'Stab, stab, stab, stab': Teen's essay detailed

The assignment was to write whatever comes to mind and not censor it. That part was apparently left up to the teacher and the school administration. Vigilance is one thing, but this was the assignment. And given recent events, why was this a surprise? It's been one everyones mind.

Sounds like he was having a particularly bad day. Certainly talking to him about it would have been more appropriate than calling the cops...

I hope he finds a publisher for his Hitler children's book, that sounds adorable.

j/k

This was a serious flub on the teachers part, but the appropriate response in cases like this is a bit murky, and has just become way murkier. From the teachers point of view, it is no longer acceptable to just ignore these sorts of signals, but this particular reaction is likely to prevent students from expressing themselves through the only outlet available to them.

I would think that notifying the parents would have been a better reaction. Parents are quite unlikely to ignore signals like this, in light of recent events.

As a follow up, when my brother and I were going through all our old elementary school stuff in my parent's basement years ago, we found his old second grade journal. There was one entry where the assignment was to answer this:
"Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life. What are you going to do?"

My brother's response:

DIE

...written in giant letters on the page. I thought it was hilarious, but I don't know what his teacher thought.

How is writing an essay disorderly conduct - do they mean disorderly thinking? illegal ideas? Wow! the thought police have officially arrived.

Even presuming the teacher had good intentions related to preventing another school massacre, still it's quite a leap call the cops on a teenager for writing scarey fiction. I sure would expect some intermediary steps in there like talking to the parents. I give her an F.

Stab, stab, stab, stab Die Die Die Kill kill kill

*&ioh t$t^y#@$l^{#)

Lee's essay, written in class Monday, also refers to lyrics from a song by the band Green Day and violent images from a Super Mario Bros. video game

"He wrote about the dream of killing with P90s, which is a sci-fi gun from the show 'Stargate,'" Emling said. "It's a really cool gun. Top-loaded. And it's in 'GoldenEye,' the Nintendo 64 James Bond game."

The author obviously has never played video games in their life. GoldenEye is not a Super Mario Bros game. Both are by Nintendo, but... that's it.

In any case... this kid is disturbed, to be sure. But in all fairness, he was just following the assignment. He wrote whatever came to mind. Sure, his mind might be troubled, but that's not the point.

Viki, there's been a follow up, the lawyer for the student has released the full text of the article:
http://wbrianwhite.newsvine.com/_news/2007/04/27/689001-boy-arrested-for-story

Blood sex and Booze. Drugs Drugs Drugs are fun. Stab, Stab, Stab, S…t…a…b…, poke. "So 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, not really, but it would be funny if I did."

(emphasis mine)

So not only was it a dream it was a dream that the student didn't even have. How threatening, right?

As I stated in another link, maybe this kid should reexamine his desire to fight and die for a country that imprisons people for thoughts and/or written words. I would never die for such a country; no one should.

I was called to the office in February because my 7 year old used litter to decorate his Valentine's heart (he was showing that the Earth needs to be loved, too). Anyway, they told me it was inappropriate for a first grader and should have had red fluffy stuff on it (I'm paraphrasing). They also asked me how he was around small children and if he was nice to animals...my point? Well, schools no longer tolerate creativity and tend to see gifted students as possible future psychos. How can our children learn if they are not allowed to think openly?

ah pish posh Vicky, there are plenty of thinkers in our American society

Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Neal Boortz, Rush, BillO...

/sarcasm

Obviously calling the cops may have been extreme, but I'm seeing quite a few comments implying the teacher should have done nothing at all. Is that what you guys really think?

ok, the hitler as a baby taking over the playground....is a family guy episode. Maybe he was watching tv as he was writing it