Chinese-American highschooler arrested for creative writing assignment

[atlasien]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070426essay,1,1089899.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

Massacre fallout: Charges for essay
High school teacher 'disturbed' by violent content of assignment

By Jeff Long and Carolyn Starks
Tribune staff reporters
Published April 26, 2007

Told to express emotion for a creative-writing class, high school senior Allen Lee penned an essay so disturbing to his teacher, school administrators and police that he was charged with disorderly conduct, officials said Wednesday.

Lee, 18, a straight-A student at Cary-Grove High School, was arrested Tuesday near his home and charged with the misdemeanor for an essay police described as violently disturbing but not directed toward any specific person or location.

Neither police nor the school would release a copy of the essay written Monday. School officials declined to say whether Lee had any previous disciplinary problems, but said he was an excellent student. Authorities said Lee had never been in trouble with the police.

[...]

[blockthebox]

The story can also be found here: http://www.dailyherald.com/news/mchenrystory.asp?id=306398&cc=k&tc=&t= (I fucking hate it when they make you register to read news.)

This could totally be the opening for a movie about the near future where we're run by a police state and cease to have any kind of civil rights. Thank god I'll be dead before they can come up with a machine to read minds.

[RebelAzn]

Great. Now I probably have to go out and get a gun just so I can protect myself from all the future whackos who think me as a threat for just being Asian.

[Vetrean]

What the hell. So because it's disturbing, it's disorderly conduct?

I really don't understand.

[nskripchun]

What the hell. So because it's disturbing, it's disorderly conduct?

I really don't understand.

Yeah, sounds like just a trumped-up charge so they could throw the "dangerous Asian guy" into jail.

Fire bun Babylon.

[Scowl]

Puma said that the district's response was no different than what it would have been prior to the Virginia Tech tragedy.

My ass.

If someone's writing up a shit list, add Cary-Grove High School to it. Someone tell me that there is no racism in this, and I'll tell you what an asshole you are.

[LowFrequency]

I was waiting for something like this to happen. The kid is asian. Coincidence? I think not.

[Ike]

From the article:

The complaint also says he wrote: "Blood, sex and booze. Drugs, drugs, drugs are fun. Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, s…t…a…b…, puke. So I had this dream last night where I went into a building, pulled out two P 90s and started shooting everyone, then had sex with the dead bodies. Well, not really, but it would be funny if I did."

[Lum]

This is appalling in so many ways it just makes me ill. What people write in a free-writing assignment should at the very worst result in a visit from the school psychiatrist, not the police. Now these poor kids are going to be thinking the words "express yourself" to be some kind of trap. Time to break out the tin-foil hats, people. We are fucked.

[Scowl]

Here's another article (http://nwherald.com/articles/2007/04/26/news/local/doc4630304f12dd7798473383.txt) on this that has a couple of extra details.

Tom Carroll, first assistant state’s attorney for McHenry County, declined to comment on the essay.

He said in the light of recent events, particularly the Virginia Tech shooting last week where Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 students before killing himself, and the 1999 Columbine tragedy, the statements made in the essay were inappropriate.

Do people really not see the idiocy in this? Since when does "appropriate" equal "criminal?"

Lee’s friend, Jameson Emling, who also is in the class, said he felt the teacher overreacted to the essay. Emling also has enlisted in the Marines.

About six weeks ago, Emling said he gave a 10-minute speech in the same class describing what his life would be like as a “hit-man” and identified students he would shoot. He said he was not punished for that speech.

I don't think anything really needs to be said here.

[Vahz]

Marines drop student charged for violent essay

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18353425/

[Ike]

“In light of recent events (at Virginia Tech), that is part of the context of what happened that makes the reaction all the more reasonable,” said Tom Carroll, first assistant state’s attorney in McHenry County.

Uh... so now it's reasonable to assume that Asian-ness makes your activities more criminal?

[atlasien]

Ha Jin (http://www.bu.edu/writing/jin.html) better watch out. He'll get dragged out of Boston University in handcuffs if he doesn't stop writing such violent material.

[DONKEY]

people are jealous of Asians in the schools even if you are an "F" student.
they were always looking for a way to put Asians down and explain some reason why their own kids were failures in comparison.
first they said that i was physically abused at home to keep me working hard. my dad never hit me once in my whole life. there was an investigation anyways. all of my scars were from getting into fights with THEIR fucked-up kids. there was a big tire yard on the way home and you could find long strands of rubber to whip people with. there was a lot of fights with those whips so i had scars from them.
later they accused us of cheating and having a secret system of passing down copies of tests etc. it was all bullshit
they love it when they can try to bust an Asian kid for something especially if he/she is an "A" student
what a bogus charge, i hope his family gets a lawyer