High school student arrested for essay he wrote.

[buttmunch]

Police Thursday released portions of an essay used to charge a Cary-Grove High School student with disorderly conduct, leaving several experts puzzled at an arrest based on such schoolwork.

Asked to write about whatever he wanted in a creative writing class, would-be Marine and honors student Allen Lee, 18, described a violent dream in which he shot people and then "had sex with the dead bodies.''

But then he immediately dismissed the idea as a mere joke, writing, "not really, but it would be funny if I did.''

A second disorderly count accuses Lee of alarming first-year teacher Nora Capron by writing that "as a teacher, don't be surprised on [sic] inspiring the first CG shooting,'' an apparent reference to Cary-Grove High.

Lee said Thursday he was "completely shocked'' to be arrested Tuesday for his essay, especially because written instructions told kids not to "censor'' what they wrote.

"In creative writing, you're told to exaggerate,'' said Lee. "It was supposed to be just junk. . . .

"There definitely is violent content, but they're taking it out of context and making it something it isn't.''

"I have no intention of harming anyone,'' said Lee, who has been transferred to an alternative school setting. "I miss school.''

Lee's father, Albert Lee, who emigrated from China 32 years ago, said his son has a clean academic and police record. He, too, insisted his son's essay was not threatening but authorities "drew a conclusion before the investigation. They didn't want to do the investigation.''

However, the father would not comment on whether he believed authorities acted quickly because his son is of Asian heritage, as was the Virginia Tech campus shooter.

Family therapist Michael Gurian, author of The Minds of Boys, said Allen Lee needs at least good counseling, but "If he was arrested solely based on those words, I don't see that as the most helpful course.''

Bernardine Dohrn, director of Northwestern University's Children and Family Justice Center, laughed when she heard the charge.

"You might want to talk to him, talk to his parents, but the criminal justice system seems to be the last thing you'd want,'' said Dohrn, a former Weatherman leader who lived for years as a fugitive.

Mike McInerney, former head of the Cook County Public Defender's Juvenile Court office, said he "wouldn't be happy'' if his son wrote such words but "I wouldn't criminalize free expression. . . . I don't think it's going to hold up criminally.''

EXCERPTS:

Excerpts from Allen Lee’s essay
• “As a teacher, don’t be surprised on inspiring the first CG
[Cary-Grove High School]
shooting.”

• “Blood, sex, booze. Drugs, drugs, drugs are fun. Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, s..t..a..b...puke.”

• “So I had this dream last night where I went into a building, pulled out two P 90s
[submachine guns] and started shooting everyone, then had sex with the dead bodies. Well, not really, but it would be funny if I did.”
what do you think?


STNG ::Essay arrest baffles experts

Well, it looks like the censorship police will be taking over soon. I'm just sittinghere shaking my head...you tell the kids 'write anything you want...don't censor yourselves' so they do as instructed and before you can say 'Bob's your uncle' they're slapping the handcuffs on him. The stupidity of this is mindboggling.

[greysfang]

Utterly insane bullshit. I

[sputnik]

morons.

[Grimmlok]

Thoughtcrime! Thoughtcrime! We have a beige alert!

Instead of dealing with the real issues of proper child rearing and access to deadly weapons, we'll just make sure everyone doesn't say ANYTHING.

Brilliant!

[buttmunch]

*snicker* thought crime...

Too bad Vonnegut died; he would have loved this.

[AliceInWonderland]

so what @ whatever he wrote; he wrote it; he didn't do it!

If this happened in the US - I would sue the shit outta the whole damn police dept! Its a crime against civil liberties is what they did to this kid. Its called the 1st ammendment; look into it!

[buttmunch]

^^Here, here. It is such a large load of horse shit that I can smell it over here. I know people are probably still freaked by Vtech but really, every kid who writes freaky shit isn't going to shoot the joint up. As I've said before, they should have seen some of the stuff I came up with in my youth.

[DoveFeatheredRaven]

The thing is that the kids who have been involved in school shootings have written things like this that were ignored. If he had gone on to an act of violence, the same people would have been criticized for not taking action. I don't think the kid should have been arrested. That is an over-reaction but he should have been spoken to by a counselor and they should have investigated if he has written this sort of thing before. To be honest, it sounds like the little twerp wanted to push buttons and then whines when he does. You don't write shit like that and not expect a reaction of some sort.

[AliceInWonderland]

^ if youre an aritist you do. This might be a gifted writer whos being dragged through the mud for expressing himself.

[buttmunch]

^^agreed, Alice. And what is up with the counselor carp? Half of America is already paying through the nose for therapy and I, for the life of me, can't see where it's helping much. What would a counselor do for this kid, even if he was fucking around? Teach him to understand why he felt the need to mess with people's heads? Sorry, this whole thing is just stupid.

[moser]

Which idiot is wasting tax dollars to even make this case an issue?

And even if they think something's wrong with the kid (which apparently there isn't) shouldn't the school be suggesting therapy instead of criminal liability?

[Algernon]

At first I was shocked by the excerpts. But then I realized (and the young man even says) that I am only seeing the excerpts, not the enitire content of the essay.

Then I also remembered, like Buttmunch mentioned, some of the crap I came up with in high school. I particularly remember one assignment I did with my best friend (at the time we were both pretty much social outcasts) in Lit class after studying Dante's Inferno. We were instructed to create hell and all its levels and write our own "Inferno". Well, best friend and I came up with some sick, twisted shit. We even 'targeted' certain schoolmates that we despised...thinly veiled. Add that to the fact we were socially inept, 'losers'...wow...in today's age we'd probably be cuffed and led out of the school building immediately. Yet, I know she or I would have NEVER done anything violent. It was angst, rebellion, a show of asserting ourselves on paper (with a lot of shock value)...things we could never or would never do in the real world or out loud.

Who knows, maybe he's a sick fuck and needs to be out of school, and maybe he really was just taking the risk that his teacher invited him to do. Either way, I would like to have read the entire essay instead of just the small excerpts.

[buttmunch]

Can you imagine if some kid wrote the equivalent of DAnte's Inferno or Pradise Lost or even some sort of mythology type thing in today's climate? They'd be pegged a psycho faster than you can say Zues.

[AliceInWonderland]

^ mph good/interesting point. Have we really reverted back to the dark and/or middle ages?!

[buttmunch]

I think we're already there. Think of Shakespeare, with all the incest, murder and general mayhem going on. Today, he'd be pegged messed up, especially if he was under age and under the thumb of 'educators'.