Anyone else hear about this?

[jedah_s]

http://www.lex18.com/global/story.asp?s=2989614&ClientType=Printable

the story amazes me personaly.

[EmperorNorton]

Bwahahahahahaha!
Bwahahahahahahahahaha!
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Okay, I'm done.

No, I'm not.

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

[crookedtooth]

Then Bendis should go to jail, IIRC, ult. Spidey gets attacked at school. So according to the logic, when he wrote the script he commited a felony!

Wow! Thats great.


Oh and by the way, I live in a blue state. None of this goes on in blue states! ;) :p

[garlinghouse]

yet....

[jedah_s]

I reside in a red state, but i live in a blue state of mind.

[odieses]

the 50's all over again. the kid was reported by his grandparents HIS FRICKING GRANDPARENTS!!

im going to report my neighbor as a terrorist because i dont like him. then they can bring him up on charges.:laugh:

Personal rights gone because of public idiocy.:rolleyes:

[Badger Warrior]

N E 1 wanna rewrite that kids story?

[roon]

...wow...just....wow...

[K-ness]

This is what happens when the Government spends more time trying to end stupid lawsuits.

[drgnoftyr]

thats kinda going too far ... now we can't write fiction..... geesh!!!

[garlinghouse]

K-ness, what do you mean exactly?

[Frontman]

Um, when did the color of a state matter on stupidity? Is this is a political topic?

No, this is what happens when folks have too much time on their hands, and that includes the kid. I'll bet, with him saying "I never named the school" he probably did a darn good job of describing his own school. And what kind of an idiot decides to do a short story about zombies for English class?

The whole story doesn't pass the stink test.

[Komixfrk75]

You know for the people on here making jokes that isn't cool. Second its a shame when you can't write about zombies and schools and you get arrested for it. I kinda of got to feel sorry for the kid. But then again we also don't know exactly what was written.

[Snake_Eyes898]

I'm glad I live in Canada.

[K-ness]

Originally posted by garlinghouse
K-ness, what do you mean exactly? President Bush supposedly wanted to start looking into idiotic lawsuits and put an end to them.

You know, things like Stella Vs. McDonalds and Burglar vs. Butcher's Block.

[Magnito]

If it involves Zombies, I think it's safe to say that it is a work of fiction. Unless his terrorist plan is raise the dead, Then this is just stupid.

All I can say is this would not have happened in Canada.
(J/K)

[Frontman]

K-ness,

Your logic holds no weight. So you're saying its the government's fault that:

A: The kid used poor judgement on doing a zombie-killer-in-school story for English class
B: The grandparents overreact and report the kid
C: The cops/DA overreact and up the kid's bail? They don't usually do that unless there is a good reason.

I just don't see where your shot at the President fits into that one.

:ermm:

[K-ness]

Originally posted by Frontman
K-ness,

Your logic holds no weight. So you're saying its the government's fault that:

A: The kid used poor judgement on doing a zombie-killer-in-school story for English class
B: The grandparents overreact and report the kid
C: The cops/DA overreact and up the kid's bail? They don't usually do that unless there is a good reason.

I just don't see where your shot at the President fits into that one.

:ermm: When I hold up a picture of an apple, please don't say it's a hamburger.

First off, I was making a joke about the lunacy of the Law Enforcement there. Second, I was explaining something that Bush is/was planning to do. I'm all for the end of stupid lawsuits. I don't think ill of the president for that.

*holds up a picture of an orange*

Now... what is this a picture of?

[JKLantern]

In relation to frivolous lawsuits:

Someone my Dad arrested one time tried to sue him. Judge tossed it out.

I got a good laugh out of hearing this. It happened a long time ago.

[delowen]

[Prof. Aragorn]

Wait wait wait wait wait- a kid writes a story about zombies in a high school and he's facing terrorist charges?

Since when were zombies real and in Osama bin Laden's batcave?

Jeez, I use to write stories like that all the time, has the world groane dummr?

[delowen]

Ugh. Just ignore my post above. Maybe they (the Prosecutors) know more than we do. Or maybe they're just being idiots; it wouldn't be the first time.

