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Boy Charged With Threatening School With Zombie Invasion
- Thread starter greatdevourer
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Hey Kids! Don't even think about being creative or your a terrorist! Judging from this story I'd say the country already is controlled by mindless zombies.
High school students aren't protected by the Constitution, and even if they were, the Patriot Act takes care of the rest.homerjward said:
(should have paid more attenion in american history) why aren't we? is it because we're minors?Rod Rod said:
After Columbine and the crap that follow, stories that allude to threats to the school, students, and teacher are not considered fiction/journalism -- they are handed off to the police which prosecute them as criminal threats.homerjward said:
Nobody is "stopping you" from writing these papers, they are just arresting you for making a threat when you turn them in.
It's what the parents asked for, and now the parents that follow have to deal with the fallout.
Heck even a simple irate parent these days isn't handled the same as they were in the past, they must now be immediately arrested to "protect students."
Edit: It's all about protecting the school population, so don't you feel safe?
Sun Baked said:
Umm.. No. I don't feel safe. When people don't sneak drugs into school, I'll feel safer.
Geez, that drug dog smelled up the room.
Yes, and because the school staff is somehow an extension of one's parents in the sense that their public trust is on behalf of the parents and community at large. Just as your speech and privacy may legally be constrained at home (whether or not they actually are, they may legally be), that's how it is at school. The only rights you maintain at both home and school are the rights to be protected against physical and sexual abuse.homerjward said:
Rod Rod said:
Actually, according to the ACLU, students do have consitutional rights: http://www.aclu.org/StudentsRights/StudentsRightsMain.cfm
George A Romero better watch out 
, seriously there are some really wrong things happening at the moment
, seriously there are some really wrong things happening at the moment
students certainly do have rights, as established in Des Moines v Tinker, they "do not shed their [constitutional] rights at the schoolyard gate". Unfortunately most kids don't understand this concept until they're out of school. But you'll recall, the first amendment can be squashed for numerous reasons, save that for the political forum. There's a fine line, but this is a hell of a long way from that line.
Did anyone take the time to read the posts below the story, or to look at the other sources with a search? No? Before you pass judgement on the authorities, you might want to do that. Things don't add up my friends. I work in a school district, and I know how things work. While the "victim" gets to shout out reasons for innocence, the administration does an investigation, and that investigation may take weeks. And you SURE don't know the real story. Don't get me wrong. there are PLENTY of idiotic "student suspended for taking pamprin to school" stories that defy logic and decency, but this is NOT one of them.
Please READ more!
Please READ more!
Rod Rod said:
Not strictly true. While students face more restrictions for the "good of the school", they do not lose all their rights. Rainman mentioned the Des Moines v. Tinker case, which involved students wearing armbands to protest the Vietnam War. Like Rainman said, this created the (somewhat) famous line that students "do not shed their [constitutional] rights at the schoolyard gate".
Here is a brief bit from the Tinker case:
The misconception that students have no rights is just one tool school administrators wield. A case in, IIRC, the 1940s ruled that students cannot be compelled to salute the flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance (whether that has endured the test of time may be something else entirely, considering how much effort is exerted to reduce American democracy).
As for the kid in question, I can't get past the terrible writing to comment on the subject matter, or is real intent.
President Bush at it again...Now I know HE isn't the one who is pressing charges but he is the one who is making america scared of their own shadow!!! I mean come on...this is a complete joke...I feel so bad for this kid, its unreal how much ******** this is...Granted he shouldn't have been near that elementry school, that is his fault, but because of Bush's "They hate our freedom" ******** now everyone is walking on eggshells and it makes me sick....only 3 more years i guess
I agree Les. There's a lot that doesn't add up.
But who can one believe? The school? The police? Poole? His grandparents? Everybody puts their own spin on things. What is the truth?
Posters on the site have said:
Poole wasn't taking an English class. Who was the Zombie assigment for?
Poole used to torture cats and laugh.
Poole mapped out all the camera locations at the school.
Poole calculated the response time for the police.
People who knew him were afraid of him.
The local news station is biased, clamoring for headlines.
Poole was told by a teacher to leave the writings at home.
I think the ease at which we're able to leap to conclusions is a direct response to the disillusion many of us are beginning to feel towards the US gov't. We know we're being manipulated by the media, and feel powerless to do anything about it.
But who can one believe? The school? The police? Poole? His grandparents? Everybody puts their own spin on things. What is the truth?
Posters on the site have said:
Poole wasn't taking an English class. Who was the Zombie assigment for?
Poole used to torture cats and laugh.
Poole mapped out all the camera locations at the school.
Poole calculated the response time for the police.
People who knew him were afraid of him.
The local news station is biased, clamoring for headlines.
Poole was told by a teacher to leave the writings at home.
I think the ease at which we're able to leap to conclusions is a direct response to the disillusion many of us are beginning to feel towards the US gov't. We know we're being manipulated by the media, and feel powerless to do anything about it.
