Student writes essay, arrested by police

[MJW]

There is no way to know if the school was right. One could right an essay that is creepy enough that does not threaten anyone directly to make arresting him the right thing to do. However, there is a 90% the school was full of it.

[Sirotnikov]

The only good solution to this was to inform police, and to send the kid to see a councelor or a shrink to see what his problem might be.

Arresting him and slapping him with a fine will not serve to prevent anything.

It'll simply mean that crazy folk will be better in hiding their sociopathic thoughts and will be harder to spot.


Stupid american schools

[MJW]

Ripped off of fark. I would have given the student detention. He was clearly being emo just to make people mad. Yawn.
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Here is an article from the local paper, The Northwest Herald, with comments from the student on his essay. Also, note the end of the article where a friend tells of his speech in the same class, six weeks earlier, that sounds much worse, but no punishment.

If you go to the link, it also has the student's picture.
http://www.nwherald.com/articles/200...4f12dd77984733 83.txt

CARY – When asked by a teacher to write an essay about anything he wanted, Allen Lee made references to violence, drug use, and a dream about a shooting spree where he had sex with dead bodies.

According to a criminal complaint signed by Cary-Grove High School Principal Susan Popp and filed in McHenry County Court, Lee's free-form essay also included the line "as a teacher, don't be surprised on inspiring the first CG school shooting."

“At the very last sentence, I said that this teacher’s method of teaching could lead to a school shooting,” Lee, a senior at Cary-Grove High School, said Wednesday.

School officials also alleged that Lee used violent and strange imagery in the essay, which was detailed in the complaint charging Lee with disorderly conduct.

"Blood, sex and booze," according to the complaint. "Drugs, drugs, drugs are fun. Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, s ... t ... a ... b ..., puke."

"So I had this dream last night where I went into a building, pulled out two P 90s and started shooting everyone, then had sex with the dead bodies. Well, not really, but it would be funny if I did."

The essay led Cary Police to arrest Lee Tuesday morning on disorderly conduct charges. The arrest shocked those who know the 18-year-old Cary-Grove High School senior, and prompted some students to circulate a petition complaining about the way the incident was handled.

School officials said they had since removed Lee from the general student population and placed him in a separate building to continue his education. Lee said he had been told he could face expulsion from school.

The essay was the result of what Lee said was an in-class assignment in his creative writing class during the last period of the day on Monday. He said his English teacher, Nora Capron, told the students to write whatever they wanted.

They could even write “I don’t know what to write about” repeatedly for the duration of the class period, Lee recalled his teaching saying.

He said that he wrote the entire essay as a joke.

Student faces penalties

Allen Lee said he had a 4.2 grade-point average, wrestled on his high school team and planned to join the Marines after he graduates later this year.

But with graduation a month from today, Lee could be sentenced to up to 30 days in jail and a $1,500 fine if convicted, and might not get to finish the year at Cary-Grove.

Tom Carroll, first assistant state’s attorney for McHenry County, declined to comment on the essay.

He said in the light of recent events, particularly the Virginia Tech shooting last week where Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 students before killing himself, and the 1999 Columbine tragedy, the statements made in the essay were inappropriate.

“Ten years ago, maybe a statement wouldn’t raise as much comment or concern,” Carroll said, “but you have to factor in the world and the fact that these tragedies had happened.”

Lee was set to begin boot camp in October, but now is worried that if he can’t get his high school diploma before that, he won’t be able to attend.

Principal called police

District 155 Superintendent Jill Hawk said the response to remove the student from the others, put him in a separate annex on the campus and call the police was appropriate. Lee still is being supervised and receiving an education, she added.

“Concern doesn’t just come from a mention of violence,” Hawk said. “It’s a continuum of a combination of factors from what is written in the essay.”

“Our response was based on the essay,” she added. “That was the issue.”

She said the teacher, whom she declined to identify, called her department head, who then called school Principal Popp.

Hawk said it was Popp, not the teacher, who decided to call the police.

“I think it’s appropriate that we do everything possible to make students safe,” Hawk said.

The district responded to another threat made last week at Crystal Lake Central High School. About half the students at Central stayed home Friday and police presence at the school was increased after threatening graffiti was found on a bathroom wall. The graffiti was determined to be a prank, officials have said.

Student reaction

Students who know Lee said they didn’t expect him to write what he did.

“He’s an outstanding kid; a good athlete,” said Nick Charles, a senior at Cary-Grove who wrestled with Lee their freshman and sophomore years.

Lee’s friend, Jameson Emling, who also is in the class, said he felt the teacher overreacted to the essay. Emling also has enlisted in the Marines.

About six weeks ago, Emling said he gave a 10-minute speech in the same class describing what his life would be like as a “hit-man” and identified students he would shoot. He said he was not punished for that speech.

“The teacher threw up a red flag on someone who is going to be fighting for her freedom,” Emling said.

[Vesayen]

“Ten years ago, maybe a statement wouldn’t raise as much comment or concern,” Carroll said, “but you have to factor in the world and the fact that these tragedies had happened.”

I'll keep my liberty, feel free to go hide in a hole though.... those who would trade liberty for.. yadda yadda yadda. The world has not changed in any meaningful way and even if it has it is unimportant to this.

The only thing I see here is a kid wanting attention. Maybe a bit sexually frustrated or disturbed, but not dangerous.

[MJW]

http://www.dailyherald.com/story.asp?id=306827

loser