TOTALLY GEEKED!

Mellow Momma · Sniff...sniff, sniff. Yay! A Bum!

Boy writes a book on killing classmates

Nobody Just Nobody · Rib-it! Rrrib-it!

My SS wrote all in his Diary of a Wimpy Kid book about killing his classmates. He was nine at the time. He drew guns and labeled them and wrote names of his classmates. It was his third incident of him threatening someone with a gun drawing or something. Nothing was done. They said he was "too cute" to be dangerous.

Fort Worth Mom · Mod/Penguin lover/Princess!

Parents Want Boy Kicked Out of Middle School for Book He Wrote

Beth GreenfieldSenior Writer‎March‎ ‎24‎, ‎2015

When should a student’s threats of violence be taken seriously and when should they be taken with a grain of salt? That’s the dilemma a Texas middle school is facing this week, after a student’s graphic and threatening book, “Killing Children,” surfaced online, pushing frightened pupils and parents to press for his expulsion.

STORY: School’s Punishments for Kids Upsets Parents

"I’ve been pretty scared because I don’t know what he’s going to do and what’s going to set him off," Jaden Gary, a seventh-grade student, told WFAA while protesting outside of the Tilman Middle School in Roanoke with her mom and dozens of others on Monday.

STORY: School Prepares Kids for Intruders by Teaching Them to Throw Canned Food

The eighth-grade student at the center of the controversy, who has not been named publicly because of his age, is accused of writing an 11-part story that details attacks on specific students, using knives, scissors, sexual assaults, and even a 7-Eleven Slurpee machine, according to parents who spoke with CBS DFW. “It’s very graphic,” Shawnteel Blodgett, the mother of a student killed in the book, told the news station. “I haven’t been able to eat or sleep, nor has my daughter. She’s very upset about that.” The student behind the writing was reportedly removed from school weeks ago by his parents, but he returned after spring break, prompting the protests and excessive absences on Monday.

The school’s assistant principal Steve Parkman did not return a call from Yahoo Parenting. But the district released a statement in which the father of the accused child said he was “evaluated for two weeks and then released.” In addition, superintendent Karen G. Rue told WFAA, “We take every student’s comments seriously. We investigate passing comments in hallways when students are rude to another; everything is taking seriously.” However, she explained, the district can’t do much because the book wasn’t written on or using school property.

Though that could be frustrating for parents to hear, it could very well be the case, according to Bernard James, a professor of law and education-law expert at Pepperdine University. “My guess is that the writing was created off campus and introduced to the school from the victims — and that, in most states, would tie the hands of school discipline,” he tells Yahoo Parenting, noting that different states have different laws regarding the degree to which schools’ codes of conduct and criminal law intersect. Usually, the two are autonomous and independent. And while “police tend to act on threats when they believe they’re real threats,” James says, “with juveniles, there’s often a grayness to the assessment.”

James highlights two recent cases that illustrate why schools tend to tread with such care when responding to threats: In one, a high school in Seattle was ordered to pay $1.3 million for its negligence in preventing the life-threatening stabbings of two students when school counselor records showed he’d been having violent fantasies. In the other example, the Beverly Hills School District suspended a student for cyber-bullying a classmate through a YouTube video; a United States Court Judge later found the school violated the first amendment rights of the student who posted the video, since it was created outside of school. “In one case, a school district acted too soon and had to write a check, and in the other a school acted too late and had to write a check,” James says.

As of Tuesday afternoon, there was confusion among local law enforcement officials in Texas over who was actually investigating the case at Tidwell Middle School, which straddles two districts. A spokesperson for the Denton County Sheriff told Yahoo Parenting that it was under Tarrant County Sheriff’s jurisdiction, while Tarrant County Sheriff spokesperson did not know of any such investigation and was looking into it for Yahoo Parenting.

