Several people have written to me bringing my attention to a completely insane incident where a student in Kentucky has been thrown in a juvenile detention center for writing a short story in which zombies overrun a high school. More details can be found here…
http://www.lex18.com/global/story.asp?s=2989614&ClientType=Printable
What I keep thinking about was that when I was in seventh grade, I had an assignment to write a ghost story, and did a story where the ghost of a student exacts horrific revenge upon an obnoxious teacher. If I’m in seventh grade now and write that same story, next thing I know, I’m going to wind up talking to police and social workers.
PAD
• 
I live in Kentucky, and I can tell you that I can easily see this happening here. Just stupid, stupid, stupid. Funny thing is, our state assessment has been encouraging creativity in writing for some fourteen years now.
Wow. I am so glad to live in Canada.
That is, unless you guys decided to start testing Star Wars on us since we won’t play along…
Isn’t America wonderful?
I’m surprised it isn’t in NJ….
Makes homeschooling look more and more attractive everyday…
Jst because of some whack-jobs at Columbine, more kids creativity and imagaination is being squashed…
No wonder America is dying and creativity is on a such a downslide…
Glad I graduated Hign School back in 87 before the gøddámņ country lost it’s mind completely…
Charged with terrorism for writing fiction?
“Even so, police say the nature of the story makes it a felony. “Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function it’s a felony in the state of Kentucky,” said Winchester Police detective Steven Caudill.”
So I guess most cartoon featuring things happen at or around schools (Static Shock, Batman, any number of Anime Kids shows, COMIC BOOKS, etc.) is an act of Terrorism???
McCarthyism 2005, I’ll say it again… THE TERRORIST WON!
When I was in high school, the teacher of a writing class assigned us to take a story from the newspaper & rewrite it inn the first person from the view of one of the people in the story.
I hate to think how many people in the class would have been arrested for their stories. Myself included since the story I chose was of a local (to the school) bar fight which I extended to include the school building.
While we’re at it, an 8 year old was arrested for throwing a temper tantrum in school.
http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0304Tantrum04-ON.html
It appears his own grandfather may have turned him in. That’s depressing too.
// While we’re at it, an 8 year old was arrested for throwing a temper tantrum in school.
http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0304Tantrum04-ON.html //
Some years ago there was a story about a kindergarden student who was suspended from school because he kissed another student. The principal was quoted in the story about unwanted advances and how sexual harrashment would not be tolerated in his school, never getting the fact that the kid was six and he was overreacting big time. (The idea of sitting the kid down and explaining to him that there is nothing wrong with kissing someone but it’s something that should only be done with certain people in certain times and places, (you know, stuff most adults understand but six year old children, by the nature of being six year old children, don’t) never occured to him. I wondered at the time how much damage was being done to this kid by this overreaction. One could easily see him having problems with relationships and sex in his adult life, after all the first time he ever expressed affection for anyone outside of his family he was more or less told he was evil. That’s really got to screw you up. One could see the kid becoming a rapist or sexual deviant or at the very least needing a lot of theorpy. I feel the same way every time I hear of one of these overreactions. As a society we’re so big on “protecting the children” that we sometimes don’t realize we’re doing them more harm then good.
It appears his own grandfather may have turned him in. That’s depressing too.
Yes, that may be the most disheartening part of the whole sorry mess. *sigh*
Gosh, it’s great to be back in the simpler times of witch hunts…
// I’m surprised it isn’t in NJ…. //
Is there something happening in my home state I’m unaware of.
Boy, when I was a kid I used to draw all kinds of violent doodles in the margins of my notes. I was a regular Aragones. Often it was of airplanes dive bombing stick figures on parachutes, strafing them with dashes. Sometimes the guys would bleed. Usually they went “Aieeee!”
I turned out ok, right? Right? Hello?
