Posted on 01/26/2005 5:23:23 AM PST by crushelits
Violent Drawings Lead to Felony Charges
OCALA, Fla. (AP) - Two boys were arrested for making pencil-and-crayon stick figure drawings depicting a 10-year-old classmate being stabbed and hung, police said. The children, charged with a felony, were taken from school in handcuffs.
The 9- and 10-year-old boys were arrested Monday and charged with making a written threat to kill or harm another person. They were also suspended from school.
One drawing showed the two boys standing on either side of the other boy and ``holding knives pointed through'' his body, according to a police report. The figures were identified by written names or initials.
Another drawing showed a stick figure hanging, tears falling from his eyes, with two other stick figures standing below him. Other pieces of scrap paper listed misspelled profanities and the initials of the boy who was allegedly threatened.
The boys' parents said they thought the children should be punished by the school and families, not the legal system.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.netscape.cnn.com ...
This is serious stuff, not to be ignored by the school. But arresting them and taking them out in handcuffs was foolish, probably only reinforcing the kids' bad behavior.
Well, all the drawers have to say is it was a girl and they were performing an abortion,,,the libs won't have a problem with that.....
I think an arrest here is pretty severe. Especially for 9 and 10 year olds.
Gee, I've seen that scene on TV hundreds of times. Should those folks be arrested? Oh, it's pretend. The kids REALLY did stab someone. Right?
The article doesn't say if the boys gave these pictures/papers to the kid or if the papers were found somewhere. This is serious, but to have the kids ARRESTED just because they drew some violent pictures with names on it? Did they pass this picture to the kid they threatened? Or was it found somehow.....were they showing it off to other kids? Does either boy have a record of bullying, fighting, discipline problems? As a parent, I would be concerned about the drawings, but the police shouldn't have been involved. What's next?
"The boys' parents said they thought the children should be punished by the school and families, not the legal system."
I agree. The only thing more foolish and immature than what these BOYS did, is the "zero tolerance" idiocy of todays liberal school administrators.
I grow increasingly wary of those who want to drum agression out of boys by social engineering, and feminize what they are. If you go about ignoring the hardwiring of a man's psyche, if you keep making normal agression something to scorn, it is going to find it's way out in unexpected and evil ways.
Insanity.
I read this article this morning in the press here in Florida, and I was puzzled by what seemed like an overreaction.
The article did mention that the kids were already in a special education program, however, so it might be that they have a history of violent behavior and that the felony charges were the way to bump them up to a more serious level of intervention. It's also possible that they had done something before that made it seem likely that they really intended to carry out their threat.
Yeah really! A circle (womb) with a depiction of a little baby lying their in pieces at the hands of sharp implements...
Kind of scary to think that to some this drawing is just "boys being boys"....oh?
Very scary indeed.
While I am not a legal scholar by any means, I don't know if the felony charge really sends any further message than a suspension, mandatory counseling, or whatever. I do know I have three boys (some grown) and, well, I think it's possible to be masculine and aggressive and totally testosterone-laden without drawing pictures of hanging and stabbing your classmates....
I could be wrong.
"I agree. The only thing more foolish and immature than what these BOYS did, is the "zero tolerance" idiocy of todays liberal school administrators." Don't forget the our liberal government officials, judges, activists, etc....
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
-- C.S. Lewis
Big bust. Hauling little kids to jail for scrawling stick figures with a Crayola. I am glad none of my fifth grade art is around anymore.
Absurd.
Okay. I don't agree with "zero tolerance" either, but I didn't think this was a liberal tendency. I thought liberals were always accused of being soft on crime. Wasn't that one of the things that brought down Dukakis (sp?, but who cares)? I don't know anything about school administrations, but in government, isn't it our guys pushing for "zero tolerance?"
I'm not trying to start an argument, and I apologize if I come off this way. I just think our criminal system, and things like zero tolerance, are really screwed up, and if there are Republicans fighting them, they deserve my support. Today's prisons are a breeding ground for more crime.
Violence is violence, and I know this probably totally irrelevant, but part of me stils wonders if the kid who was targeted by the drawings was an innocent nerd type who the boys had harassed for some time, or if he was himself a bully. Even though "hit lists" and such are sick, I still sometimes feel for the kids if they have had the living s**t beat out of them by athletes, popular kids, etc. If schools want to head off school violence, working a little harder on trying to stop bullying might be a good place to start. Boys will be boys, and they do have natural agressive tendencies, but not all boys (or girls) do, and those who don't should have the right to be left in peace.
Brother! My friends and I drew plenty of pictures of war and portraits of classmates as fat, ugly, snot out of their nose, and smelly. I imagine we would be considered worse than throat-slitting islamic clerics if we attended school in today's world.
Nine and Ten year olds engage in foolish and immature conduct every day. It's part of being nine and ten. They have several years of foolish, immature conduct ahead of them.
This doesn't seem to be far out of line for boys of their age group.
I wonder what the police officer said as he arrested them,"You are under arrest for drawing stick figures?"
That's hanged, dammit! Sheesh, modern education....
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