Arrested for writing an essay

who knows what to think..

I believe he's probably a good kid.

[Innoc]

Originally Posted by Icarus

Doesn't that depend on what he wrote ?

I understand that he has 1st ammendment rights to spout bollocks but arent they conditional rights as opposed to universal right to say absolutely anything ?

Yes, there are recognized limitations on those 1st Amendment Rights.

[Thor-Stryker]

Originally Posted by SizeableSSonic

Doesn't matter what anyone thinks, he's protected by a little something called the Constitution of the United States of America. It's his right as a U.S. citizen, like it or not.

Keyword U.S. Citizen, but if your into killing people and raping their dead bodies, thats very unpatriotic.

Even freedom has its rules, otherwise everyone would go around killing each other more than they already do.

Hell, if you wanna complain about his rights, complain about mine, the military takes away the freedom of speech too you know.

[BinaryLife]

As far as the law goes, he shouldn't be arrested. Nor should he be charged with disorderly conduct. That's a charge meant for another crime all together.

The problem is that with schools the rules are different. Schools really are run like prisons, and don't reflect the same rights inside as they do outside. Think about it, when I was a kid at least if you punched somebody you didn't go to jail. You went to detention. The same thing apply's to the ability to restrict clothing and behavior in different ways than outside of class.

The comprimise, however, is that the school handels the punishment not the law. If the law handles it then its policys must be followed. In this case, he shouldn't get in any trouble at all if they're following the law. He actualy has a legal case to sue them if he so desires.
(I used to work for a lawyer. Bare in mind I didn't do the lawyer stuff, I just filed. So, that's all based on stuff I overheard)

[Mooga]

The point is that he wrote a store involving killing people in his school.
Not only is this a threat, but the school is then liable if g-d forbid he actually does something.
The school SHOULD expel him and make him get a psycho-analysis before allowing him with 5 miles of that school. Yes, that means he wont graduate this year. But it's all HIS fault. If he's crazy or not, it's HIS fault for doing something that stupid.

[Circuitous]

They said he didn't target anyone in particular with the writing.

I can understand why, but... damn.

[SizeableSSonic]

Exactly, he made no specific threat against anyone.

[Thor-Stryker]

Its a threat in general. Unless your telling me you'd be perfectly fine sitting next to the guy who's writing about murdering people and raping their bodies? You'll find plenty more of them in prison, I suggest you go there for a month and sit with them. Then give it a second thought, and realize why he was removed and placed in custody.



Even so, the army puts soldiers under suicide watch and give them mental analysis tests or chapter them out if issues like these arise. This isn't a game, these are real team-killers in the making.

[Circuitous]

Originally Posted by Thor-Stryker

Its a threat in general. Unless your telling me you'd be perfectly fine sitting next to the guy who's writing about murdering people and raping their bodies? You'll find plenty more of them in prison, I suggest you go there for a month and sit with them. Then give it a second thought, and realize why he was removed and placed in custody.

I wonder how weird it felt sitting next to that guy before what he had written was revealed.

Probably pretty normal.

[PsYcNeT]

Man Stephen King better flee the country soon...

I'm pretty sure Maine will be under martial law by tomorrow morning

[Suite307]

< Insert Political Arguement Here >

[Ihmhi]

Oh man the ACLU is going to be ALL OVER this shit.

This kid has to be a genius, when he most likely wins the civil suit brought against the school he is going to rake in the dinero.

I did something similar in high school. A common teaching/testing method was something called a "picture prompt". One has to derive a story from a single picture, with both a beginning (BEFORE the picture), a middle (the picture itself), and end (AFTER the picture).

The mistake my teachers made was saying to "be creative" and write whatever you want. A picture of an old lady staring out a window at two girls ice skating turned into a story about elderly suicide and answered the question of whether love can blossom on the ice rink.

So, for fun (since I have been out of school for a while), I will try and find a similarly innocuous picture, post it here, and write a story per the given rules.



The hot Virginia Sun belted down on Abraham. Virginia summers were most unkind to those foolish enough to wear stovepipe hats, but where else would he keep his bottle of scotch?

General Albert Motors was also quite exhausted. The Union uniforms were made of a very heavy material, and rather than disgrace his position and remove his jacket he suffered in the heat.

John Wilkes Booth, or "Johnny B", as his friends called him, was smart enough to stay away from modern fashion. His simple outfit kept him cool under the blazing sun. Even though he was walking through a shady path in the forest, the temperature was well above 85 degrees.

