<p>omg! This is more than Alice’s Restaurant than I originally thought! I was thinking about the kid going to jail for his essay and comparing that to Arlo going to jail for littering… but read the quotes from the kid’s essay, and compare that to this section of Alice’s Restaurant:</p>
<p>"And I went up there, I said, “Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I
wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and
guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill,
KILL, KILL.” And I started jumpin up and down yelling, “KILL, KILL,” and
he started jumpin up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down
yelling, “KILL, KILL.” And the sargent came over, pinned a medal on me,
sent me down the hall, said, “You’re our boy.”</p>
<p>Jesus. How bizarre. And the “wouldn’t it be funny if I did” comment apparently referred to him maybe dreaming about it. What if his whole essay was a comment on the VA tech Asian backlash? Of course, it wasn’t, but what if? If this isn’t censorship of the lamest, most dangerous degree in an academic setting, I don’t know what is.</p>
<p>This story appeared in yesterday’s Daily Herald, a Chicago area newspaper. While writing what he did shows an incredible lack of maturity given the recent VT murders, the school 's response was a gross over-reaction. Why are people surprised that teens write this kind of stuff when they have been bombarded for years with violent lyrics and images that are so popular in today’s culture. Why aren’t the makers of violent video games prosecuted for their “dangerous” thoughts? How about movie writers and rap artists? Watch out Stephen King. Here come the thought police! </p>
Okay, so she was a lousy teacher, but that ending has a threatening tone to it. I mean the whole situation stinks, and certainly stinks for Lee, but I would be VERY unhappy if my kid wrote something like that.</p>
<p>I came across a Facebook group supporting Allen Lee, and there were posts made by the founder of the group in which he shares some comments by Lee. There are three separate posts. I’ll put them up chronologically since each includes new information and developments. Since the posts are long, I went through and bolded the key sentences and statements in each. The emphases are all my own.</p>
<p>I certainly hope they won’t send him to jail, because personally I think if someone were hypothetically on the edge, that would be the best way to send them over. JMO anyway. </p>
<p>I can understand talking to him though, and having him evaluated. Since I don’t think the vast majority of people are really capable of mass murder, and from what I see, this individual really doesn’t fit the profile anyway (not saying that everyone HAS to fit the profile, but since for all practical purposes they all do, it’s worth noting IMO). </p>
<p>If it were me though, I would still recommend him for evaluation because when I see that from a kid like this it strikes me as them being disturbed by this event and trying to process it in a potentially unconstructive way (potentially because you can’t “know” someone’s emotions and it may well be constructive for him. But probably not for a lot of people). I would say, that since he is intelligent and obviously knew what happened, it almost is like a cry for help, a dare, if you will. I would think he would benefit from talking to someone professional about his feelings regarding the event, he may be internalizing something and unable to really express it constructively. I have seen this actually in the last few weeks, I am from Va, and boys in particular will make “off” remarks that are inappropriate but it’s sort of obviously they’re just really upset and don’t know how to deal with it. I fear that now if this is the case, in all this craziness this person could not get the help they may need.</p>
<p>The assignment, as quoted by the Chicago Daily Herald:
I thought at first that the assignment was simply one without a topic. Though definitely inappropriate, this assignment was practically begging for someone to abuse it.</p>
<p>Apparently, Princedog, he had a psychological evaluation recently: “On an additional note, I have completed the MEPS (Military Entry Processing Station) examinations, and yes a psychiatric evaluation is included in the process. If I’m qualified to defend the country, I believe I’m qualified to attend school.”</p>
<p>Do you know if those guidelines are what the teacher wrote up, or if they are from the school curriculum?
These two stand out as being particularly ludicrous:
<p>oh, well, like I said, I do not think he seems capable of mass murder, if only because the overt threat seems inconsistent (while there are certainly many warning signs it doesn’t necessarily seem like individuals who have done this have given non anonymous overt warnings like this would be if he was really planning something). </p>
<p>However, I meant it seems he may (or may not, I don’t really know) benefit from speaking to someone now about how this all came up in his thoughts. Like I said, I’ve seen a lot of “off” reactions, and I kind of view it as a way of testing people. They want to see how others will react to inappropriate comments about the situation because they want to be assured that other people care and other people are disturbed by it too. This just how I read it. I don’t claim to be a professional or anything although I’m reasonably good with people. That is why, if I were the teacher, I would probably recommend him to speak with someone. The situation obviously is not being handled appropriately. I don’t see it as “censorship” exactly, I see it as an overreaction. But I do have to admit I don’t see anything wrong with flagging it necessarily, although IMO it should have been done in a way were they spoke with his parents and guidance at school to work out the situation, get things checked out, and if he needed further help, move on from there. Honestly I don’t put a lot of stock in jail as rehabilitating “potential criminals”, obviously we need jail in some ways but our system isn’t really perfect. I generally think if someone isn’t already violent or disturbed, putting them in jail is the best way to get them there. I really hope this will not come to that and I’m still not sure he’s gotten what he needed out of the situation because it was handled inappropriately.</p>
<p>This is farcical! If (WHEN!) the charges are dropped, does this kid even stand a chance at getting his future prospects (military, education) back? Grahhah.</p>