“It’s scary to every parent, understandably, because we are in a climate today where we just don’t know,” national safety expert Ken Trump tells Yahoo Parenting. “Parents are left grasping for information and need some reassurance that they’re kids are safe.” Part of the problem in these types of situations is that many schools don’t have strict threat-assessment protocol, notes, suggesting that schools and law enforcement strive to be on the same page about when to take a student threat seriously. “The general rule is that the more detail and specificity, the greater the credibility,” he notes.

Student threats are rising, Trump found through a 2014 analysis of school-based threats, due in large part to social media. So it’s even more important to get a handle on their seriousness, he says. “People are always looking back and putting the pieces of the puzzle together after the fact. But we need to try to assess threats before something happens,” Trump warns. “You are going to be criticized either way, so while you don’t want to bring down the swat team for a kid who may use a poor choice of words, it’s better to take a little heat and be reasonably cautious on the front end.”

flan327 · Itty bitty's Grammy

To me, it doesn't matter that it wasn't written on school property.

Crazy scary!

flan

Lindley · Guru

It is such a sad time in our society when children are making such threats. I'm so glad my kids are grown but I fear for my grandchildren.

Southern_Belle · Nothing's Impossible

That boy is screaming for help!

Lawyerlady · On the bright side...... Christmas is coming! (Mod)

You cannot expel a child for writing a story. Get him counseling, make sure he's not actually homicidal, but get a grip. Maybe the kid is just going to be the next James Patterson or Stephen King. People write stories all the time about people being killed. We call them books and movies. And many times call the writers genius -

Pulp Fiction
Kill Bill
Scream
Friday the 13th

flan327 · Itty bitty's Grammy

Or maybe the kid is going to take a gun to school one day...

flan

Lawyerlady · On the bright side...... Christmas is coming! (Mod)

flan327 wrote:
Or maybe the kid is going to take a gun to school one day...

flan

You can't punish people for what they MIGHT do.

flan327 · Itty bitty's Grammy

Lawyerlady wrote:
You cannot expel a child for writing a story. Get him counseling, make sure he's not actually homicidal, but get a grip. Maybe the kid is just going to be the next James Patterson or Stephen King. People write stories all the time about people being killed. We call them books and movies. And many times call the writers genius -

Pulp Fiction
Kill Bill
Scream
Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th movies are disturbing, just like Halloween & the Saw torture porn.

flan

Lawyerlady · On the bright side...... Christmas is coming! (Mod)

flan327 wrote:
Lawyerlady wrote:
You cannot expel a child for writing a story. Get him counseling, make sure he's not actually homicidal, but get a grip. Maybe the kid is just going to be the next James Patterson or Stephen King. People write stories all the time about people being killed. We call them books and movies. And many times call the writers genius -

Pulp Fiction
Kill Bill
Scream
Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th movies are disturbing, just like Halloween & the Saw torture porn.
flan

Yes. They were also very popular and made tons of money and nobody tried to arrest the writer.

Nobody Just Nobody · Rib-it! Rrrib-it!

I'm in trouble if we're getting arrested for what we MIGHT do.

flan327 · Itty bitty's Grammy

Lawyerlady wrote:
flan327 wrote:
Lawyerlady wrote:
You cannot expel a child for writing a story. Get him counseling, make sure he's not actually homicidal, but get a grip. Maybe the kid is just going to be the next James Patterson or Stephen King. People write stories all the time about people being killed. We call them books and movies. And many times call the writers genius -

Pulp Fiction
Kill Bill
Scream
Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th movies are disturbing, just like Halloween & the Saw torture porn.
flan
Yes. They were also very popular and made tons of money and nobody tried to arrest the writer.

Because it wasn't a KID talking about killing his classmates.

flan

ed11563 · Guru

Nobody Just Nobody wrote:
I'm in trouble if we're getting arrested for what we MIGHT do.

If you name real people who you know and hate, and describe in detail how you are going to kill them with weapons you already have available,

you (any of us) could be prosecuted.