If this kid’s in trouble just wait until they see the low budget video a bunch of us shot a few months ago, part of the fulfillment of my long time dream of being in a, yes, zombie movie. One with more gore than you could shake a stick at, every scene is like the prom scene in CARRIE. We went through about 10 gallons of karo syrup (you can see some of my photos of the crew at http://www.freelance-designs.net/zombies/ My wife is the one with her scalp hanging half off.
Good thing we didn’t set it at the school.
What gets me is that this kid was handed in by his grandparents. WTF? Either there is WAY more to this story than what we have seen so far (we ARE, after all, taking the kids word for it) or this kid may soon have all the ground he needs for one hëll of a lawsuit.
Oh, whaddaya know? It’s Nineteen Eighty Freakin’ Four all over again! The kid is being punished for thought crimes…if he doesn’t go to jail someone ought to give him a massive scholarship.
Wow. When I was in seventh grade, I wrote a parody of the movie “C.H.U.D.” called “C.H.E.T.” (Cannibalistic Humanoid Education Teacher). In the story, all the teachers in my school (who I referred to by their real names) get dumped with toxic waste and turn into carnivorous monsters. The kids (again, referred to by their real names) have to fight back. Kids get eaten, teachers get blown apart with shotguns, and so forth.
That was in 1993, six years before Columbine. It was also here in Massachusetts, fortunately, so even if some teacher had made a stink, I probably would have been okay. But I shudder to think what might have happened if I’d been in the same place and time as Poole.
In another article the principal says the word “zombies” doesn’t appear in Poole’s story, but I just checked “C.H.E.T.” (yes, I still have a copy of it), and, due to the nature of how the teachers get turned into monsters, the word “zombie” doesn’t appear in my story, either.
I think it’s hard to really judge without reading the story for ourselves–all we have is second-hand descriptions by Poole and the principal. But I’m inclined to give Poole the benefit of the doubt, if not for any reason other than there but for the grace of a Blue State and pre-Columbine world go I.
It appears his own grandfather may have turned him in. That’s depressing too.
From what I heard on “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” this morning, not only did his grandparents turn him in, they were also the ones who requested the increase in his bail.
Yeah, overall, this is pretty gross.
You know what I think it is? Lack of water. States that don’t love by some great body of water tend to go insane with their conservative censorship crap*. They need some fresh water in their lives.
*I can’t explain why Georgia borders water and seems comparatively insane.
“Even so, police say the nature of the story makes it a felony. “Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function it’s a felony in the state of Kentucky,” said Winchester Police detective Steven Caudill.”
The cop was either misquoted or is an idiot. From another account:
“Under Kentucky law, a person is guilty of terroristic threatening in the second degree when they threaten to “commit any act likely to result in death or serious physical injury” to students, teachers or employees of a school.”
Which at least makes some sense. That would not apply to a fictional work so Stephen King is off the hook.
This story is not one of the better reported ones I’ve seen lately. Depending on what you read it sounds like either an innocent kid got arrested for wriing a zombie story or a terminal troublemaker was found with plans for an armed takeover of a school by gangs, no zombies mentioned at all. The story is sexy enough that I imagine we will be getting deatils soon enough.
Okay, so. Let me get this straight.
Poole is writing a story for English class. The story is about the undead terrorising a school. Okay, fine. Everyone loves zombies. No problem.
His grandfather reads his story. Obviously becomes concerned for the mental health of his grandson.
So he gets him arrested.
This is where it falls apart for me. If you’re concerned about your grandson’s stability, get a freakin’ psychologist or counsellor. Maybe try talking to him even. I know, I know, it’s a daunting task to be a parent, but sometimes it’s kind of necessary.
So now, instnead of being, you know, a decent human being, you’ve gone and been a knee-jerk reactionary and scarred your grandson for life. This kid will never recover from this treatment. And all because some jerk couldn’t be assed to be a decent human being towards his grandson.
If there isn’t more to this story, like maybe the kid had an arsenal in his closet or was highly antisocial or something, then this is just the most disgusting thing I’ve read in months.
