Student suspended for writing death list

[buttmunch]

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. -- A local 5th-grade student was suspended from school after he reportedly wrote a death list. Now, his mother says he was the victim and she's questioning the administration's zero-tolerance policy.

According to the 5th-grade Ferndale Elementary School student who wrote the list, he only wrote names of kids who bully him.

"Three of them threatened me that they were going to beat me up," he said.

While a parent of one of the children on the death list reported it to school officials Tuesday, the boy's mother maintained he was the victim.

"I reported to the school several times and none of these children have been suspended, yet my child has after he warns the school many times of them bullying him," said the boy's mother.

It remained unclear if the 5th-grader was expelled from school Thursday. His mother said he had been suspended until further notice.

The boy said he wants others to learn from his mistake and respect each other.

His mother said he did not come from a violent home and the kids were in no danger. She also said the boy would go to counseling.

School officials said their school is safe and they plan to continue a guidance development program, visiting classrooms and talking to students about bullying. 5th Grade Student Suspended After Writing Death List - News Story - WJAC Johnstown

Hmm...I wonder how much trouble I would have gotten into if someone had read my journals when I was a kid. I mean, I wrote all kinsd of stuff about people I disliked/was scared of/hated. And I'm quite sure I wrote that I wished they were dead, etc. I guess I would have been prosecuted under terrorism laws or similar.

[Aella]

Excessive. Interesting how the school would freak out more about the possibility of a 5th grader going on a killing rampage than the actual bullying going on.

[sputnik]

i used to write stories with a friend in elementary school, when we were about this kid's age. it was always about school trips and people dying one by one, starting with the ones we hated most. i wish i could find them so i could remember details, all i remember is one kid getting sucked into the plane's engine.
these days i probably would have gotten suspended/expelled, and sent to a psychiatrist.

[buttmunch]

^^By today's standards, you would have gotten off easy if all they did was send you to a shrink after kicking you out of school. On another of these 'naughty kid' threads, I suggested we tell a few of the stories of the stuff we got up to when we were kids and then let other posters come up with appropriate punishments, just to show how excessive some of this is. Kids just aren't as rotten as some people would like us to believe and I think 99.9% of the stuff we read about is completely harmless. Unfortunately, we live in media-saturated times and, as with stories about child snatchings/child abuse/child killings, we're led to believe it's out of control, when in fact it's simply that we're hearing every little fucking story that ever happens. Even ten years ago this wasn't the case so we weren't getting this horrible idea that the kids today are out of control.

[crumpet]

Excessive. Interesting how the school would freak out more about the possibility of a 5th grader going on a killing rampage than the actual bullying going on.
I agree with you. They tolerate the endless bullying and decide 'enough is enough' when a kid fights back. Kids say and think these things, so what? I was at an Eater egg hunt Sunday and 2 little boys, about 6 yrs old had argued over something or another and were saying to each other, "If you kill me, I'll kill you back", lol!

[buttmunch]

I often wonder if the so-called adults meting out these punishments underwent lobotomies and therefore have no memory of what it's like to be a kid. Or else they were just damn perfect and model children.

[shedevilang]

I think we all had thoughts like this as kids hell I had a hit list lol I agree buttmunch everything is so out in the media that we feel like kids are all crazy and out to kill everyone etc...This kind of shit has always gone on kidnappings, kids going nuts and killing people, etc... we just hear about it now.

[buttmunch]

And we hear it every hour on the hour due to the news cycles. Before, we'd read it in the morning or afternoon paper and maybe on the evening news. Kids are kids and yes, there are a few who will go nutso but that's life. Stop treating each and every one of them like their a potential threat.

[sputnik]

^^^
the media explosion has warped people's perception of real danger because everything is sensationalised and every little story is reported. it's funny but in the vast majority of cases, surveys show that people think there is more criminal activity when in reality crime has gone down. that's especially true of youth crime. it's all about perception.
same thing with the paedophile-mania of recent years. i don't think all of a sudden more paedophiles are being born, it's just that between the sensationalist press and sex-offender registries, people are convinced they're everywhere.
people need to learn how to interpret everything they see/read and maybe fit it into a larger context.

[buttmunch]

Totally and completely agree, sputnik. It's kind of a mass hysteria. The thing I find scary about it is that there is this almost palpable dislike of children in some people, even among those who work with children. I mean, teachers and such should remember that kids have always been their own special kinds of pains in the ass but it's nothing to get too worked up about.