We as a society can no longer just assume that, it's a kid, so it can't be a real plan he or she is going to carry out. Too many of them have already followed through.

Lawyerlady · On the bright side...... Christmas is coming! (Mod)

ed11563 wrote:
Nobody Just Nobody wrote:
I'm in trouble if we're getting arrested for what we MIGHT do.
If you name real people who you know and hate, and describe in detail how you are going to kill them with weapons you already have available,
you (any of us) could be prosecuted.
We as a society can no longer just assume that, it's a kid, so it can't be a real plan he or she is going to carry out. Too many of them have already followed through.

You are assuming a STORY is a threat. They are not the same thing.

Lawyerlady · On the bright side...... Christmas is coming! (Mod)

flan327 wrote:
Lawyerlady wrote:
flan327 wrote:
Lawyerlady wrote:
You cannot expel a child for writing a story. Get him counseling, make sure he's not actually homicidal, but get a grip. Maybe the kid is just going to be the next James Patterson or Stephen King. People write stories all the time about people being killed. We call them books and movies. And many times call the writers genius -

Pulp Fiction
Kill Bill
Scream
Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th movies are disturbing, just like Halloween & the Saw torture porn.
flan
Yes. They were also very popular and made tons of money and nobody tried to arrest the writer.
Because it wasn't a KID talking about killing his classmates.
flan

How do you know? You don't think that author drew those characters from somewhere? Could have easily been his classmates from school.

Dona Worry Be Happy · Vette's SS!!

Thank goodness no one from work ever read what I wrote about them. I decapitated people, disemboweled people, burned them alive, etc.
When I wrote a passage describing the perfect way to basically kill everyone in the plant, I decided I hated my job too much, and quite.
The kid is WRITING about his feelings in a book. That is a good way of expressing his emotions. Would you rather he took a gun class and visualized his classmates faces on the targets? Played COD or GTA and pretended he was shooting and beating his teachers?
Let it go.

flan327 · Itty bitty's Grammy

Fair enough, Dona.

If your child had been included in the book, would you want him or her to go to school & sit next to the author?

flan

Nobody Just Nobody · Rib-it! Rrrib-it!

I don't know how I feel. I think we over react sometimes these days. But then again, life is different now. There's been so many shootings.

Dona Worry Be Happy · Vette's SS!!

It would depend on the kid. If he was a bored, bright, happy kid with a love of horror movies, sure.
If he was an angry, depressed loner? I don't know.

lilyofcourse · My spirit animal is a pink flamingo.

I'd have to read the book and know the kid.

For me, I am more concerned about the ones that keep all their feelings and emotions bottled up than the ones who are writing stories.

You never know who your kid is sitting next to, having lunch with or spending time with. Not really. Not in the class room.

Lady Gaga Snerd · Guru

I think specifying Specific students for me would constitute a threat. I would expext this child to be removed from the classroom.

Lady Gaga Snerd · Guru

The parents should file a civil suit against the boys parents.

lilyofcourse · My spirit animal is a pink flamingo.

That's just ridiculous.

flan327 · Itty bitty's Grammy

lilyofcourse wrote:
That's just ridiculous.

Wow!

A child is writing about killing his classmates and actually naming them, but it's "ridiculous."

flan

just Czech · Give Me Grand's!

I wonder if Stephen Kings mother had this problem?

lilyofcourse · My spirit animal is a pink flamingo.

just Czech wrote:
I wonder if Stephen Kings mother had this problem?

Probably not. People had common sense back then.

Mellow Momma · Sniff...sniff, sniff. Yay! A Bum!

This wasn't just a bad choice of words or a simple thriller he wrote. He graphically described the brutal sexual assault of a classmate and used her actual name. If that was my daughter he wrote about, I would not want her sitting by him in class. No freaking way. And that's just one example. He described in detail the murder of specific people he knew using very specific, graphic language. That isn't normal behavior for an 8th grade boy.

