another school kids arrested for writing an essay

because you're acting like an airhead, honey.

 

True the kid did no such thing. But I was trying to make a point to kitty. Obviously she didn't get it.

 

Fight nice please!

 

ok.. I'm acting like an airhead because I am not agreeing with you? I CAN have my own opinions.. If you don't like them then stop replying.

 

no offense sweetheart, but i think you're the one who isn't getting it: arresting a straight A student for completing an creative writing assignment is stupid.

 

I didn't see where it said that, but if it is true, I agree with the arrest. Even if he was kidding, yelling "fire" in a crowded theater when there is no fire is also not protected.

 

It should serve as a shining example to the students how far the first amendment has eroded. Granted, the author showed questionable judgment in his choice of subject matter... and possibly a case for parent-teacher conference NOT reason to bring the cops in.

 

No offense Kitty, but you are the one who isn't getting the big picture here.

 

I agree that the cops getting called and the student getting charged was a bit extreme. I stated that in my first post that it was fucked up that it happened.

But hey.. after all that's happened I can understand how they would freak out and call the cops on him. He should have had more sense that to write something like that.

 

I think it was just a tad bit over the line but not that much.. i can tell the student was being sarcastic as can be... I highly doubt a straight a student would give up everything in the last 4 years they had worked for just to write an essay that was TRUE and turn it in and then act out what they wrote about thats highly unlikey i mean come on now....

 

but who knows if i could actually read the rest of the essay i could agree or disagree. they didnt give that much info

 

Yes the student was probably, in all reality, just being sarcastic and I agree he probably didn't mean to jeopardize all he'd worked for in the last four years. But, what he wrote about was wrong and he should have had more sense than that. It's his own fault that what happened to him happened. You would think, him being a straight A student... I have no sympathy for him.

 

it was a creative writing assignment in which he was told to write uncensored. he wrote a fictional account of a fictional event (a dream). no where did he threaten anyone at his school or anywhere else. the student is a straight A student, and has never been disciplined for anything ever before.

how is this fitting the profile of a killer?

it takes more than writing, hun. when bloch was a teen he wrote to his friend HP Lovecraft and asked permission to "annihilate" him, and then published it. if you read even bloch's earliest writings, when he was a teen, in school, they're pretty twisted. should he have been arrested?

was turning the essay in at school a wise move? i have been to public school (yes, even at "my age". believe it or not they didn't make us all scratch math problems on the back of a coal-shovel in those days.) and attended not only creative writing classes, but creative writing workshops for gifted writing students, as well as participating in the school literary magazine. i myself wrote and published a dream about finding severed heads all over town, as well as a poem using the metaphor of being murdered by fellow students, and, upon being given a sketchbook assigment of creating any drawing including the images of a person, a house, and a tree, turned in a drawing of a man hanging by his neck in a tree next to a broken-down shack. miraculously, i escaped arrest, and now my twisted mind is unleashed on the world to encourage my own child to write comic books about leggo death ray robots. clearly they should have stopped me when they had the chance, because i do believe my 9-year-old is destined for world domination with his leggo robots. the art and english teachers at avon central school, who foolishly thought they were "encouraging my creativity" will all rue their negligence when he is world dictator and they've got a leggo robot staring them down with its killer death ray, let me tell you!

speaking from the experience of someone who participated in intensive writing classes at the high school and college level, and someone who still writes, in the context of an assignment in which the students are encouraged to stretch themselves and not censor, this student did nothing but fulfill the assignment, and misjudge the paranoia of his teachers. in my creative writng classes, we were encouraged to explore writing about gender, nightmares, revenge, and even visualizing our own deaths. it is writing. writing is not an action.

the difference between this kid's completed assignment and cho's writing is that, firstly, this kid has never shown any disciplinary problems or violent tendencies ever before in his history. cho, on the other hand, had a history a mile long. this is the first mention of the kid ever writing anything violent. cho's writing was obsessive about violence. this was one assignment in which the kid was asked to stretch himself and not censor. that kind of daring writing in this context shows only a fearless and creative mind willing to take risks. cho had a history of writing nothing but violence, and had mental health and police contact and a history of stalking.

yes the difference between the two is important from a constitutional standpoint. chances are, the charges won't wash. precedents have been established, and to the best of my knowledge, the charges were always thrown out upon scrutiny. (it'll take some serious digging on the ACLU website but i've followed similar cases before.)

what is happening here is some power-tripping teachers who have decided they're not getting enough attention are trying to "make an example" and show how "tough" they are on "violence", not a crime.

incidentally this has happened before, and never, to my knowledge, resulted in a conviction.

 

^ wow that was great, i agree

 

Jee there Kitty I'd say he pretty much threated the WHOLE school with his thrilling tale of wonder. I know I would take it as a threat. "... I had this dream last night where I went into a building, pulled out two P90s and started shooting everyone, then had sex with the dead bodies".

Well if he hasn't been disciplined for anything, he sure has now.. and I can understand why he got in trouble. What he wrote was disturbing, disgusting, and ABSLOUTELY wrong. He should have known better.. being a straight A student and all.

You never know when someone could snap.. You know nothing of this boy.. for all you know he could be another Virginia Tech Slayer.. From reading quotes of what he wrote I would say he has some issues in his head which he needs to have dealt with before he starts to fit the profile of a killer.

Hun, Sugar, Toots, Princess... I don't care about Bloch or Stephen King.. These men are not the ones who wrote the essay leave them out of it. You know what go back and read my first post, I plainly said it was fucked up he got arrested. Stop twisting my words around and saying things I did not say. Thank you.

Turning in an essay like that was WRONG. I'm glad you have all these scholastical achievements under your belt.. Great for you.. But that doesn't necessarily make you a great writer or anything of the sort.. So don't bring that into this.. It's not about that.

You know what... all your points are great points.. You have your opinons and I have mine. We will not agree on this issue. So stop patronizing me.

In this day and age you can't write about something like that at school, you just can't. It doesn't matter what kind of kid you are whether you are a straight A student or are flunking. You just can't.

 

If i was in his class and someone turned somthing like that in, I would probably be worried myself and thats the truth. I'll agree on that part.. but i still think they were being sarcastic as hell.. and not really meaning it, but in our generation its really not acceptable to do this right after somthing like that happend a week ago

 

Kitty, sweetheart, you need to fucking stop being so condescending! Why the fuck did you even make this thread.. You did want people to put their opinions right? or were planning on being a dictator and jumping on people whose opinions differ from yours.

I agree with stonedmonkiwana, the student should have not written about that at school after all that has happened with Virginia Tech and past school shootings. It is better to turn in a couple of papers and let them just be false alarms if it can prevent another school tragedy. (what I mean by this is his actions being dealt with by the school -- not the police) But, I agree with everyone that it was utter bullshit to call the cops and get him arrested. What can you expect though, after all that's happened recently (and in the past).

And you call yourself an educated woman?? I would think you, a person who states that they are so accomplished scholastically, would take something like this and be not only concerned but be afraid. What if your son attended this school? Was a classmate of that boy? It does not matter if he is a straight A student or not. He could be a ticking time bomb and this was his cry for help.

Your thought process is flawed on this one toots.

 

Please cease with the personal attacks.

 

r u a forum moderator? where were u when kittie was calling her an airhead, etc???? i'm not tryin to be a smart ass here but, it seems kinda late for that..

 

Whoever wrote that paper couldn't have been a straight A student unless they were receiving those grades in their "special needs" class... Any senior high school student that would make those kinds of grades would be more responsible then to write some shit like that... I know it said not to censor yourself... but common sense and good judgment would keep any responsible student from writing a paper in that manner.