Student Arrested For Writing About Killing A Pet Dinosaur With A Gun

Killing something that is already dead?

 

As ridiculous as suspending 4 year olds for sexual harassment if one kid kisses another.

 

Arresting is obviously overboard, but in today's climate, would sending him to a one time shrink consultation be reasonable? Or how about just a talk and then a written confirmation with kid and parents?

Schools don't like to get sued and people think schools is America's nanny..

 

Gotta tag'em . . .so next time it won't be a first offense
Gotta prep them for prison time. . . those beds aren't going to fill themselves

Rocket River

 

Reminds me of when a friend of mine got pulled into the principal's office and grilled about some flirtatious notes he was dropping into a girl's locker back when we were in high school. She felt she was being stalked and notified the school. At the time we thought that was overboard, and the talk was sufficient to make him stop. In retrospect though, it wasn't too much later that he started having psychotic episodes and was eventually hospitalized and diagnosed with schizophrenia. Maybe his behavior back then was more menacing than I had realized.

 

There has GOT to be more to this story than some kid getting arrested for writing about killing a dinosaur. But of course, that's the narrative that the media is jumping all over, so we will probably never know.

 

The thing which I find disturbing, which everyone seems to just be glossing over, is that this kid wrote about KILLING HIS NEIGHBOR'S PET. Yeah, pet dinosaur, which is something maybe an 8-year-old might write about. But a kid that old there? And he specifically writes about killing his neighbor's PET, AND specifically writes about buying a gun to 'get the job done'.

Sorry, but that creeps me the hell out, and it probably creeped his teacher the hell out too.

Fact is, we don't know what all went on, and all we see here is an editorial of some sorts which clearly has a certain point of view, and it's not particularly objective. I would be interested in seeing an actual NEWS item, and/or the police report itself.

Because either there was something there to make their responses appropriate, or this was an example of 'zero tolerance' run amok.

But one look a that kid's picture, and then seeing that his choice of 'creative writing' involved *killing his neighbor's pet* (dinosaur or not), and specified buying a gun to do it... if we're taking bets, I am siding with the people who erred on the side of caution in this case.

Bottom line, I totally believe that this 'creative writing' thing warranted at least SOME kind of serious response. Whether the response which actually happened was truly appropriate or not, we may never know. Maybe they over-reacted. Or maybe they prevented yet another school massacre down the line. We'll probably never know.

But if the kid is totally innocent and is just a nice kid who has been wrongly harassed, he needs to understand that he made a very poor choice to begin with, and hopefully he has learned a lesson for the rest of his life.

 

not to minimize your point too too much . . .i understand SOME concern
but
I remember playing . . and fake killing my cousins with fake guns
playing cops and robbers. . . cowboys and indians or what ever

is it WORSE if you put it on paper?

Rocket River

 

EVERYONE KNOWS what happened to the dinosaurs...

Spoiler

 

No, you're right. It's the sort of things we did as kids ourselves, playing war, Cowboys & Indians, Cops n Robbers, etc.

However, in answer to your question specifically, is it worse to put it on paper?

I think obviously the answer is yes.

Here's why:

When you are PLAYING, you are pretending, you are exercising your imagination interactively, with other people, and you are generally following the lead of whoever invented the game to begin with, you are existing within certain pre-established acceptable parameters. (A debate about whether or not those types of games are or are not morally right is something for another time).

But in this kid's case, what he did was different.

He sat down, and DELIBERATED on what to WRITE DOWN.

It came entirely from within his own mind and imagination.

Ity is what came entirely from within him which I find disturbing: that he specifically chose to invent a scenario in which he *kills* his *neighbor's* *pet*. I think the added qualifier of 'dinosaur' was likely something he added in the hopes that it would somehow be less disturbing.

But the entire scenario reeks of someone who not only imagines killing, but also has no respect or understanding of the barriers most people naturally have: Had he mentioned just killing a creature 'out in the wild', or even his OWN creature of some sort, that would be different. But why did he choose to involve his neighbor?

What if he had instead written about the imagined killing of his neighbor's dog or cat?

That's bad enough, but then to actually make a specific follow-up about going to procure a gun in order to 'get the job done'..

If seeing something like that written by a child in your classroom WOULDN'T freak you out, then there is something wrong with you.

The teacher did the right thing in bringing this to the attention of others.

Whether the right response was generated, we'll never know for sure.

But given all that has happened over the last few years, we as a society are in the position of having to err on the side of caution.

It's unfortunate, and it's not the way things SHOULD be, but what's the alternative? Laugh it off?

 

Have any of you ever considered that just *maybe* this school and community are trying to hide the fact that they have a real dinosaur? Their "zero tolerance" is all about keeping their big secret, until it's time for "phase II."

 

That is pretty extreme. If they flagged a lot of what I drew and imagined, I'd probably be in prison. I wonder how his behavior truly was that gave the teacher so much concern.

If that student was a known trouble maker and had a history of violent outbursts in school, okay, I'd understand the teacher being concerned. There probably is more to the story than what the media is reporting (big surprise that the media might be misleading us). But, if the kid was a good student and wrote about a fantasy killing a neighbor's pet dinosaur, that's pretty ridiculous.

The title of the article is already very misleading. He wasn't arrested for the story. He was arrested for disorderly conduct. Albeit a weak charge to arrest someone with, we don't really know his reaction to the police search. I'd probably be pissed because my privacy was being invaded on a BS suspicion, though.

 

pot-head?

 

When i was in junior high, the teacher had us write an original story based on greek mythology. For some reason i wrote a story about a guy raping one of the girls in our class. It was based on zeus' conquests. The teacher gave me an A.

 

I wrote about a Rodney King type beating of a guy in a Ferrari and made it to the district writing contest; at which point I wrote about a Nazi-like takeover of the country by, uh, neo-Nazis and won first place. I gotta put '92 up there as one of the good ones.

 

If you mentioned people by name and/or that badboy was read out loud, the teacher should have probably had some kind of chat with you, but good job threading the needle. I'd hate to think to how they'd react to anything discussing kids nowadays, probably start investigating the parents.

 

It was read aloud but the teacher skipped over the sentences that referenced the actual qord "rape". I sat there proudly as he read it. Not a frigging clue in the world how the poor fenale classmate must have felt. Its frigging making me cringe just thinking about it

 

Yes, because parents of victims would sue the school for neglecting a "known psycho" in their midst.

 

This week was just ok with a been there done that feel. Bram and Abyss seemed like more of the same from the past several weeks. Joe and Loki was fun. Shaw and Anderson sucked the 1st time around and still does. Kim and Love good. 6 sides of steal ok. Still think Mr Wonderful's feet hit the ground first. EC3 was the best part of the show for me.