Lady Gaga Snerd · Guru

Mellow Momma wrote:
This wasn't just a bad choice of words or a simple thriller he wrote. He graphically described the brutal sexual assault of a classmate and used her actual name. If that was my daughter he wrote about, I would not want her sitting by him in class. No freaking way. And that's just one example. He described in detail the murder of specific people he knew using very specific, graphic language. That isn't normal behavior for an 8th grade boy.

I agree. Naming names takes this to a terroristic threat of harm in my opinion. This isn't some joke and it isn't a work of fiction being misconstrued. I think he should have been expelled from School for the remainder of the year and then given Cyber school or Alt Ed options as the District is obligated to educate. But, that doesn't mean he has to sit shoulder to shoulder with those whom he threatened.

And, I have expelled students as part of my School Board duties. I would not have any qualms about doing so. Sorry he is disturbed, he needs help, he should get help, there are ways the School can help him. But, you don't get to terrorize other students.

ed11563 · Guru

His "book" was posted online. I'd like to know who and how it was posted and became public.

His parents say he wrote it in response to being bullied on the school bus and in school.

Dona Worry Be Happy · Vette's SS!!

What, we want to punish kids for expressing their feelings in a safe and creative way? Jesus.

Dona Worry Be Happy · Vette's SS!!

I wonder how the school has been handling the bullies he has been dealing with? I wonder if the bullies will still bother him?

flan327 · Itty bitty's Grammy

Dona Worry Be Happy wrote:
I wonder how the school has been handling the bullies he has been dealing with? I wonder if the bullies will still bother him?

And most of the school shooters were bullied before they snapped.

flan

Lawyerlady · On the bright side...... Christmas is coming! (Mod)

flan327 wrote:
Dona Worry Be Happy wrote:
I wonder how the school has been handling the bullies he has been dealing with? I wonder if the bullies will still bother him?
And most of the school shooters were bullied before they snapped.
flan

Perhaps if they had used a creative outlet for their feelings instead of bottling it up, they would not have snapped.

flan327 · Itty bitty's Grammy

Lawyerlady wrote:
flan327 wrote:
Dona Worry Be Happy wrote:
I wonder how the school has been handling the bullies he has been dealing with? I wonder if the bullies will still bother him?
And most of the school shooters were bullied before they snapped.
flan
Perhaps if they had used a creative outlet for their feelings instead of bottling it up, they would not have snapped.

Or perhaps writing about it makes them want to actually experience it...

flan

Lawyerlady · On the bright side...... Christmas is coming! (Mod)

flan327 wrote:
Lawyerlady wrote:
flan327 wrote:
Dona Worry Be Happy wrote:
I wonder how the school has been handling the bullies he has been dealing with? I wonder if the bullies will still bother him?
And most of the school shooters were bullied before they snapped.
flan
Perhaps if they had used a creative outlet for their feelings instead of bottling it up, they would not have snapped.
Or perhaps writing about it makes them want to actually experience it...
flan

Shocking that all those horror writers are not convicted murderers. The only mistake this boy made was not changing the names.

flan327 · Itty bitty's Grammy

In any case, I hope he gets the help he needs. He's a boy, not a man.

flan

Lawyerlady · On the bright side...... Christmas is coming! (Mod)

flan327 wrote:
In any case, I hope he gets the help he needs. He's a boy, not a man.

flan

Do you really think popular and successful writers didn't start writing stories when they were kids?

flan327 · Itty bitty's Grammy

Lawyerlady wrote:
flan327 wrote:
In any case, I hope he gets the help he needs. He's a boy, not a man.

flan
Do you really think popular and successful writers didn't start writing stories when they were kids?

About killing their classmates? I don't know. Some writers start later in life, when impulse control is more developed.

flan

Mellow Momma · Sniff...sniff, sniff. Yay! A Bum!