If what the kid says is true, then I really hope one of the various civil liberties associations steps up to help in his defense. Either way, I think Grandma and Grandpa are off the Christmas list.:ermm:

[freakazoid_x]

Soooo do Mall authorities get to sue the people who made both Dawn of the Dead movies for their terrorist like Zombie mall attacks?

[Rocket Ranger]

Originally posted by crookedtooth
Then Bendis should go to jail, IIRC, ult. Spidey gets attacked at school. So according to the logic, when he wrote the script he commited a felony!

Wow! Thats great.


Oh and by the way, I live in a blue state. None of this goes on in blue states! ;) :p


I agree it sounds like the authorities over-reacted although it's true we don't have the story to read for ourselves. Either way, it's ridiculous to think that this sort of thing doesn't happen in "blue" states. I live in one of the bluest of the blues and can guarantee that similiar stuff has gone on here as well. When it comes to schools, there isn't much freedom of speech or expression anymore be it in classic literature, religious or political discussion or probably even some comic books. 'Course, while the "thought police" crack down on the "trouble-makers", they oftentimes turn a blind eye to real problems like gangs, sex or violence at school, outright disrespectful behavior, etc, etc.... In fact, I have a sister who is a teacher in a public high school here who was physically assaulted by one of her "troublesome" students and little to nothing was done to truly deal with the student's action or attitude and very little support was offered my sister. Remember, this is in a state that's as "blue" as they come. So, "color of state" really has nothing to do with how public schools are lacking good discernment these days over what's considered "appropriate content" and "appropriate behavior."

[WakandaMan]

Pretty funny the way that everyone in this thread seems to be taking the word of the kid for it over the grandparents/police/judge.

Seems pretty obvious to me that the kid is just trying to get out of the mess he's got himself into. Sure, law enforcement can make dumb mistakes at times, but I seriously doubt that they'd arrest a high school kid if he really did just write a story about zombies. Either the story was really vague, or the kid's lying. I'm inclined to believe the latter.

[absolutvt69]

Originally posted by Magnito
If it involves Zombies, I think it's safe to say that it is a work of fiction. Unless his terrorist plan is raise the dead, Then this is just stupid.



Exactly...

[Toadally]

Gotta love the police. Seems they find a way to arrest ya one way or another. For instance, some friends were at an amusement park. They went on the Farris Wheel. There were people throwing pennies off so one of the guys decided to throw a gum wraper off. They ended up in the security building, while the people who were really guilty got off. :confused:

[Frontman]

Originally posted by K-ness
When I hold up a picture of an apple, please don't say it's a hamburger.

First off, I was making a joke about the lunacy of the Law Enforcement there. Second, I was explaining something that Bush is/was planning to do. I'm all for the end of stupid lawsuits. I don't think ill of the president for that.

*holds up a picture of an orange*

Now... what is this a picture of?

Ok, gotcha. Still a bit jet lagged from the flight from Kona. Sorry about that.

Oh, I'll say it's an orange. My son on the other hand, will say its "apple, apple, apple." since to a two year old, all round fruit the size of a baseball is an apple. :) As is anything colored orange. Got to love kids.

Aloha!

The Frontman

[CarlosMucha]

OMG I don't know who deserve worst...

[clameire]

>The kid used poor judgement on doing a zombie-killer-in->school story for English class

what ? why would it be forbidden to write stories as people want ? where is it poor judgement ?

What i call "freedom" is the liberty to write anything i want, especially when it's FICTION

I don't know if the kid is lying or not, but this story scares me, because if governments (any governments that claims itself as a state of freedom, justice and democracy) and police begin to arrest people for writing stories, any kind of stories, and work of art of fiction, then i guess humanity has gone really, really mad...

And if people think it's "normal", then it's really, really a pity, in my opinion.

Grand Parents ? my god... What did they have in mind ? Couldn't they handle the kid themselves and let the police out of that ? sheesh

I'll never understand such a behavior, and never caution it.