Abe (as his friends liked to call him) wanted to relax for the weekend and go camping with his favorite general. General Motors had originally commanded the U.S.S. Lollipop. Lincoln had tried to persuade him to accept a promotion and better serve the Union in the Civil War, but the General declined time and time again, stating that the Lollipop was "a good ship" and that he loved it there.

Finally, after many weeks of prodding, Abe had gotten the General to join him on his camping outing. "Perhaps this time I shall convince the good General to lead our soldiers in battle", Abe thought to himself.

The General insisted on bringing his personal assitant Mr. Booth along. General Motors was not much of an outdoors man, but he could hardly refuse a personal invititation from the Commander in Chief!

Abe and the General, however, were completely unaware that there was a Confederate spy in their midst: Johnny B. He saw this weekend alone in the forest as the perfect opportunity to assassinate the leader of the Union army.

The first day was rather uneventful. The trio had enjoyed some fishing and hunting, and they sang songs by the campfire long into the night.

The second day, Mr. Booth was ready to take action. "Killing the leader of the Union army here and now will surely strike a mighty blow in the hearts of the Americans," he thought. Abe was standing peacefully near the tent, observing Wild Turkeys mating like cats in heat.

"How intriguing," he said. "My wife might enjoy that!" he joked. The general laughed heartily, whereas Mr. Booth could only manage a chuckle. He was all too focused on his task.

John inched closer to Lincoln and the General, his pistol concealed underneath his jacket. Just as he was about to draw, he noticed that the General had his hand in his uniform as well. "Does he know?" a panicked John thought to himself. "If he has a gun as well I'm finished!" He decided to wait for a better time.

The outing came to a close the following evening. General Motors had told Lincoln that he had decided to retire from the military and start a horse carriage company. "Perhaps I will name it Lincoln!" the good General said in Jest. "I was always found of the planet Mercury," Lincoln replied. "I think that would be a fine name indeed." The General pondered these choices and stated that he would make a decision later.

When the trio arrived back at a nearby Fort, the General asked Abe what he was going to do this weekend.

"I am going to the theatre with my wife," Abe replied. "She has been bothering me to go for some time now. She hates how I am always surrounded by a dozen soldiers and wants to go to a show, just me and her."

"Oh, how lovely," the General said.

"Perfect," John thought to himself. "Just perfect."

fin.

[mervaka]

sure, give him counselling, but its not a fucking criminal act to write something, surely?

[SizeableSSonic]

Originally Posted by Circuitous

I wonder how weird it felt sitting next to that guy before what he had written was revealed.

Probably pretty normal.

Indeed, he was probably a normal dude. My teacher in L.A.recently said the same thing: "Be open". Now I am wondering if I really should be.

[Icarus]

Considering the timing and the criticism of the authorities for failing to act when the Korean nutjob wrote his warped essay's then I'd imagine extra vigilance is being taken to spot the signs of "going mental with a bunch of shooters"-itis.

Pupils were also warned that the school could take action if any of the essays's contained threats to the writer or to others.

So in this environment he wrote an essay "as a joke" concerning violence, drug use and necrophilia in school. Very smart bloke

The bloke's probably just a twat and not the next wacko but hopefully he will miss graduation and be delayed in joining the marines , that would at least show him that actions ,even jokes, have consequences.

[SizeableSSonic]

...did anyone notice he looks Asian, maybe even Korean...?

Also, how come the kid who gave a ten minuete speech in the same class about being a hitman and even identified people he would kill was not displined?

[`badger`]

cool guys

[Mooga]

Here's another artical published today.

And right from the artical:

Lee concluded his essay with “as a teacher, don't be surprised on inspiring the first CG shooting.”

If that's NOT a threat, I don't know what is.

EDIT: Here's the essay

[Ihmhi]

Hm... threat, meh, not so much. The kid needs counseling at the worst. Expulsion/jailtime is overkill.

You know a few years back after Columbine there was talks about letting teachers have guns on their person in school... that would be nice and all. Imagine some poor Columbine wannabe getting gunned down by his Physics teacher.

[Thor-Stryker]

Originally Posted by Circuitous

I wonder how weird it felt sitting next to that guy before what he had written was revealed.

Probably pretty normal.

Exactly, pretty normal till he reached out. Very few people know about the kids who want to do the school shootings. Instead of letting this happen like columbine, like VA Tech, people are going to do something to prevent it.