11 year old boy arrested for drawing violent stick figure...

[Bill Mattocks]

Wow...

http://www.kwgn.com/news/kdvr-arvad...-stick-figure-drawing-20110221,0,607158.story

ARVADA, Colo. -- An 11-year-old Arvada boy was arrested and hauled away in handcuffs for drawing stick figures in school - something his therapist told him to do.

The boy’s parents say they understand what he did was inappropriate, but are outraged by the way Arvada Police handled the case.

The parents do not want their real names used.

“Tim” is being treated for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and his therapist told him to draw pictures when got upset, rather than disrupt the class. So that’s what he did.

Last October, he drew stick figures of himself with a gun, pointed at four other stick figures with the words “teacher must die.” He felt calmer and was throwing the picture away when the teacher saw it and sent him to the principal’s office.

 

[Blade96]

when i was in junior high school we used to sing joy to the world the school burnt down and all the teachers died...the principal was dead, we shot him in the head....to the tune of the christmas carol right. I guess we were terrorists too. *roll eyes* terrorists before THE terrorists. Gimmie a king size break.

 

[girlbug2]

Incredible. The boy was learning to handle his ADHD in a constructive way, and he got punished for it. I feel for him.

Since when did we become a country of such PC pansies?

 

[Touch Of Death]

It just brings joy to my heart when I hear that someone is calmer once he draws violent images targeting his teacher, but School shootings are up since you guy's were kids; so, maybe this is one of those signs they have the teachers look for now.
Sean

 

[Bill Mattocks]

It just brings joy to my heart when I hear that someone is calmer once he draws violent images targeting his teacher, but School shootings are up since you guy's were kids; so, maybe this is one of those signs they have the teachers look for now.
Sean

I can understand such drawings to be an area of concern by school authorities. I can understand why they'd investigate to make sure there was no threat to the teachers.

I do not understand why, once they had determined there was no threat, they arrested the child. What purpose does that serve?

 

[Touch Of Death]

I can understand such drawings to be an area of concern by school authorities. I can understand why they'd investigate to make sure there was no threat to the teachers.

I do not understand why, once they had determined there was no threat, they arrested the child. What purpose does that serve?

He was made an example of.
Sean

 

[granfire]

I can understand such drawings to be an area of concern by school authorities. I can understand why they'd investigate to make sure there was no threat to the teachers.

I do not understand why, once they had determined there was no threat, they arrested the child. What purpose does that serve?

The same purpose as suspending girls for sharing a Mydol or a kid for telling the teacher she accidentally swapped lunch pails with mom and has a steak knife in school...


I think there are numerous reasons why school shootings are up, but certainly one is IMHO that kids don't learn to deal with their frustrations anymore.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

He was made an example of.
Sean

Think the word is going to spread via the shadowy underworld network of criminal stick-figure-drawing children everywhere that this behavior is no longer tolerated? Should work like a charm.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

When I was a wee rugrat I had a habit of kissing girls. In todays world I'd have been arrested and charged as a sex offender.
I suppose based on this story I'd also have a 'violent watch' tag on me too as I used to draw epic stick figure battles too. Lots of bombs, and tanks and all.

 

[Big Don]

Zero Tolerance means no one is thinking...
Arrested for drawing a picture: Mind Crime

 

[Ken Morgan]

I’m working in a grade three/four class right now, in it there are about six boys who love anything military, they draw soldiers, tanks, planes, missiles, people being shot, you know the stuff all eight year old boys like. No one seems to take it seriously.

Some people try so very hard to do the right thing all the time, and in so doing follow the rulebook without veering, all it proves is that common sense, isn’t all that common after all.

 

[LuckyKBoxer]

Incredible. The boy was learning to handle his ADHD in a constructive way, and he got punished for it. I feel for him.

Since when did we become a country of such PC pansies?

what was the official date Obama was elected?

 

[Cryozombie]

what was the official date Obama was elected?

Please. This Zero Tolerance ******** started WAY before Obama.

 

[elder999]

Please. This Zero Tolerance ******** started WAY before Obama.

The phrase "zero tolerance" was first applied to anti-crime methods in a report written in 1994:Kelling, Managing 'Squeegeeing': a problem solving exercise,G.L., Julian, M. and Miller, S., New York: NYPD.

I don't know when it was first applied in schools, but it's truly ********. Back in NY, my son was sent to the office, and I had to come in and take him home for the day, for having a plastic knife with his lunch.....luckily, though, he wasn't expelled or anything-that was before the 1994 report. Still......

 

[Ken Morgan]

, my son was sent to the office, and I had to come in and take him home for the day, for having a plastic knife with his lunch.....luckily, though, he wasn't expelled or anything-

?? Kids bring plastic knives to school all the time.

 

[elder999]

?? Kids bring plastic knives to school all the time.

In Canada, maybe. Here in the States-land of gun violence-the schools have a zero tolrance policy for weapons, and a plastic knife, is a knife, is a weapon.

And, since Columbine, I think, kids have been arrested for them, too.

 

[Scott T]

In Canada, maybe. Here in the States-land of gun violence-the schools have a zero tolrance policy for weapons, and a plastic knife, is a knife, is a weapon.

And, since Columbine, I think, kids have been arrested for them, too.

Jesus. Thanks be to whatever diety I believe in that I live in the land of the free-er!

 

[Scott T]

When I was a wee rugrat I had a habit of kissing girls. In todays world I'd have been arrested and charged as a sex offender.
I suppose based on this story I'd also have a 'violent watch' tag on me too as I used to draw epic stick figure battles too. Lots of bombs, and tanks and all.

You too? I thought I was the only one psychologically damaged enough to do that! %-}

 

[Ken Morgan]

In Canada, maybe. Here in the States-land of gun violence-the schools have a zero tolrance policy for weapons, and a plastic knife, is a knife, is a weapon.

And, since Columbine, I think, kids have been arrested for them, too.

Metal rulers, pencils, pens, scissors, heavy books, chairs, a coffee mug, rocks, a baseball, glass beakers…
Off the top of my head I can think of many things much more accessible and dangerous then a plastic knife in any classroom.

 

[geezer]

what was the official date Obama was elected?

C,mom Lucky
... you are old enough to remember Jimmy Carter! But seriously, I'm a liberal (sort-of) and I hate this "PC" garbage as much as anybody. And I work for some pretty conservative people who enforce this PC garbage daily. Go figure. Maybe it has more to do with gutlessness than political orientation.

Now back to the OP.... the only way I'd get after a kid for drawing any kind of stick figures is if he drew them on my car with a permanent marker! You may or may not know that I'm a high art school teacher. I once had a kid sneak behind my desk and somehow get a obscene stick-figure drawing onto my desktop (in less than a minute while I was busy helping another kid). I hit the ceiling. I took him aside and explained that if anybody saw it I'd get fired and he'd have a "real teacher ...the type with no sense of humor" for the rest of the year. Then I made him clean up the room for the rest of the week. Believe it or not, that pretty well fixed the situation. That and locking my computer whenever I leave my desk!