<p>I wrote about mutilating British poets when I was 11. My classmates went for even more gruesome things on free-writing assignments. This is what kids do when told to just go at it! It’s nothing new, and I wonder if the teacher was genuinely schocked or actually had an itch to scratch with this particular student. It sounds so improbable, so insane, so exaggerated.</p>
<p>I don’t really think it sounds insane to question the work itself. Honestly the last line is somewhat of a direct threat. The truth is, although I hate to “normalize” things, for practical purposes, this is not exactly “normal.” Even when told to “write whatever you think”, adults (we’ll just consider him one again, for practical purposes) have social habits that have been reinforced that would preclude them from writing those things. Although the assignment may have been open for abuse, the truth is, he was probably the only one that “abused” it so to speak. If I had read that, yes, a lot of red flags would have gone up. Not that he was a potential mass murderer, because like I said, the odds are so fantastically slim it wouldn’t be realistic. But that he may need some help. It would be odd enough if he wrote that in a private journal, but to write it on an assignment that there is potential for someone else to see (I don’t know what they were told, but if it was handed in, I would not have written anything I didn’t want to be read), is almost a cry for help IMO. Like I said this is not being handled appropriately but it isn’t really censorship IMO. </p>
<p>It may be true that “this is what kids do when told to go at it”, but these are really not kids anymore. I am about his age and personally it strikes me as rather out of line and not quite right. It would set off red flags for sure. But jail is not the appropriate response, again. I agree the assignment was fairly stupid and he may have just been making fun of it, but I still don’t think “don’t be suprised if you inspire the first cg shooting” should be ignored.</p>
<p>I don’t feel qualified to comment fully on this without having seen the entire essay to give context to the quoted statements. I will say, however, that given the state of current events (including, most especially, the recent events at VT), there is some level of hypocrisy in some of the replies on this thread. On the one hand, we are reading (and reeling at) the grotesquely disturbing “plays” written by Cho, lamenting that “the signs were there, all over the place,” and on the other hand, we do not expect an 18-year-old “honor student” to use the tiniest bit of judgment? I don’t know what the answer is, and I don’t think this should be a LEGAL issue, but we simply can’t have it both ways, as much as we would like to believe that we can. As always, I take the stand for personal responsibility. I would expect my children to not EVEN go there, despite the nature of the assignment.</p>
<p>Quotes and no quotes in the “wants to have sex with corpses” sentence makes quite a difference, in my opinion. It shows distance between such an idea and the author himself actually doing the deed. Agree, disagree? It just adds a whole new level of how the school overreacted and then released the damning sentences out of context.</p>
<p>Maybe, however, I still feel the thoughts being described seem disturbed, even if they are inspired by song lyrics or movies or whatever. Also, the “threat” in the end is still out of line. Even if he is perfect and was just joking around, I would expect administration to speak with him about how that is not going to be taken lightly. This is a senior about to enter the “real world”, and as much as we have free speech, we’re living in very paranoid times where anything that can be read as a threat is not likely to be considered a joke. So while I obviously agree that jail is not the right way to go, I would be very surprised if people are suggesting no action at all should have been taken. Also, I don’t fully buy the “I was just trying to be creative/be an intellectual/subvert the man” argument. I still find this disturbing, I really do not find it normal to be writing as if “sex with corpses” is the foremost thing on your mind, or to write it on an assignment you expect to be read by your teacher. At 17 or 18 years old. There should be some level of an ability to gauge a situation at this point. He is going into the military, I do not get the picture that something written like this would be acceptable in the military or that there would be no consequences. Especially in the face of the Iraqi prison scandals. I don’t think they would really be inclined to look favorably upon the thoughts presented here.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Wow. People do the stupidest things, sometimes. The teacher. The kid. The school. The prosecutor. They are all going to be punished adequately, here.</p></li>
<li><p>The assignment is a completely conventional set of “free writing” instructions. What should be added to those instructions is one that says: “When you are finished, look it over and decide whether you are comfortable with anyone else reading it. If not, write me a note with a brief explanation of why you are not handing in the assignment, and you will not be penalized.”</p></li>
<li><p>I would not worry too much about this kid going to jail, or receiving any kind of criminal sanction. If I were the prosecutor, I might worry about sanctions from the courts over bringing this charge. </p></li>
<li><p>If I were solicitor for the school district, the checkbook would be out NOW, and we would be dissociating ourselves from the prosecution as fast as possible and begging the Marines to reconsider.</p></li>
<li><p>The Marines have an actual recent psychological evaluation of the kid? They really ought to reconsider. Although, in this case, I can see a legitimate PR (IR) problem with accepting a recruit who is known to have written this kind of fantasy. However, my guess is that the fantasy lives of Marine recruits are not something the Marines or anyone else would want to delve into much.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I strongly agree with suggestion number 2. This SHOULD have been done; one should have been given that ability considering the nature of the assignment. Again, the boy won’t go to jail, however it would be foolish to thing he’ll emerge unscathed. Hopefully he’ll get back his military contract and hopefully the publicity surrounding the influence will disappear. Again, as a lesson to all, there is <em>no</em> such thing as a blank check. If someone were to say to you, “do whatever you want to me”, does that mean you can kill him or her? I doubt it. I think that was common sense lacking on Allen Lee’s part. He should have realized that free writing means free writing within reason. It all comes back to the reasonable person’s test.</p>