Lawyerlady wrote:
flan327 wrote:
In any case, I hope he gets the help he needs. He's a boy, not a man.

flan
Do you really think popular and successful writers didn't start writing stories when they were kids?

So if he wrote a story about the brutal sexual assault of one of your daughters you would just be lining up to congratulate him on his wonderful career choice?

He needs help. He is disturbed. I hope he gets the help he needs before he hurts someone or hurts himself. And the bullies that he encounters are no better, but we don't have their torture manifesto as we do his, so we need to worry about him for now.

Mellow Momma · Sniff...sniff, sniff. Yay! A Bum!

The safety expert said in the story that the more graphic and specifc the threat, the more credible and likely the person is to carry it out.

Sorry, he doesn't get a chance to come back to school and carry it out. He needs serious help.

flan327 · Itty bitty's Grammy

Mellow Momma wrote:
Lawyerlady wrote:
flan327 wrote:
In any case, I hope he gets the help he needs. He's a boy, not a man.

flan
Do you really think popular and successful writers didn't start writing stories when they were kids?
So if he wrote a story about the brutal sexual assault of one of your daughters you would just be lining up to congratulate him on his wonderful career choice?
He needs help. He is disturbed. I hope he gets the help he needs before he hurts someone or hurts himself. And the bullies that he encounters are no better, but we don't have their torture manifesto as we do his, so we need to worry about him for now.

Apparently...

flan

Blankie · Guru

flan327 wrote:
Mellow Momma wrote:
Lawyerlady wrote:
flan327 wrote:
In any case, I hope he gets the help he needs. He's a boy, not a man.

flan
Do you really think popular and successful writers didn't start writing stories when they were kids?
So if he wrote a story about the brutal sexual assault of one of your daughters you would just be lining up to congratulate him on his wonderful career choice?
He needs help. He is disturbed. I hope he gets the help he needs before he hurts someone or hurts himself. And the bullies that he encounters are no better, but we don't have their torture manifesto as we do his, so we need to worry about him for now.
Apparently...
flan

This is starting to sound like assault. The definition of ASSAULT includes the THREAT of harm. It doesn't have to involve actual contact, just intent.

The detailed graphic depiction, with real names used sounds like intent to me.

I wonder if law enforcement will come around to calling this assault. I sure hope so. This is chilling.

It's also an opportunity to save people. Sandy Hook might have turned out a lot different if that kid had put his writings on the internet.

Mellow Momma · Sniff...sniff, sniff. Yay! A Bum!

It's an 11-part story. This isn't something he jotted down one night and never revisited. This is something he spent a lot of time on. This fact makes it even more chilling, IMHO. I can see a short story - to a certain extent. But an 11 part story with violent rape fantasies and graphic murders using real names...that's not normal behavior for an 8th grader.

flan327 · Itty bitty's Grammy

Mellow Momma wrote:
It's an 11-part story. This isn't something he jotted down one night and never revisited. This is something he spent a lot of time on. This fact makes it even more chilling, IMHO. I can see a short story - to a certain extent. But an 11 part story with violent rape fantasies and graphic murders using real names...that's not normal behavior for an 8th grader.

Thanks for the extra details, MM.

flan

Mellow Momma · Sniff...sniff, sniff. Yay! A Bum!

It's all in the OP.

Honeys_Mom · Mod & Permanent Board Sweetheart

This is horrible.

cry

Dona Worry Be Happy · Vette's SS!!

Charging a kid with assault. For writing a story.
The world has gone mad.
I was that kid. If I ever routinely hate my coworkers again, I will still be that kid.
WRITING HURTS NO ONE.
If the words turn into action, or the kid has a loose grip on the difference between reality and fiction, sure we have a problem.
But writing is not a crime, no matter what you write.

NAOW · Vette's SS

The fact that he used names a real details makes it seem less like a story and more like a plan.

flan327 · Itty bitty's Grammy

Mellow Momma wrote:
It's all in the OP.

I blame lack of caffeine. Thanks!

flan