Editing Jeffrey Dahmer (section)

===Adolescence and high school===
[[File:Jeffrey Dahmer HS Yearbook.jpg|170px|thumb|Dahmer, pictured in the 1978 [[Revere High School (Ohio)|Revere High School]] yearbook, ''Reverie'']]
From his freshman year at [[Revere High School (Ohio)|Revere High School]], Dahmer was seen as an outcast.{{refn|group=n|In a 2002 paper published in the ''[[Journal of Forensic Sciences]]'', it has been suggested that Dahmer may have had [[Asperger syndrome]].{{sfn|Aggrawal|2016|p=127}}}} By age 14, he had begun drinking beer and hard alcohol in the daylight hours,{{sfn|Norris|1992|p=74}} frequently concealing his liquor inside the jacket he wore to school.<ref name="Biographics"/>{{sfn|Dvorchak|Holewa|1992|p=35}} When a classmate asked why he was drinking [[Scotch whisky|Scotch]] in a morning history class, Dahmer shrugged and said the alcohol was "my medicine".<ref>{{cite news|first1=James|last1=Barron|first2=Mary B. W.|last2=Tabor|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=JTUdAAAAIBAJ&pg=6988,582043|title=Dahmer Spent Years Crying Out For Attention|newspaper=[[Tuscaloosa News]]|date=August 3, 1991|access-date=August 24, 2017|pages=1A, 6A|archive-date=January 22, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122014323/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=JTUdAAAAIBAJ&pg=6988,582043|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Medicine">{{cite news|first1=James|last1=Barron|first2=Mary B.W.|last2=Tabor|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/04/us/17-killed-and-a-life-is-searched-for-clues.html|title=17 Killed, and a Life Is Searched for Clues|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=August 4, 1991|access-date=April 30, 2018|archive-date=June 15, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180615120402/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/04/us/17-killed-and-a-life-is-searched-for-clues.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Although largely uncommunicative, in his freshman year Dahmer was seen by staff as polite and highly intelligent, but earned only average grades.{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=45}} He was a competitive tennis player<ref>{{cite news |last1=Dyer |first1=Robert |title=Playing Tennis with Jeffrey Dahmer |url=https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/columns/2016/04/30/bob-dyer-playing-tennis-with/10703729007/ |access-date=November 19, 2022 |newspaper=[[Akron Beacon Journal]] |date=April 30, 2016 |archive-date=January 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230127175229/https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/columns/2016/04/30/bob-dyer-playing-tennis-with/10703729007/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and played briefly in the high school band.{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=42}}

When he reached puberty, Dahmer discovered he was gay;{{sfn|Masters|1993|pp=43–44}} he did not tell his parents. In his early teens, he had a brief relationship with another teenage boy, although they never had [[sexual intercourse|intercourse]].{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=43}} By Dahmer's admission, he began [[Sexual fantasy|fantasizing]] about dominating and controlling a completely submissive male partner in his early to mid-teens, and his masturbatory fantasies gradually evolved to his focusing on chests and torsos. These fantasies gradually became intertwined with dissection.{{sfn|Masters|1993|pp=51–52}}

When he was about 16, Dahmer conceived a fantasy of rendering unconscious a particular male jogger he found attractive, and then making sexual use of his body. On one occasion, Dahmer concealed himself in bushes with a baseball bat to lie in wait for this man. However, the jogger did not pass by on that particular day. Dahmer later admitted this was his first attempt to attack and render an individual submissive to him.{{sfn|Masters|1993|pp=51–52}}

Dahmer was known to his high school peers as a class clown who often staged pranks,{{sfn|Norris|1992|p=76}} which became known as "Doing a Dahmer"; these included bleating and simulating [[epileptic seizure]]s or [[cerebral palsy]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oxygen.com/dahmer-on-dahmer-a-serial-killer-speaks/blogs/everything-you-need-to-know-about-jeffrey-dahmer|last=Tron|first=Gina|title=Everything You Need to Know About Jeffrey Dahmer|website=[[Oxygen.com]]|date=October 27, 2017|access-date=September 28, 2022|archive-date=September 28, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220928011405/https://www.oxygen.com/dahmer-on-dahmer-a-serial-killer-speaks/blogs/everything-you-need-to-know-about-jeffrey-dahmer|url-status=live}}</ref> at school and local stores.{{sfn|Norris|1992|p=77}} Occasionally, Dahmer would perform these antics for money to purchase alcohol.{{sfn|Dvorchak|Holewa|1992|p=37}}

By 1977, Dahmer's grades had declined.{{sfn|Dahmer|1994|pp=76–79}} His parents hired a private tutor, with limited success. The same year, in an attempt to save their marriage, his parents attended [[couples therapy|counseling sessions]]. They continued to quarrel frequently. When Lionel discovered Joyce had engaged in a brief affair in September 1977, they decided to divorce, telling their sons they wished to do so amicably. The process of their divorce soon became increasingly bitter and acrimonious, and Lionel moved out of the house in early 1978,<ref name="Acrimony">{{cite news |title=Distress Signals from a Disturbed Life: Abundant Clues, but No Simple Answers |date=August 12, 1991 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43653/dahmer |newspaper=[[The Galveston Daily News]] |access-date=January 23, 2023 |archive-date=October 31, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211031233700/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43653/dahmer |url-status=live}}</ref> temporarily residing in a motel on North Cleveland Massillon Road.{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=56}}<ref>{{cite news|first=Mary B.W.|last=Taylor|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/04/us/17-killed-and-a-life-is-searched-for-clues.html|title=Seventeen Killed, and a Life Is Searched For Clues|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=August 4, 1991|access-date=March 25, 2021|archive-date=July 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709150754/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/04/us/17-killed-and-a-life-is-searched-for-clues.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In May 1978, Dahmer graduated from high school. A few weeks before his graduation, one of his teachers observed Dahmer sitting close to the school parking lot, drinking several cans of beer.{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=57}} When the teacher threatened to report the matter, Dahmer informed him he was experiencing "a lot of problems" at home and that the school's guidance counselor was aware of them. That spring, Joyce—contrary to a court order and without informing Lionel—moved out of the family home with David to live with relatives in [[Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin]].{{sfn|Norris|1992|p=100}}{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=62}} Dahmer had just turned 18 and remained in the family home.{{sfn|Norris|1992|p=83}} Dahmer's parents' divorce was finalized on July 24, 1978. Joyce was awarded custody of their younger son and alimony payments.{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=61}}