A good question at this point. How many of you know who you voted for your local school board – if you bothered to vote at all?
School boards used to be populated by drunken ex-teachers and morons, which was all right, because they didn’t do much of anything. Now they’re occupied by right-wing idelologues who want to force conservative Christianity, murder of “sexual deviants” and “creation science” down everyone’s throats.
If this somehow upsets you, perhaps you should vote next time. Or perhaps you should run for school board next time, and make your views publicly known, and be willing to defend them.
As another fellow Kentuckian, and one who is only in his freshman year of college no less, I find this extremely depessing. I think this is more proof that Kentucky cops are a teensy little bit power happy. Even if the law did read as the cop quoted, isn’t this a case where the spirit should be obeyed more than the letter?
To make it even worse, I’m from the area near this kids high school (GRC).
*sigh* what do you do to fight this level of… stupidity?
Man, I read this on a couple other sites today, its really, really depressing. I really hope this kid gets a good Lawyer so he can get into a good collage with the money he’ll win out of this mess. and if I was him, I’d never speak to his Grandparents ever again.
Wow! A felony for writing a zombie story! I’m glad I don’t go to school today. I remember plenty of things that I wrote and drew that wouldn’t go over today. Heck, not everything went over then, but nobody called the cops. I remember drawing cupids shooting real arrows for a second grade art assignment that I thought was real funny, but my teacher didn’t. My mom was brought in but that was the end of it.
I don’t think my mom thought it was that funny either, but she didn’t have the sense of humor of a seven year old, so what can I say?
“This is Jack Bauer, speaking.”
“JACK! CTU says get your ášš over to a local high school — TERRORIST ATTACK imminent! A kid WROTE a STORY!”
Of course, let’s keep in mind that after Columbine there was lots of criticism of the parents and teachers for “not seeing this coming”. Ðámņëd if you do, dámņëd if you don’t.
I’m getting a weird vibe from this–the grandparents asking for higher bail makes me wonder. They may be the worst grandparents since Flowers In The Attic…or maybe they were being terrorized by a sociopath. Anyway, as I said, the real story should be out soon.
If he really did get busted for writing a zombie story…back up the money truck!
// Of course, let’s keep in mind that after Columbine there was lots of criticism of the parents and teachers for “not seeing this coming”. Ðámņëd if you do, dámņëd if you don’t. //
But the sightings in Columbine were very specific, if the kids in that case had only been wearing black coats or playing video games or had only written a story about zombies attacking the school the teachers and parents could have been excused, but there other signs, a website that made specific threats against students, police complaints from other students who had been threatened, bomb making material in the kids garage, guns in the kids bedrooms. Any one of those things should have been picked up as a sure sign of trouble by teachers and parents, hence the critisim. Calling the cops everytime a kid says something along the line of “I hate school” is not only overreacting, it’s missing the point entirly.
It’s nice to see that we are cracking down on the evil concept of creative writing.
Next up, white after October will be punishable by death?
Man, I would have been so busted for what I wrote back in the day. I wrote an e-mail to the Mayor, telling him that this was a total abuse of power. Vile and disgusting. Someone should start a fund or something to help the kid get legal defense.
Wow. Just… wow.
But actually, I’m even more disgusted by the story mentioned by Michael Brunner… I simply cannot believe this – arresting a kid for a temper tantrum??? I know, this kid’s outburst was pretty violent… but why wasn’t the counsellor called instead of police? Whose brilliant idea was to arrest this boy???
I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’m psychologist / counsellor myself – but this case is simply outrageous…
Gotta love the republican world of “Zero-Tolerance”. No thought neccessary, just do as your told.
Reality check: We have one news source for that account. I can’t find verification elsewhere with a Google search. There is an article on the Student Press Law Center site which presents a somewhat different account; the school principal denies that it was a story about zombies, and that the project which Poole cited existed. The bizarre police quote also isn’t mentioned.
