Political correctness gone awry

High school senior charged after writing 'disturbing' essay

Associated Press
Published April 26, 2007, 9:51 AM CDT

CARY, Ill. -- An 18-year-old high school student faces disorderly conduct charges for writing an essay that authorities described as violent and disturbing.

Allen Lee, a senior at Cary-Grove High School, was arrested near his northern Illinois home after penning the in-class writing assignment Monday. The assignment had been to use poetic conventions to express ideas and emotions.

"At the very last sentence, I said that this teacher's method of teaching could lead to a school shooting," Lee said Wednesday. He said he'd intended the entire essay as a joke.

After reading the essay, his teacher alerted the school's principal, and district officials reported it to the police.

"The writing assignment depicted violence, was disturbing and inappropriate, but did not contain any specific locations or names," Cary police Chief Ron Delelio said.

Police have declined to release a copy of the essay.

"It raised some flags," said Jeff Puma, a District 155 spokesman. "I think, in this case, the teacher chose to err on the side of caution and, I think, rightly so."

Allen Lee has been removed from the school and faces disciplinary action, Puma said.

Lee, who was arrested Tuesday, posted $75 bond. He is scheduled to appear in court June 18.

Albert Lee said his son was not suspended or expelled but is attending classes somewhere else for the time being.

"I understand what happened recently at Virginia Tech," said Albert Lee, referencing last week's shooting of 32 students by gunman Seung-Hui Cho. "I understand the situation."

But he also defended his son as a straight-A student who was following instructions for the assignment.

Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, said an essay done for homework would ordinarily be "protected speech."

"He turned it in to a teacher. He didn't post it online," he said. "It's not a communication between him and the broader world."

On Wednesday, students at the school showed support for Lee with a petition drive to let him back into school.
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hm, not sure where to take this
 
In the entire history of the planet, has there ever been a highschool student that DIDN'T pop off with something inappropriate at some point? Maybe if they'd release the essay, we could see for ourselves whether or not there's anything there that warrents anything more than a firm mention of "Hey, this statement really isn't called for or appreciated--I'm docking points for content..." So far it looks like an extreme knee-jerk reaction blown way out of proportion. Hope the kid never gets overheard saying the teacher has his head up his rear-end--it might get turned into a threat of violence.
 
Can't say I blame the teacher for bringing it to the attention of the Principal, but that is where the buck should have stopped.

"You do realize that was inappropriate, right?"

"umm, yeah.. I mean, yes sir."

"Now go back to class"
 
This is not just Political Correctness.

This is the Thought Police reacting to a Thought Crime, and they are in getting lots of overtime these days.
 
Curious, how would one be charged with a crime for a supposedly fictional article? If they feel that such utterings are a crime, they need to start burning books with that type of activity written in them. As much as I feel that they are pretty much useless, the ACLU should be right on top of this.

I agree that this surpasses PC.
 
Just one more reason added to the list why I'm considering home-schooling my son more and more these days...

If they feel that such utterings are a crime, they need to start burning books with that type of activity written in them.
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Careful there, JR... You just questioned the actions of the thought police. They may be knocking your door down any moment assuming connections to Nazis for suggesting book burning... You don't have an encyclopedia or a history book with a photo of Hitler in it do you? That might be incriminating. :D
 
They were here this morning, I sent them next door to the religious nut who wants to burn just about every book but his particular version of the Bible. He also had (gasp) a "high-powered, virtually silent, scoped assassination weapon". This is commonly known around here as an air rifle.

Their proof? He had burned his trash (legal here until the drought warnings prevent it), and there was a scorched copy of Life Magazine in the cinders. It was awful, their M1 Abrams tore his lawn to pieces!!:D :D
 
Pretty absurd.

But not all teachers are like that. Remember, you don't hear of all the cases where it didn't become a big fiasco. Looking back on that, it could have been me, but the teacher said "I know you were joking, I just wanted to take you aside to make sure." Having no idea of the consequences, I thought it was a bit silly, but said something like "Yeah sure" or "Of course", and that was that. Only now do I realize that it could have been one of these cases, but the teacher was a good one.
 
