Boy Arrested for Drawing Inappropriate Stick Figures by Police in Colorado, Taken Away in Handcuffs

The " rationalizing " and the " excusing " of the childs actions is appalling?
There are some core, deeper issues at hand.

I don't think the police had jurisdiction-
There does need to be more therapy lessons-
All parties involved knew of this kids condition-

But why the excuses for the posters? Drawing aliens vs Predators, or Optimus Prime against Megatron and the Fallen, i can get that...I can even see the army pictures..( which mind you most kids don't even know the geography at the age so a specific country won't be identified) but a specific address to teachers, and then excuse it with " normal "child syndrome? Just amazing to see the justification! No wonder our youth are such basket cases, they are not forced to take responsibility for their actions, and not guided properly. Just appalling!

WOW!!!! What has our country come to?!

reply to post by filosophia


Not gonna read all the way thru this so forgive me if its been said but I'm gonna guess "music sucks" means he doesn't want to sing in front of the class or just isn't good at oboe. Not all kids are musically inclined and being forced to do something your not good at could make a kid want to shoot someone. But arrested? Yea, that should help his mental state. He's gonna come out thinkin "well if I'm gonna do the time..." and no one will be left alive to hear the rest of that sentance.

reply to post by R3KR


On a lighter note, L4D PWNS

reply to post by SamTGonzalez


Nah, more of a black ops kinda guy! But the zombie edition on that game rocks!

reply to post by Whereweheaded


You never did any of that?

I mean the kid is 11, and he was expressing himself. He was throwing the picture away. I can see the teacher having a moment of concern, checking with the parents, making sure they are aware of the situation, finding out if the kid has access to guns, finding out if he has a beef with some kids or the teacher, and after that no big deal.

I think we have all said things we didn't mean, or played out a fantasy in our head that we didn't intend to act upon. Let the kid explore his dark side, learn from it and move on.

reply to post by Whereweheaded


Dude, the Zombies on Black Ops are amazing. Such an addicting game. Let's hope 11 year old boys don't play it, though. We all know how that might turn out.

Originally posted by Whereweheaded
Though I dont condone arresting a child, but this kid has some serious issues! Regardless of ADD or not, if he is drawing " teacher must die " on a piece of paper, thats the making of a " Michael Myers ".

People say things like this all the time, without any real thought to it ESPECIALLY children. how many times have you said man,'i could kill that guy', then forget about it later.

You cannot take something so out of context, and then turn it around on them. Maybe if it was elaborate plans on how to murder someone and then hide the body,.. you should be slightly concerned.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
Many have said that something isn't right with this kid. Maybe. But he is 11 years old. Jail or Juvie will really help him hone is serial killer craft I'm sure!

The police have no business in this issue. If he needs help, he needs help. If the teacher and administration are fearful, they can kick him out of school. If they are not fearful, then he should be there growing up among his peers.

Agreed. I have been involved in cases like this in the past (with young children on my caseload) and though there is and should be mandatory expulsion pending a safety evaluation (that will likely include a counselor's opinion/recommendation) I do not agree with the police arresting him and hauling him to juvie. There are other issues that need to be addressed, it would seem.

Originally posted by Whereweheaded
Though I dont condone arresting a child, but this kid has some serious issues! Regardless of ADD or not, if he is drawing " teacher must die " on a piece of paper, thats the making of a " Michael Myers ".

I beg your pardon...I just had to mention, maybe this child is fascinated with guns, like yourself possibly? I bet this 11 year old would love your avatar.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
Many have said that something isn't right with this kid. Maybe. But he is 11 years old. Jail or Juvie will really help him hone is serial killer craft I'm sure!

That is extremely ignorant.
Sometimes rehabilitation means just that.
I went thru it and am not a serial killer.
Read my post on page 3.

The article may not be telling the whole story about the boys problems so we can't speculate the way you did about juvenile detention.
I've been there and it is not a training ground for serial killers.
I hope you were being sarcastic.

I do agree that if he is problematic then give him the boot til he is taught appropriate behavior.

I don’t see the big effin deal with this picture! I used to draw super weird and gory pictures as a child quite often. They were just pictures...

In fact, I also used to write when I was upset. I’d write all my thoughts down and then throw the paper away. At age 9, I wrote a rant one day that was all about what I want my life to be like... I wanted Billy to like me, I wanted to go to the waterpark, and I wanted my horribly mean stepmother to go into a coma until I was 18 years old.

And I was a nice child- I didn’t even wish her dead! “Just go to sleep for a while,” haha. But in the end, it was just a part of my imagination, which is exactly what this boy was doing. He knows, just like I knew, that what he draws or writes is not reality and is not going to happen. I’m a completely normal adult now, and my politically incorrect thoughts back then did not turn me into a “Michael Meyers”..as Whereweheaded wrote in his judgmental post on page 1. I mean, really - how can you just know if this kid is crazy by looking at this picture?! It’s not that crazy of a picture. Did we all forget what it was like to be a kid with an annoying teacher? I’ve drawn images like that countless times while in grade school! This kid was probably just pissed at his music teacher for making him listen to, or worse- sing, crappy music all period.

