[wordup] repress your children, now!

[Adam Shand]

The quote that seems to be getting peoples attention ...

	"We just need to get it through kids' heads that there are certain
	things you don't say and there are certain things you don't draw,"
	[Principal Schmitt] said.

What actually gets me is these two quotes coming from the same person ...
I mean come on people, either it's a threat or it's not:

	"The children were in no danger at all. It involved no real
	weapons."

	"All I can tell you is it was a threat . . . against students," he
	said. "Nobody in particular, but students in general."

And the general concensus ... I believe this particular piece of wisdom
comes from John :)

	All I can say is AGGGh AGGH <choke> <sputter>.  I can't count how
	many times I drew cartoons of my classmates with a gun to their
	heads...  or of spaceships crashing in to the school... or of my
	English teacher in leather... oh wait.

	This is just fucked up.  It makes me want to blow up the guy up
	like in all the violent video games I play.

From: "John McDaniel" <jmcdaniel at ameritrade.com>
From: "Brett Shand" <bretts at earthlight.co.nz>
URL:  http://www.sptimes.com/News/051101/TampaBay/Student_removed_from_.shtml

Student removed from class because of drawings
By ED QUIOCO and JULIE CHURCH
St. Petersburg Times, published May 11, 2001

The principal at Oldsmar Elementary says the 11-year-old probably won't
return for the rest of the year. OLDSMAR -- A fifth-grader was taken from
Oldsmar Elementary School in handcuffs Wednesday after a teacher found
drawings he had made of weapons, school officials said.

The 11-year-old, who is not being named because of his age, was not
charged with a crime. The boy was taken to meet with his parents and
counselors after classmates told school officials about the drawings.

"There were some drawings that were confiscated by the teacher," principal
David Schmitt said. "The children were in no danger at all. It involved no
real weapons."

The boy has received a discipline that Schmitt said he couldn't discuss.
But he said the boy probably won't return for the rest of the year and
probably would be moved to another school.

The boy was handcuffed by campus police for his safety and not because the
student was violent or out of control, said school district spokesman Ron
Stone.

"That's normal procedure in a situation like this," Stone said. "The
primary concern was to make sure we get appropriate services for the
child."

It is not unusual for students in elementary and middle schools to make
threats, said Nancy Zambito, a director of school operations for the
school district. The typical procedure involves immediately notifying a
campus police officer or a school resource officer, counselors and the
student's parents to "assess the threat and work with the child," she
said.

Depending on the severity of the threat, Zambito said, the outcome for the
student can be a number of things ranging from disciplinary action by the
school, such as suspension or expulsion, to being arrested or taken to a
hospital under Florida's Baker Act, which allows for the involuntary
commitment of people who threaten or attempt to hurt themselves or others.

"It's nothing unusual and we address them all seriously because, of
course, we don't know," Zambito said. "And in most cases, our prime goal
is to let those students know what is appropriate to say and what is not
and how to be angry and cute and funny without alarming people."

The classmates who turned in the student after seeing his drawings should
be commended because that was the right thing to do, Schmitt said.

"All I can tell you is it was a threat . . . against students," he said.
"Nobody in particular, but students in general."

Schmitt planned to send a letter home to parents Thursday letting them
know generally what had happened.

"We just need to get it through kids' heads that there are certain things
you don't say and there are certain things you don't draw," he said.