This just gives me more reason to write about erm...I dunno, killer grapefruit eating all the teachers?
Those damn zombies better pay his bail.
Those damn zombies better pay his bail.
Yes! Thank you!
Thank you! Finally! I was beginning to think I was the only one. I didn't read ALL of them, that could take hours, but I read at least a hundred of the posts and there is definitely more to the story than the surface reading indicates.
First of all, in the few actual clips from his "story" zombies make no appearance whatsoever. The school is attacked by a group of "soldiers" who are a group of people who make a pact around the kitchen table, vowing to die together. They then attack the school and mow down everyone in sight. No zombies there. There is no evidence in the linked article that the story is a zombie story other than Poole's assertion that it is a zombie story, so please, let's tone down the "Help, help! I'm being repressed, come and see the violence inherent in the system" hysteria.
Second, the action taken by police involved more than Poole's story, and includes other documents he wrote, the content of which, again, is not present in the original articles.
Third, if you read the excerpts (and they are really very badly written) I'd be amazed that they didn't raise at least a few flags for you. There's fiction that is clearly fiction, and then there are those times when a person uses there writing to tell you exactly what they intend to do. If a young child continually draws images of being sexually abused, I wonder how many people here would just ignore them as the meaningless workings of an over active imagination? Just because a teacher might see those drawings and bring them to the attention of authorities, it doesn't necessarily follow that we are suddenly living in America spelled with a K. Poole's writings could be just an instance of very bad fiction, but the Columbine killers wrote journal entries not too far removed Poole's kill/slay/suicide scenario, and I don't think it is necessarily wrong for the police to investigate further, especially when the journals are turned over by his grandparents, who, knowing him perhaps best, were scared to death by what they saw going on with their grandson. If you are the parent of a student at the school, can you honestly say that the police should have just ignored it?
Poole was arrested and bailed out, and a week or so later, he was rearrested for violating a condition of his release - that he stay away from schools, including the elementary school he was arrested at. He offered a lame excuse for that violation, though there was no justifble reason he could offer: It was really very simple, he was told to stay away from the school, and he chose to ignore the order. And then refused to accept responsibility for his choice.
I'm sure there are many first amendment issues going on in this crazy country right now - in fact, I know that there are - but jumping aboard so readily to every single apparent affront does no service to the cause. All I'm saying is that the flip-side of free speech is judicious listening. Please read a bit further in the story before launching into all the hrrumphing about this kid's first amendment rights, and making the snarky little "What's next? I get arrested for that poem I wrote about killer teddy bears?" type comments.
Les Kern said:
Thank you! Finally! I was beginning to think I was the only one. I didn't read ALL of them, that could take hours, but I read at least a hundred of the posts and there is definitely more to the story than the surface reading indicates.
First of all, in the few actual clips from his "story" zombies make no appearance whatsoever. The school is attacked by a group of "soldiers" who are a group of people who make a pact around the kitchen table, vowing to die together. They then attack the school and mow down everyone in sight. No zombies there. There is no evidence in the linked article that the story is a zombie story other than Poole's assertion that it is a zombie story, so please, let's tone down the "Help, help! I'm being repressed, come and see the violence inherent in the system" hysteria.
Second, the action taken by police involved more than Poole's story, and includes other documents he wrote, the content of which, again, is not present in the original articles.
Third, if you read the excerpts (and they are really very badly written) I'd be amazed that they didn't raise at least a few flags for you. There's fiction that is clearly fiction, and then there are those times when a person uses there writing to tell you exactly what they intend to do. If a young child continually draws images of being sexually abused, I wonder how many people here would just ignore them as the meaningless workings of an over active imagination? Just because a teacher might see those drawings and bring them to the attention of authorities, it doesn't necessarily follow that we are suddenly living in America spelled with a K. Poole's writings could be just an instance of very bad fiction, but the Columbine killers wrote journal entries not too far removed Poole's kill/slay/suicide scenario, and I don't think it is necessarily wrong for the police to investigate further, especially when the journals are turned over by his grandparents, who, knowing him perhaps best, were scared to death by what they saw going on with their grandson. If you are the parent of a student at the school, can you honestly say that the police should have just ignored it?
Poole was arrested and bailed out, and a week or so later, he was rearrested for violating a condition of his release - that he stay away from schools, including the elementary school he was arrested at. He offered a lame excuse for that violation, though there was no justifble reason he could offer: It was really very simple, he was told to stay away from the school, and he chose to ignore the order. And then refused to accept responsibility for his choice.
I'm sure there are many first amendment issues going on in this crazy country right now - in fact, I know that there are - but jumping aboard so readily to every single apparent affront does no service to the cause. All I'm saying is that the flip-side of free speech is judicious listening. Please read a bit further in the story before launching into all the hrrumphing about this kid's first amendment rights, and making the snarky little "What's next? I get arrested for that poem I wrote about killer teddy bears?" type comments.