[delowen]

Originally posted by WakandaMan
Pretty funny the way that everyone in this thread seems to be taking the word of the kid for it over the grandparents/police/judge.


I hate to break it to you WakandaMan, but innocent people go to prison all the time no matter where in the world you live. Prosecutors and police have been know to make "mistakes" before. Yeah, the kid could be lying, but he's not automatically a liar just because they say so.

Heh, a couple years back, some grade school in the midwest (who's name escapes me) expelled a kinder-gardener and called the police on him because he brought a brightly colored translucent squirt gun to school to play with at recess. People overreact all the time. It's stupid, but it happens.

My own grandmother on my father's side genuinely believed that I was getting into satanism by playing D&D and other roleplaying games a number of years back. After she spent several hours on the phone one night trying to convince my father to destroy all my gaming possessions (which would have included Heroclix if it had been around back then), he told me I was to hide all my "stuff" whenever she came to visit and tell her that he actually Had destroyed it all. If she'd have ever known that I was still into gaming, it wouldn't have surprised me if she'd have gotten help from her church to try and "deprogram" me.:confused:

[Ro-gan]

Originally posted by crookedtooth
Then Bendis should go to jail, IIRC, ult. Spidey gets attacked at school. So according to the logic, when he wrote the script he commited a felony!

Wow! Thats great.


Oh and by the way, I live in a blue state. None of this goes on in blue states! ;) :p

And let's not forget about arresting Stephen King for writing Carrie.

[ReZourceman]

Haha.....a kid got arrested for doing his homework.

[BadAxe1]

All I can say is that I have a pretty good Shazam! story on file that I was meaning to post in the fan fiction forum on this site. However, since part of the story involves a giant robot tearing up downtown Fawcett City I think I'll just keep it on my computer and hope my wife doesn't turn me in if she ever sees it. On second thought maybe I'll just go delete it.

Seriously, WTH is going on in this country when people are being arrested for writing works of fiction. I'd like to know if the police found blueprints of the school and the makings for a pipe bomb in this kids room, maybe an AK-47 to justify their hysterical reaction? Or did they just go off the deep end as they are wont to do these days at the mere suggestion of a violent thought. I have violent thoughts every day. When people piss me off sometimes I really want to smack them upside the head, I don't of course, but I still want to. I guess I should be arrested for my own good and taken into anger management courses.(BULL!) That by the way is the kind of thinking that comes out of the "blue states" where indoctrinated pacifism and anti gun paranoia run rampant.

Before anyone gets on my case about it, I don't even own a firearm anymore, not even to hunt with. I sold the several that I had years ago because I had small children in the house.

Sad to say but I think some of the previous posters were right, this facist BS wouldn't happen in Canada.

:(

[Frontman]

We all should keep in mind that the report is taking a pro-kid slant to the story. I wonder if factors like the kid's past hasn't been mentioned. Usually, honor kids who have never been in trouble usually get that mentioned if they get busted where the case shows a slam-dunk of overreaction by the authorities in question. However, there is no mention of this kid's past, good or bad.

I could also all be a case of "blown out of proportion" where one night, the kid says he hates school, then later, the grandparents read the story. They probably reported him out of concern, and who can blame them in this post-Columbine era? They might of only thought that the school would talk to the kid, work with a councilor, etc; not expecting the kid to be brought up on charges.

And finally, has this story been confirmed through any other media site? Just wondering, a story like this is prime for an Oprah/Today Show, "Let's rally around the kid" coverage.

Then again, we have an ongoing case here in Illinois where a home owner shot a burgler with a history of forced entry/sexual assualt and the burgler now is suing the homeowner for shooting him.

Makes you wonder.

The Frontman

[DaLuvster89]

Seriosly, though - this is scary. Before you know it, they'll be burning books in town centers all across the country...

But I think we all are all missing the bigger scope of this story.

I'll be as quick as possible, b/c I don't want the authorities coming after me, either.

The real story here: This kid stumbled onto something that the government has been planning for years: A full-on Zombie attack. They have the Zomie virus, and are waiting for the right moment to release the undead on an un-suspecting world. I've wondered about this for a while now, and this story only confirms my suspicions.