Even so, I don’t see how private notes that weren’t delivered to anyone could constitute criminal threatening. As long as they’re not presented to someone, and as long as there’s no evidence of intent to carry them out, it’s just fantasizing. If that’s a crime in Kentucky, it’s extremely disturbing news.
Kind of reminds me of anincident with one of my college buddies, back when. We were big into the role-playing superhero game, “Champions”. He enlisted in the Air Force, and wound up as Security Police at Minot AFB (a missile base in North Dakota). To pass the time, he started working on a game scenario that revolved around an attempt by a group of villains to steal a warhead from the base.
His roommate turned him in for conspiracy to commit treason, based on the “bomb theft plot” in his notebook.
Fortunately, this being over a decade pre-9/11, all he had to do was spend a couple of hours explaining to the Office of Special Investigation about how real terrorists don’t have jet boots, or the ability to fire energy blasts…
God help him if this had happened today!
BTW, those interesting in this story might want to check out this link. Seems the zombie story isn’t all the unique.
http://www.overcriminalized.com/studies/2004.01_ZT2.html
OK, completely OT, but you have to see this.
http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/
It’s a sign at a church about us (comic book readers) I laughed, but it’s probably not funny the more I think about it…
Over 15 years ago, Julie Brown did a Weird Al type of song called “Everbody Run, The Homecoming Queen’s Got A Gun.” (I think it actually appeared on her “Earth Guys Are More Fun” album (Which had songs from teh Earth Girls Are Easy” movie — in which Julie starred. Considering some of the lyrics (“Debbie’s smiling and waving her gun, picking off cheerleaders one by one…” I can’t imagine how people would react if someone had a copy of the lyrics on a high school campus.
The song is hysterical,though .. .
Excluding blogs, here’s other news stories found on Google –> News:
http://www.wkyt.com/Global/story.asp?S=2998292
http://www.splc.org/newsflash.asp?id=973&year=
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/rss/10991368.htm
http://www.winchestersun.com/articles/2005/02/24/local_news/news01.txt
Tons of blogs with this story, but few in the news…
“http://www.overcriminalized.com/studies/2004.01_ZT2.html”
Gøddámņ this country makes me sicker and sicker every day.
And America seriously expects other countries to look up to and emulate it???
You know, even if it meant that I was hosed along with everyone else, I’d love it if this turned out to be nothing but a hoax spread through the internet. It’s certainly not an impossibility. I made no effort to check further beyond the link I got, so maybe it really is just total bull. That would be nice.
PAD
I don’t know what the student’s assignment was as opposed to PAD’s, but it makes no difference. The Patriot Act is becoming more and more a reality. When I think of all those CBLDF stories as well, it makes me sick to think these things are happening all over our country. I wish all these incidents were hoaxes.
Not the most insightful of comments I realize, but I couldn’t resist adding my 2c.
Just dawned on me: PAD, what would you have done today, considering you were told to write a ghost story, if this had happened to you?
// Over 15 years ago, Julie Brown did a Weird Al type of song called “Everbody Run, The Homecoming Queen’s Got A Gun.” (I think it actually appeared on her “Earth Guys Are More Fun” album (Which had songs from teh Earth Girls Are Easy” movie — in which Julie starred. Considering some of the lyrics (“Debbie’s smiling and waving her gun, picking off cheerleaders one by one…” I can’t imagine how people would react if someone had a copy of the lyrics on a high school campus.
The song is hysterical,though .. . //
If memory serves, there was also a video for that song that got some MTV airplay way back when.
Oh, screw this. I’m moving to Canada, where zombie stories are grist for the B-movie mill instead of TERRORISM.
For f**k’s sake.
KAREN –
The church sign is a fake. It’s one of two signs where you can write your own message.
http://www.churchsigngenerator.com/
Have fun creating your own.
Julie Brown’s “Homecoming Queen’s Got a Gun” first appeared on her EP Goddess In Progress, which I have a copy of around here somewhere (largely useless, as I have no working turntable). It then appeared on her first LP, Trapped In The Body Of A White Girl. I don’t know whether it appeared on other albums.