And Dimensional Detective “If no action at all is taken, then the kid turns around and pulls a Columbine, then everybody would be going nuts on the authorities as well. This was a situation that had no easy answers imho.“ I tend to agree with your posts, but I just want to point out that this post contains the type of attitude that has taken away our freedoms. You may as well be saying “for everybody’s PROTECTION, let’s arrest minors for drawing politically incorrect stick figures.” Well I don’t need protection, and the children don’t need protection - because THIS STORY is the ‘protection’ we end up getting when society as a whole buys into the ‘what if something horrible happens’ scenario, and then gives all of their powers away to the police/gov’t (slowly, but surely). If this kid wasn’t disturbed before drawing the picture, he probably is now. If anyone is crazy in this story, it is the adults. You say that there was no easy answer in this situation, but it seems to me like the whole situation had been taken care of BEFORE the pigs came to take away this ‘dangerous’ kid.

It is just unbelievable that this is a true story - in the land of the free, nonetheless. And it is even more unbelievable to me that so many people condone what has happened, and are very quick to judge this kid. This kid should have never been arrested, period.

reply to post by MR BOB


yeah, I'll give you that. I'm minded enough to see your view. good point~

Uh oh, myself and a few others I know used to draw violent pictures like this when angry. (by used to, i mean around 8 years old)

I should probably burn the evidence, I've always kept one because i thought it was funny how primal I could get when angered at a young age.

Better this kid manifest his emotions towards the paper than keep the bottled up for a few years then snap with a real gun. How about we just start helping treat people instead of getting the police involved to come and arrest some one.

I assume this is where we are headed:

Child brain scans to pick out future criminals

reply to post by SamTGonzalez

Originally posted by Whereweheaded
Though I dont condone arresting a child, but this kid has some serious issues! Regardless of ADD or not, if he is drawing " teacher must die " on a piece of paper, thats the making of a " Michael Myers ".

You know,.. when I was younger I used to doodle all sorts of things. I never drew the exact same scene depicted here, but I've had some graphic scenes with some people I didn't like. It was my outlet at the time. That's one benefit of being artistic,... you get to let the frustration out on paper, and not on people. If he got arrested for doodling a violent cartoon, that's insufficient. Had he brought a weapon to school or if he had committed acts of violence against other people, that may warrant arrest. Doodling is one thing, committing a crime is another. Do we arrest rappers for rapping about killing cops? Do we arrest authors for writing novels full of violence against other people? Do we arrest directors for directing a film about violence against people? No. We don't.

Originally posted by MrWendal
I drew pics like that in when I was a kid in school and I have said much worse about teachers. Guess what? I didn't grow up to kill anyone. That picture means nothing and this kid's arrest is a joke.

Exactly what I was thinking.
My 8 year old draws this stuff all the time on his Nintendo DSi and posts it on the internet on nintendo's site for upload to any other DSi connected to the internet. If they start arresting stick figure artists they need to arrest all the digital artists from the video games the kids play today.

Just scenes from video games will depict this, where did the kid get the idea? Did he watch the news in the last couple months? Its in the news that a kid shot a teacher, judge, congress woman and even an innocent child then you wonder why the kid got that in his head instead of Barney playing with other muppet characters singing happy songs, right.

Our society has changed greatly and the laws aren't keeping up with the amount of change that occurs, old laws are ineffective and overly harsh, like marijuana laws currently on the books in most states. Unless the child used the drawing to gain attention intentionally, then it would be something to bring to the attention of the counselling that he was already receiving, and move forward. Instead he is being sent to government institutions to be accessed of his risk. And kept in "the system" until he's too scared to do anything.

IMHO, Making a child fear for his safety because he did what his counselor told him to do is wrong, the police have no jursidiction over the childs mental health which is whats in question here.

Whoa Whoa Whoa my heads in full spin right now,

Let me get this right,
an 11 year old boy, drew that and wrote that, correct?

Same kind of 'anywhere anyone" 11 year old boy that can turn on cartoons and see stuff getting blown up and chopped up, falling from the sky hitting the ground Wylie Coyote, or GI Joe or Transformers,
Same Kid that can push a game into playstation or Xbox and kill people and things for hours,
Same kid that can watch any action movie and see people and characters die for an hour and a half at a time,
Same kid that can sit with his parents and watch the news and see Egyptians getting run over and shot, or Libyans getting shot, or Palestiniens.
Same kid who would have been a year old during the Shock and Awe televised campaign that was celebrated loudly in the US,

So now, guys with uniforms and guns come to his house and take him away?

Something isnt adding up here, is it?
It's almost like acceptable insanity, and the more we have of it , the better things will be, but they have to get worse first.

After reading the long link, the school had the police talk them into the charges it appears and its cost the family 10's of thousands.

This would be a suing for the money back moment for me, and also to set the precedent. Its ludicrous.