When the Zombies come, I'll be ready. Remember, aim for the head, and don't let them bite you. Also, there is no such thing as "safe" from Zombies; just safer. Keep that in mind and plan for every possible scenario.

*Knock at door*

Oh carp!!!!


...

[FoxInStocks]

I just watched Shaun of the Dead last night, and realized that it was EXACTLY how I'd handle a zombie situation.

[BadAxe1]

That homeowner didn't shoot that burglar in the right place.

Also when I talk about anti gun paranoia it's stuff like this that sets me off. I heard about a truck driver that had an empty clip in one of his bags from a hunting trip he'd been on. He'd forgotten it was there. He got pulled over for a routine DOT inspection and an officer found the EMPTY clip. There was no firearm in the truck and no ammunition. The driver calmly explained that he'd been on vaction and gone hunting, and that the clip was left in his bag from that trip by mistake. The Massachusetts DOT in it's infinite wisdom confiscated the guys truck, and thus his livelyhood, threw him in jail and fined him something over $20,000. That's what I mean when I say anti gun paranoia.

I've grown to despise the term "Gun Violence" as you see it in headlines and on the evening news, just as much as I learned to loathe the term "Hate Crime" in the 90's.

Violence is violence and crime is crime.

Worse yet is the concept of "Hate Speech" So what, now I can't speak out about something that offends me because the whiny ultra Liberal thought police will have my head on a platter for "Hate Speech" The concept we need to embrace anew is that of Free Speech. We may disagree on an issue, but is it right to say that because my position is unpopular with a certain group that it can be labeled as some sort of wrongful speech because it offends them?

Back on topic. as far as I can tell at face value, a teenage kid was led away in irons becuase he was writing a zombie story. I'm sure the world's a better, safer place because this dangerous lunatic has been taken off the streets.
I saw where two elementary school children were handcuffed and taken away from school awhile back because they drew a stick figure picture of them stabbing a bully who'd been roughing them up with swords. I doubt either of them owned or had access to a sword for Pete's sake. Back in my day the little fellows would've have been taken to the Pricipal's office and given a stern talking to, and so would the bully. And that would've been that. Hell when I was a kid our Pricipal, God love him, would take quarrelsome boys into his office and offer them the chance to slug it out right there on the carpet or take a paddling. With the threat of a paddling looming large we'd make a feeble attempt to duke it out. After a minute of watching us flail at each other he'd seperate us and ask if we enjoyed fighting each other. Everyone of course said no. Then he'd tell us to shake hands and never let him see or hear of us us fighting again. In most cases that was the end of it, and we all remained friends to this day.

I just don't know how we've left common sense so far behind as a society that we need sherrif's deputies patrolling the halls of our schools, when a scant twenty years ago the teachers and princiapals kept us in line without armed guards.

Sorry I got long winded there. For some reason this particular topic always sets me off.

[batfink]

My nephew who was 8or 9 at the time was expelled from school for bringing a squart gun. He didn't understand why he was expelled. Gotta love "zero tolerance."

[Canada Maestro]

Originally posted by Snake_Eyes898
I'm glad I live in Canada.

Where the same thing can happen. I was just recently sent an article concerning a kid in Ontario who was arrested (missed out on Christmas, New Years, and his birthday) for writing a story about a kid who blew up his school. Not the exact same circumstances but people all over the world are becoming a little more paranoid of their neighbours.

[Gentlegamer]

Originally posted by clameire
What i call "freedom" is the liberty to write anything i want I see a French tricolor there. Has there not been fines imposed by the French government for books published criticizing Mohammedan immigrants in France?

[Frontman]

Well, did a bit of digging, and here's another story covering the case

http://www.winchestersun.com/articles/2005/02/24/local_news/news01.txt

no mention of zombies or short stories. Sounds like a bunch of reporters have grabbed one aspect of the case and have made it the case.

If the kid approached others to get involved, short story or not, he's pretty much sunk, and deserving of it.