The song Earth Girls Are Easy, inspiring the movie, was also on that same EP. That short recording seems to have served her well.
Michael,
Thanks. I’m glad it’s a fake. I had visions of Wertham floating around my head….
“Homecoming Queen’s Got a Gun” was released on a Dr. Demento compilation, I forget which one.
The report, minus Poole’s claim it was a fictional zombie story, has appeared in enough places that it’s not a total hoax. The question is one of exactly what happened.
I wish Canada could hold its head high and claim to have the high ground on this one, but there have been ridiculous cases of overreactions by school boards and principals here, too. Kids suspended because they had the temerity to go to a *gasp!* Hooters restaurant, for example. Essays getting kids dragged away by cops? Happened at least once, though I don’t know if he was actually put away. he was at least suspended for the violent material he wrote about.
Not nearly as bad, I susppose, but something PAD may be able to relate to at some point in his past.
High school English essay on life in the future.
Was so taken by the idea that I wrote two of them. Each looking at an alternative possibility of where we might wind up.
The prof gave me a failing mark on the essays because [as he put it] I’d let my imagination run too wild and the worlds I’d described were just too far-fetched. Half of what I wrote about exists today and much of the rest is on the drawing boards. So much for encouraging creativity and independent thinking.
>McCarthyism 2005, I’ll say it again… THE TERRORIST WON!
Well, that was to be expected the moment the second plane hit the building. But this case has nothing to do with it. Just a screwed up society which is in love with the idea of social engineering, even though it really doesn’t know what the hëll it’s doing.
>As a society we’re so big on “protecting the children” that we sometimes don’t realize we’re doing them more harm then good.
I’ve quoted this before, but it is still oh, so very applicable.
LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS’ UNIT. The detectives are on an especially girsly case involving children. Back at the squadroom, the detectives with kids (which is most of them) are in near-panic mode and going on about ways and means to insulate kids and keep them safe from that mean outside world.
Richard Belzer’s character. Det. Munsch(sp?) suddenly comments, to no one in particular “Great way to wind up with a bunch of perfectly safe little neurotics.”
// LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS’ UNIT. The detectives are on an especially girsly case involving children. Back at the squadroom, the detectives with kids (which is most of them) are in near-panic mode and going on about ways and means to insulate kids and keep them safe from that mean outside world.
Richard Belzer’s character. Det. Munsch(sp?) suddenly comments, to no one in particular “Great way to wind up with a bunch of perfectly safe little neurotics.” //
Det. Munch, one of the greatest and most underappreciated supporting characters in the history of television. (Not only has the character been a regular on Homicide and L&O:SUV but he’s also crossed over to the X-Files and the original L&O. How many other TV characters have appeared on 4 different shows?)
Prior to the story showing up here, I’d seen three Web accounts: the LEX 18 story at the top of the thread, the Winchester Sun story Bladestar mentions, and a blog-post representing itself as from another student in Poole’s high school. The poster, one Icarus, asserts that Poole’s material wasn’t fiction (per Poole’s sister) and that Poole’s stories about its being a school assignment are inconsistent at best.
Between the Icarus posts and the SPLC report also referenced by Bladestar, Poole’s assertion that the material was “a short story” would seem to lack credibility. Add the indications from various of the reports that Poole has been in trouble before, and this begins to look less like a violation of Poole’s civil rights and more like what didn’t happen in the case of an Oregon high school student named Kip Kinkel.
// Prior to the story showing up here, I’d seen three Web accounts: the LEX 18 story at the top of the thread, the Winchester Sun story Bladestar mentions, and a blog-post representing itself as from another student in Poole’s high school. The poster, one Icarus, asserts that Poole’s material wasn’t fiction (per Poole’s sister) and that Poole’s stories about its being a school assignment are inconsistent at best. //
Thanks for the link to Icarus post, interesting reading, hopefully we’ll find out the real truth soon.