Student arrested for essay's imaginary violence

I agree that what he had written was pretty tasteless, even shocking to some but the class was told to write about anything you want.

Students were told to "write whatever comes to your mind. Do not judge or censor what you are writing," according to a copy of the assignment.

I have sort of mixed feelings about this because first of all, he is without a doubt a disturbed kid and probably should of been watched closely and maybe even suspended.
Now you have to ask, where is the line drawn? what determines what is criminal intent and what is an imaginative "horror"writer like king and craven etc..
I have to confess that my thoughts are what could be called hypocritical because if this kid went to my sons school, I would be very happy that he was arrested but since that isnt the case, I can think without being biased.
What do you guys think? was it wrong to arrest this kid for writing a horror story about killing classmates and having sex with the dead bodies?
Here is the rest of story

Arrested??? Hell, no.

Offered counseling, speaking to parents, suggesting or even demanding the student be evaluated mentally, yes. Given the current goings on in schools (I'll be damned if i can figure it out), its worth to take precaution but to arrest? No.

This is more disturbing than the kids story.

He could be the next clive barker, but we will never know now. Bad timing, dont think he would have been arrested if this happened in a world with out VT.

I do not think he should have been arrested. From reading the article it seemed as though it was a sick joke.

Sounds to me like they did this on purpose.
"write down your thoughts, but don't censor yourself"

I think they were using the papers as a crude form of psychoanalysis.
Then acting on what was found.

Very interesting observation and you are probably right. something like giving a 3rd grader a question and answer paper about what their home lives were like
Does dad drink/smoke
do they spank(hit) you at home etc..

Originally posted by spacedoubt
Sounds to me like they did this on purpose.
"write down your thoughts, but don't censor yourself"

I think they were using the papers as a crude form of psychoanalysis.
Then acting on what was found.

[edit on 28-4-2007 by Kr0n0s]

This is a very bad sign. I think acts like these are a step in the wrong direction. I guess now to pay for the maniacs crimes at VT others will have to suffer for being slightly different, even if its just in a creative way. Will this just stop at the school level? Or will it continue on to Authors of books, Screenplay authors, playwrights and perhaps musicians as well?Will there be any more Steven Kings, Stanley Kubrick's,Mario Puzo's,Nicolas Pileggi's or Clive Barker's in the future? Will they cower in fear of being arrested and being labeled as mentally unstable?

Maybe theyre already giving him a hard time because of the profession he has chosen after he leaves school..

Defense attorney Dane Loizzo said Allen Lee has never been disciplined in school and signed Marine enlistment papers last week.

Originally posted by spacedoubt
Sounds to me like they did this on purpose.
"write down your thoughts, but don't censor yourself"

I think they were using the papers as a crude form of psychoanalysis.
Then acting on what was found.

Excellent point and I agree. What better way to profile potential whackjobs.

The problem here is as others have stated though where do you draw the line. Looking at typical TV/movie content these days would lead many to believe that there are a lot of screenwriters that must harbor some serious mental instabilities. If we are going to screen kids and young adults then we should also do the same for those who have the means to deliver their 'messages' to the masses(film/TV/books). Obviously I'm being a tad facetious here but is some ways I stand by this.

brill

This exact topic is being discussed on a thread that was started yesterday here.

Sorry bout that, i did a quick scan to see if it was already posted but i guess i missed it. mods can delete this on if you want to .

Originally posted by Infoholic
This exact topic is being discussed on a thread that was started yesterday here.

I'll be honest.

For my high school exit exam (California) I wrote a really strange one like that kid's. We were to describe an object and it's characteristics.

So my main character was walking through the forest while it was raining and he trips over something; He starts to describe this thing he tripped over, and it sounds like a flower. A very beautiful flower. Then I wrote a funny line "Freud talked about killing the father and screwing the mother, I killed my father, my mother, my sister and my brother, now I'm about to screw my sister" and the main character goes on to screw the corpse he found (which was the flower) and he then leaves the forest and gets hit by a truck.

Why did I write this? Because I ALWAYS challenge the system and their expectations of my writing. I always write controversial, strange, long essays and short creative stories. Am I a messed up person? No...I don't really want to kill anyone or the like, I just thought it would be funny to write such an essay. I'm also a good writer and write short stories for fun.

Another example of my writing is the teacher asked to write a continuation of "Lord of The Flies", and so I did, it consisted of the main character going back to London to discover (not until later) that the government drugged the entire society and the population entered an alternate plane of existence.

I also made that essay about 13 pages long, (Requirement was 2) to make my teacher angry because she was just being dumb (Saying the MLA defined 'bibleography' incorrectly)

Anyway, I think it depends on the kid himself. If he's some kid who dresses in all black, has a history, and people are afraid of him, then maybe he should have been talked to or his parents, or etc.

If he's like me, funny guy who just likes to write bizzare things to see people's reactions, and has no intentions whatsoever to do any harm to people, (I'm a hippie, I'll be honest...), then no. Maybe he should of been asked about the essay, but definitely not arrested.

I know how you think, I always seek to do everything differently and enexpectedly too. I dont do violence since it's a pretty common theme in photography. For example I used a macro images of micro circuits in my old techniques works when everyone else went with something that looked old. Making a violent essee might just mean that the kid is the next great book/movie writer because he dares to go where other dont.

I agree spacedoubt, this could be a new way to target students by schools to check on their mental state.

I guess for now on parents should tell their children that when the teachers ask for spontaneous writing just to leave the paper blank and claim that nothing comes to their imagination.

I think that the student that got arrested did what he did to mortify the teacher.

If,big IF, the NWO seeks to have control, it will be through this type of action.

The path for modification of future actions by citizens must begin with the modification of the actions of proto-citizens right now. This is the only viable means of future control.

I read in another thread a week or more ago, where a kid got into trouble for modifying some violent game to fit the plans of his school. Again, under the umbrella of protecting our students, he was made out as a villain.

The purpose of these actions is not so much to correct the person involved, but to send a message to other students. And the message is to conform.

Sounds to me like the perfect theme for a top-selling video game. It's no sicker than others already out there.

Originally posted by spacedoubt
Sounds to me like they did this on purpose.
"write down your thoughts, but don't censor yourself"

I think this person or kid was highly stupid for falling for this. Not street smart at all. He should have been writting about how great it would be to have a NWO and how great Bush is in his life.

I guess some will fall for the trap. Under the stupid law, they were right to arrest the nut.

Haha

Then maybe my essay about a government which gave it's entire population a drug which made them exist on an alternate plane of existence is hinting them that I might know "something"

Maybe next time I'll write about how great of an idea it is to have a NWO and the teacher will ask me about it, and I'll say "Oh...I thought we were suppose to agree to these kinds of ideas..."

I'd go over the top

You should too, you wont get arrested, and you'll be very amusing to all the faculty there.

EVERYTHING IS WONDERFUL!!! Never have we lived in such great times!
Its good to be alive and you hope to see Bush as not just the decider but the dictator.

Are we living in Bizzaro world. Arrested for writing his creative thoughts on paper? I guess I can look forward to a lifetime in prison for some of the things I've written in my past. When we can no longer write and say the things we feel, the only alternative is violence. Violence directed at our governments.