We'll have to see how it plays out.

The Frontman

[Gacy's Clown]

It's #### like this makes me soooo proud to live in this world....

[Marshal Law]

Originally posted by Rocket Ranger
Either way, it's ridiculous to think that this sort of thing doesn't happen in "blue" states. I live in one of the bluest of the blues and can guarantee that similiar stuff has gone on here as well.

Agreed. Intolerance, ignorance, prejudice, and knee jerk responses are hallmarks of both the far right and far left. Experience has taught me that their motivations may be different, but their means and end results are usually the same.

'Course, while the "thought police" crack down on the "trouble-makers", they oftentimes turn a blind eye to real problems considered "appropriate content" and "appropriate behavior."

Think back to your school days. Those that create real problems at schools are often too dangerous for the average school official to deal with. That, or the students are so used to the process that getting busted is viewed as just a temporary inconvenience. Either way dealing with them is not worth the hassle, so the real problem students are typically ignored in the hopes they'll remove the problem themselves by dropping out or graduating. Setting an example by rail roading some helpless and harmless geek allows the schools to look like they're getting tough without actually doing anything other than indulging in some uptight morality judgement intimidation. Its even easy for the school officials to justify the actions to their own conscience by believing they've "scared a potential problem student straight".

These are the same type of school officials who have suspended students for "hacking the school computer" when they inform their teachers that the systems have been infected with a virus. The same ones that flag students as being a risk factor if its found out they play Grand Theft Auto. The same schools that used to accuse RPG players of indulging in satanic rituals. The calendar years change, but the practices remain the same.

There are exceptions, but most of the people I graduated college with believe their level of knowledge and creativity was mostly achieved despite their high school experiences, not because of them.

[Marshal Law]

Originally posted by BadAxe1
I'd like to know if the police found blueprints of the school and the makings for a pipe bomb in this kids room, maybe an AK-47 to justify their hysterical reaction?

Funny you should mention that. When I was growing up, I knew a couple students who took their high school chemistry info (and the "liberation" of some of the chemistry lab supplies) and used it to build some home made fragmentation grenades. Last I checked, one is now a custom car fabricator, the other a chemical engineer. I've got a similar stories about a student that had tried his hand at designing working models of medieval siege engines, or a couple that staged a "mage duel" using home made pyrotechnics.

While such activities are dangerous and require definite restrictions, in the old days they were the signs of future engineers and scientists. They still are today, except small minded people now automatically pigeon hole the desire to push the boundaries of experimentation for criminal intent. Understanding parents are forced to extremes to shelter their kids interests and learning, understanding teachers often end up black listed for not following official policy.

And people wonder why this nation is at risk for losing its technological edge.

[Marshal Law]

Originally posted by Frontman
If the kid approached others to get involved, short story or not, he's pretty much sunk, and deserving of it.

The "he didn't have a gang, but he was attempting to organize one" is the kind of classic line used by law enforcement officials when all they've got is conjecture on intent, but no evidence to back it up. Right up there with "he looked like someone who might have commited crimes in the area". In those stories like this where there was any real evidence, that evidence is always quickly and proudly on display on day one. The above hand waving with vague accusations is usually reserved when the steam roller of justice runs amok. This may indeed end up being a case of "fire where there is smoke", but now it looks more like a case of smoke and mirrors.

I expect this one to go one of two ways. It stays under the civil liberties groups radar long enough to get the express train treatment through the legal system (i.e. plea bargain) before the shaky legal merits get a close examination. Or it gets quietly dropped when one of those forementioned groups gets wind of it.

[Socko]

That is whack!

[raphael76]

Unfortunately, these things happen more than you'd think. Here's a prime example, from just a few years ago.

http://www.cbldf.org/casefiles/diana.shtml

Now, they don't mention it in the brief, but the kid in the above case was subject to 24 HOUR inspection. Meaning the police could come into his home at 3am if so inclined (and did at one point).

