Posted on 02/03/2015 2:58:30 AM PST by SMGFan
A 9-year-old Texas boy was suspended from school after pretending to have the magic Hobbit ring from "The Lord of the Rings" and its prequel, telling a schoolmate that he would make him "disappear."
Aiden Steward had recently watched The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies with his family when he took his imagination to school in Kermit, Texas, his father, Jason Steward, told the New York Daily News.
When he heard that his son was suspended for making terroristic threats saying hed make someone disappear Steward told the Daily News it was "unbelievable."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Also in North Carolina. I had a Pentocostal employee who would not let her grandchild watch Scooby-doo because it was “occult.” I pointed out that, on the contrary, the shows never dealt with the occult, because the culprit always turned out to be the caretaker or a disgruntled relative in disguise, who would have gotten away with it if not for the “meddling kids.”
School officials nationwide really need a lesson on true threat doctrine, the legal principle that determines whether an utterance is actually a threat for purposes of law (and thus potentially criminal). The appeals court circuits are split on the definition, some applying a “reasonable speaker” doctrine, others a “reasonable hearer” doctrine, and these latter divided between those that take hearer to be the party to whom the speech is directed and those that take the hearer to be a disinterested third party, but all of them require that the speaker have the means of carrying out the harm spoken of (or purportedly spoken of).
Regardless of which standard is used by the appeals court circuit containing Texas, purported threats in which a magical means is specified are no threat at all.
“Pentecostal” is a pretty big tent, with extreme segments, just as other religions have.
Be careful about smearing a huge portion of the population just because of a minority of nutjobs.
Yes, I am Pentecostal. And yes, I know of a few of the kooks. I call them out on their idiocy when I can, however, again, be careful of your labels.
Kermit is a corrupt little town. Sheriff and DA recently sent to prison.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winkler_County_nurse_whistleblower_case
He needs to try again on the school staff and if successful focus on Obama and his minions...
“I suspect thisll be from the Austin area...”
You’d be wrong. Kermit Texas. Way out near the NM state line. One of the most conservative areas in the world.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.