Posted on 03/22/2012 10:47:22 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
NEW YORK – Acknowledging school violence nationwide, a federal appeals court on Thursday upheld the suspension of a 10-year-old boy for a crayon drawing expressing a desire to blow up his school and its teachers. But the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan was not unanimous in rejecting the First Amendment claims of his parents. Judge Rosemary Pooler said the drawing by the fifth grader at a Montgomery, N.Y., elementary school in Orange County was obviously the work of a class clown. “It was a crude joke,” Pooler wrote. “But the First Amendment should make us hesitate before silencing students who experiment with hyperbole for comic effect, however unknowing and unskillful that experimentation may be.” The boy, identified in court papers only as “B.C.,” was suspended for six days in September 2007 after he showed his drawing to classmates. Other students laughed, though one complained to his teacher. Writing for the majority, two 2nd Circuit judges agreed that the boy deserved punishment for his response to an assignment to write about himself on a picture of an astronaut including a “wish.” The teacher at one point told students they “can write about missiles,” the court noted. It said it was in the “wish” spot that B.C. wrote: “Blow up the school with the teachers in it.” The teacher said she sent B.C. to the principal's office after a girl who seemed “very worried” told her about the drawing. The 2nd Circuit said the discipline was appropriate particularly because the boy had a history of drawings and writings embracing violence. “Whether B.C. intended his ‘wish' as a joke or never intended to carry out the threat is irrelevant,” the opinion said. “Nor does it matter that B.C. lacked the capacity to carry out the threat expressed in the drawing.” The 2nd Circuit said school administrators must maintain parental confidence in their ability to shield children from frightening behavior and to protect safety. It said a failure to respond forcefully to the “wish” might have eroded parental confidence in school safety, forced the hiring of security workers or led to an enrollment decline. The judges noted they sit on the bench of at least the second federal appeals court to acknowledge the need to confront school violence “given the recent wave of school shootings that have tragically affected our nation.” In her dissent, Pooler said the case must be considered in the context of “our justified fears of yet another horrific school shooting.” She said the case that was dismissed by a lower court judge belonged before a jury, which would learn the boy was portraying a paintball game rather than playing out a violent fantasy. She said the jury also would learn that the girl who complained about him had a history of sparring with him over rules and “seems to have taken it upon herself to ensure that B.C. was punished each and every time he did something that was even arguably inappropriate.” “In short, a jury could conclude that she was prim, not petrified,” Pooler wrote. “The First Amendment's protection of free speech cannot hinge entirely on the reaction of a listener to a person's speech. If that were the case, the First Amendment would only be as strong as the weakest, or at least the most thin-skinned, listener in a crowd,” she added. Adam I. Kleinberg, a lawyer for the Valley Central School District, said the ruling “reaffirms that school officials should be afforded great deference in their decision making.” He added: “School officials should not be required to wait until after an incident occurred. They can't predict the future. They can only do their best to keep everyone safe.” Stephen Bergstein, an attorney for the parents, said he probably won't appeal. “He's 10. It was just a little drawing. Nobody cared. That's what kids do,” Bergstein said, noting that the boy had a paintball court in his backyard. “There are times when you're going to make references to violence and it doesn't mean the school's going to go into lockdown.” The boy, now 15, is in high school and doing fine, he said. Bergstein recalled the day the boy showed up for the deposition with attorneys. “His feet didn't touch the ground. When he trotted out of the building you got the feeling he was going to walk around barefoot and go fishing,” he said.
Isn’t it better to know what a child is thinking? The Left sure does love censorship of even one’s thoughts.
I guess nowadays you could get suspended for singing:
“My eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school,
we have tortured every teacher, we have broken every rule,
We blew up the library and the cafeteria too
And our troops go marching on!”
Glory Glory Hallelujah
Teacher hit me with a ruler
Shot her with a .44
and she fell to the floor
and she ain’t our teacher no more.
You’ve brought back such fond memories ;)
It’s a wonder we didn’t all grow up to become psychotic maniacs. :)
Imagine if kids were playing this on their radio:
School’s Out—Alice Cooper
Well, we got no choice
All the girls and boys
Makin’ all that noise
Cause they found new toys
Well, we can’t salute ya
Can’t find a flag
If that don’t suit ya
That’s a drag
School’s out for summer
School’s out forever
School’s been blown to pieces
No more pencils
No more books
No more teacher’s dirty looks
Well, we got no class
And we got no principals
And we got no innocence
We can’t even think of a word that rhymes
School’s out for summer
School’s out forever
My school’s been blown to pieces
No more pencils
No more books
No more teacher’s dirty looks
Out for summer
Out till fall
We might not come back at all
School’s out forever
School’s out for summer
School’s out with fever
School’s out completely
Speak for yerself!
Glory, Glory hallelujah,
Teach hit me with a ruler.
Met her at the door,
With a loaded 44,
And she don’t teach no more!
My goodness, that was being sung everywhere.
Paragraphs are your friend.
Thank goodness the world is now safe from a 10-year-old’s violent crayon drawings. Remember the devastation caused by violent crayon drawings back on 9/11?
What do they expect. The leftist media, teachers and some parents drag the kids into what’s going on in the world when they should be carefree and playing with toys.
Judge — “Whether B.C. intended his ‘wish’ as a joke or never intended to carry out the threat is irrelevant. Nor does it matter that B.C. lacked the capacity to carry out the threat expressed in the drawing.”
It is a short step to Los Angeles banning certain speech on the radio.
Then it is one more short step to the book burnings.
Maybe if they stopped giving stupid assignments to “write about yourself” and instead put in some real content then kids would not get as bored. Is education now mostly conten-free? Schools should not be little therapy institutions.
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