It is a shame that things like this happen. I mean, I'll admit I like the rest of us don't know the details of the story, but come on people, the fact that the story has zombies in it should be clue number one that its fictional. And maybe some things did resemble things in his high school, but ya know, thinking back to high school, if I were writing a fictional story, I'd probably be influenced by my surroundings and my peers. So sure, there might be loose analogies you could draw to some things, but unless you're outright naming people you plan on bumping off, or describing exact locations and room numbers from your school where you've planted the bomb (or the zombie in this case), then this is just ridiculous.

[jedah_s]

the part of all this that i find funny... my senior year of english we were supposed to write a two page science fiction story.

i ended up writing 8 pages. it would have been more but i ran out of time.
the story included murder, non consensual sex, arson, cannibalism, riots, detailed descriptions of skinning humans and wearing the hides for warmth and a detonation of a nuclear device in downtown nyc.

the teacher was impressed by the size of the story i had written, but really didn't read it herself.
instead she asked me to read it to the class.
i didn't get all the way thru it before some of the more squeamish in class asked me to stop.

i just think that if i were in school now, and had written that paper... i'd probably be in counseling or in prison.

[BadAxe1]

Originally posted by Frontman
Well, did a bit of digging, and here's another story covering the case

http://www.winchestersun.com/articles/2005/02/24/local_news/news01.txt

no mention of zombies or short stories. Sounds like a bunch of reporters have grabbed one aspect of the case and have made it the case.

If the kid approached others to get involved, short story or not, he's pretty much sunk, and deserving of it.

We'll have to see how it plays out.

The Frontman

Good detective work Frontaman. If this is really the case then I'm glad they caught him before something bad happened.

[Bluebeard]

Here's something that's always made me think. My friend in high school took a Television Production class, and had to make short films and stuff. For one of the films we decided to make a film about a kid who gets bullied in school and takes revenge on said bully. In one scene the victim of the bullying is in his room getting ready by putting on a trenchcoat and pocketing fake weapons and knives.

Now, keep in mind, neither my friend or I were... "that type" of person. We didn't wear trenchcoats, we didn't get bullied. It was just an idea for a film.

This was about 1 year before Columbine. It really feels weird knowing that if we made that same film a year later, we would've been expelled from school in a freakin heartbeat. As it was, the teachers said nothing about the content of the film, and only commented on the technical aspects of it. Whether or not they would've said something if other people in school who had a "wierd" reputation made that same film we'll never know.

How times change.

[Hopscotch]

My older brother made a film in high school that reimagined his actual school as a facist prison where he and his friends staged an attemped breakout. Now this was in 1983, but he had the administration HELP him make it. In fact, one of the chemistry teachers shot a student (the last survivor of the escapees.)
Everyone from the faculty to the students knew that it was in good fun, and took it as it what offered.
The problem is, we have become more concerned with how things are percieved than how they are intended. The picture of a national award-winning chemistry teacher grinning too herself after she tagged a renegade student with a skillful sniper shot was humorous to all involved. These days, unfortunately, she would be fired.
I am a former 7th and 8th grade teacher and was teaching my first class when Columbine happened. There had been several school shootings nationwide before Columbine, but that one bothered the nation because that was the first one where rich kids got killed.
The other shootings had been on a smaller scale as well, but people were still dead. Most had been at rural schools or schools in states that people don't care about. (Kentucky, Mississippi.)
There was a shool near mine that banned trenchcoats after Columbine, as if that was going to fix the problem.
When I was in school, I was one of the kids who wore the trenchcoats. In fact we brought tracer guns, the one that shoot the colored disks) to school daily, having frequent shootouts on the courtyard before school. We never got in trouble, because everyone knew that we were idiots playing with toys.

Now it is true, we don't know all of the details of this story, but I do know that we live in a time when school officials are way too paranoid. Mostly because we have given them the job of RAISING our kids, not just educating. Parents have become too self centered and lazy to do it themselves and have given the schools all of the responibility but none of the power over their kids. If that were your job, you would be paranoid too. That is why I am a former teacher.

Sorry I went off there, just hit a nerve.

BTW Bad Axe, I agree with everything you said.