This is my Rajon Rondo column.
“Faggot!”
That’s what two students hollered at Joe Piemonte as he took part in a pep rally during his freshman year at East Longmeadow High School.
“Faggot!”
Piemonte was a member of the school’s cross country squad, and he and his teammates were expected to file onto the stage during the assembly.
“Faggot!”
As it happened, Piemonte was the first member of the team to step onto the stage. And that’s when he heard that word, in all its biting, cutting, intended-to-humiliate fury.
“Faggot!”
“I wanted to crawl under a rock and never go back to school again,” Piemonte said yesterday, recalling that memory from four years ago.