. The kids not only treat him like an
outsider, but as a poor outsider who will never be part of
their clique." 
    Ian developed a small circle of friends over time, but was
better known at Milford High for his attention-getting garb,
be it his Rage Against the Machine T-shirts, an orange
Beaver County Jail jumpsuit or, on at least one occasion, his
dyed hair. 
    "He wrote poems that were really weird, poems about
God and death and repentance, about paying for our sins,"
says Milford High senior Cindy Barnes. "I know some kids
were scared of him." 
    But not all. "He was a joker. He was just being an idiot,"
says Etta Arch, a junior. "I know that when kids found out the
Web site was his, he was really embarrassed." 
    Still, Ian had his share of run-ins with classmates and
teachers at Milford High, particularly with Principal
Schofield, with whom he clashed on several occasions. 
    "There was insubordination, a lot of refusals to carry out
requests," says Schofield. "There was a lot of back talk and
swearing. Once he got going, he was kind of hard to stop." 
    Schofield adds that Ian also had an altercation with one
student at a football game last fall, and vaguely threatened
another student -- a class officer -- when told he was
academically unqualified to run for a student body post in
the spring elections. 
    Lake acknowledges his son has a temper, and has gotten
counseling to deal with it. "Ian's a fighter," he says. "He'll go
nose-to-nose with you if he thinks he's right. I'm fairly strict,
and we've had some pretty good arguments." 
    But he also thinks Ian has gotten a bad rap. Lake asked
Beaver School District Superintendent Henry Jolley, in an
April 4 letter, why his son was being singled out by Schofield
and why the rules of the school were not applied in an equal
manner. Ian also wrote Jolley, detailing how he was forced
to leave school because his hair was dyed pink. (Schofield
had thought the colored hair was a distraction). But, Ian
wrote, two other students whom he named had been
"walking around school with green hair all day yesterday and
continued to do it today" and were not sent home. 
    David Lake sent several such letters to the superintendent
over the past year. 
    None of Ian Lake's real-life and online conflicts might have
reached the level they did were it not for the memories of
Colorado's Columbine High School -- where two
marginalized students went on a fatal shooting spree last
year. Prior to their assault, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris
also posted internet ramblings. Schofield drew an instant
parallel and noted others did as well. 
    "Columbine was a definite worry," he says. "If you
disenfranchise somebody to the point where you become
their enemy or their classmates become the enemy, then
you want to remove them. Columbine did come up. Parents
didn't want to send their kids to school until he was
removed." 
    But while vulgar, Ian Lake's posts weren't threatening.
David Lake says his son was "shocked" to hear his Web
pages had been linked to the Columbine incident. 
    "I told Ian that his timing couldn't have stunk more," he
says. "But they're trying to make this into something that it's
not. Ian went to great lengths to use his pen instead of a gun.
I keep guns in this house and he knows where they are. He
wasn't out to kill anybody. He's an intelligent kid. He went as
far as he could with what he thought were the legal
boundaries." 
    Ian Lake's Internet guerrilla operation began taking shape
last November, when the school paper, The Hilltop Echo,
singled out one of his female friends for some unsavory
criticism as part of a gossip column filled with tidbits about
the romantic lives of Milford students. 
    In April, three Web pages by Milford students popped up
on the "Go Play" Internet site, at least one of which took
more shots at Ian Lake's friend. 
    Ian's response, according to his father, was to retaliate
with his own Web site. Working into the wee hours on his
bedroom computer, he eventually taught himself how to build
a home page and wound up with a five-page site that
slagged not only those responsible for the earlier criticisms,
but a total of 49 faculty and students -- and tipped his darts
with charges of promiscuity, homosexuality, substance
abuse, bad work habits and incompetency. 
    But Ian also handed out a few compliments on his site,
including a ringing, rambling defense of his friend and kind
words for a couple of teachers. 
    So, what was Ian Lake seeking? 
    Payback -- and, evidently, a quick ticket back to
California. 
    "His goal was to trash the school and get run out of town,"
says a somewhat impressed father. "And he did it."