Student gets charged for essay (Die Free Speech Die!!! )

[Pekka]

"Let us be honest, Oklahoma, Columbine, Virginia Tech are all the result of someone with severe mental illness. The problem lies in the fact that we need to identify these people and sort them out, or at least make them safe. By all means, give the lad psychological assessment to see if there are any major underlying issues. But to punish him for a flippant essay, well, no..."

SHUT PH! Stop making sense... we can stop people from flipping out, please, shut your librul artist piehole!

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by Sava
I didn't think it was all that creative.

You don't have taste.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
Let us be honest, Oklahoma, Columbine, Virginia Tech are all the result of someone with severe mental illness. The problem lies in the fact that we need to identify these people and sort them out, or at least make them safe. By all means, give the lad psychological assessment to see if there are any major underlying issues. But to punish him for a flippant essay, well, no...

Wiglaf, I can understand your horror at the recent events but alas, this is all part of life. You can't clamp down on everything and wrap everything in cotton wool. You live, you take your chances. And although minimisation of such incidents happen (and we can always learn lessons), there are some lengths we should never go to.

The problem is there is no way to identify someone who will snap.

Back in the old days they used to throw everyone in mental institutions (sometimes when they didn't belong). But because we care more about individual liberties now days, we don't lock people up against their will. Unless the family is willing to comitt them.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by MJW

Originally posted by Sirotnikov
there's already a thread about it.

http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showt...hreadid=165351

[Wiglaf]

Originally posted by Geronimo


This is your argument? Anything that might have prevented the VT attack must be acceptable? Constitution be damned?

Written threats arent protected big boy

[Wernazuma III]

Originally posted by Wiglaf
Written threats

It was a homework paper, in accordance the instructions of the teacher.
I mean, he did not pin it on the trees around his school...

[Elok]

Originally posted by Nikolai
Sounds like a weird system. I take it it's a 1 to 6 grade system? We have that in junior high over here, and a 4 is a slightly over average grade. A 6 is the best grade, which is very difficult to get but not impossible if you know your subject.

No, 0-4, with 4 as the highest you can normally go and 0 as a failing grade. AP courses are supposedly college-level work, so they're weighted to push the scale up over 4.0 if you get good grades in them. In any case, grades are normally referred to by the letters E (or F, for failure) through A, rather than by number.

OB, I looked at that passage again after you claimed it had masterful use of such-and-such, and honestly, I can't see any real talent in it. The rhythm is meh, the diction is not only primitive but awkwardly primitive, and the whole thing is juvenile even for high school. The one thing it's got going for it is better grammar than you'd expect from a real psycho. I think. I never read anything by Harris, Klebold, or whats-his-face from VT, so I wouldn't know.

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Dis
The problem is there is no way to identify someone who will snap.

Oh we can, the fact is it just isn't 100% infallible. But what is? Sad as it is, these things will always happen - all we can do is minimise the risk. But severely restrict our freedoms in the process?

[Fake Boris]

Blood, sex and booze. 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 P90s and started shooting everyone, then had sex with the dead bodies. Well, not really, but it would be funny if I did.

Bolded part is quite good IMO.

Also, I believe the last sentence was actually meant as a reflexion on mindless shootings... like he was afraid himself of the consequences of what he had just written.

I say not bad. Probably better than most of what the other students did in any case.

[Kuciwalker]

Wow, that's just stupid.

[Fake Boris]

You've never been in trouble for what you wrote, haven't you (that wouldn't surprise me, you're so desperately bland) ? I've spent my high school years at the principal's office for dissertations I had written, so I'm in a position to see and feel the sincere fright in the last part.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Oncle Boris
You've never been in trouble for what you wrote, haven't you (that wouldn't surprise me, you're so desperately bland)?

What exactly would I want to write that would get me in trouble? Why should I want to write things that would get me in trouble (even ignoring that disincentive)? I'm not a rebel, or an idiot...

[Fake Boris]

As to not be a boring dumbass ?

[Kuciwalker]

Only people who disagree with the orthodoxy are interesting? That's rather self-serving.

[Ecthy]

Being a rebel would at least make you normal for your age... I might not judge you bad for being so un-rebel, but it certainly means many many will not be able to identify with you.