Man, I got sent to the office, ticketed by the cop, and slapped with a fine and eight hours of community service when I was in high school for speaking of a third party that wasn't in the room, before class started, with the offending line being "they can ..............." You'd think that the principal would be a bit more forgiving on the first time a student is sent to him... Didn't help that the cop TOTALLY re-worked the story RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME when he phoned the judge to see if it was a ticketable offense.

... I KNEW I should have gotten onto the track team! They don't give their athletes crap at all. A girl I know got similar treatment for eating french fries while in the lunch line then trying to pay for the empty container (this was common practice, except it was SUPPOSED to be "paying" rather than "trying to pay").

So the moral of the story is: Be an athlete, kids. Seriously, this is not the only school that's ever overreacted to something dumb, and it won't be the last.
 
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I know back in the day in different time in school we said hey im gonna kill you
which implied a good natured jest about gettin even for something that was prank that was perpetrated on you....

guess you dont use that word in schools nowadays or you will be wearing the silver bracelets.

Basically from what I see its all about CYA and bureaucracy. Nobody wants to be responsible so they hand the problem of to somebody else when it comes to this. It is easier for bureaucrat to make sure the harshest penalties are given to a person than make a decision to use common sense to avoid liaibilty
 
Even if uttered heatedly, the phrase "I'm gonna kill you" was never taken literally. Not any more.

During orientation for my son's kindergarten - yes, kindergarten, grade -1 - the educrat kept emphasizing the school district's zero tolerance policy for violence/weapons/fighting, etc., citing the story of an honor student expelled for intervening to stop a fight. Despite both combatants' assertions the kid was trying to stop the fight, not join it, he got shown the door.

Someone suggested taking Mr. Lee aside and just telling him "dont do dat," or asking if he is serious. But you see, in this litigious age, that simply won't do at all. You have to be proactive. You have to call in appropriate experts. Heaven help you if the kid does go ape and hurt someone and you - gasp - failed to help the poor lad.
 
A kid at my wife's school said he was going to cut off a teacher's head. Didn't even get written up. Granted, he was in like 3rd grade...but you'd think that's the kind of thing you'd at least take away a recess for.
 
Here's a link to the actual essay.

Please note the following from the paper:
The following is the essay Cary-Grove student Allen Lee wrote in his English class, as well as two notes from Lee explaining his writing. Note to readers: The essay contains graphic language that some readers may find offensive. We have edited some of the text of the letter because it did not meet our standards for publication.
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Here is the copy of the assignment. Its' a PDF file, if that makes a difference to your browser.

Then there's this article from todays Chicago Tribune. This is a well balanced article about what happened.

Mt personal opinion is that the Teacher got exactly what she asked for, according to the guidelines. She didn't like it and has made a federal case out of it!

Oh, the Marines? They've terminated the contract with Lee. Understandable till we see the outcome of the case. And the D.A.? Well he's added on a second charge. This is overkill for an Honors student with a 4.2 GPA, Athlete on the schools wrestling team and never been in trouble before.
 
Whoa, after reading that essay the school should have brought in the Secret Service, NSA, BATFE... Hell, I'm surprised they didn't have 82nd dropping in! LOL!

This whole thing is such political nonsense, it's rediculous! The kid was annoyed with the class, didn't really like the teacher or her methods, and was told to write without corrections or censoring. Big-friggen-deal---he did what he was assigned. So maybe it wasn't exactly what the teacher expected. Oh well, it's what she asked for. This is a complete waste of tax payer time and money.
 
*reads essay*

:eek:

Alright, that's it! The ninjas have been dispatched to take care of this kid; he's a menace. We must strike now to see to it that he doesn't extend his horrendous spelling to any more of the Internet. It's tough enough out here already, we don't need the n00Bs getting backup!

TO THE BARRICADES!
 
I wrote an essay in high school about an assassination attempt on a whistle blowing senator that involved the nuking of a small Asian country
My next essay was about an assault on the school by ninja commandos in retaliation for the nuking of their country in an assassination attempt on a whistle blowing senator
In that one the students bonded with the terrorists and cheered when the principle was impaled on the flag pole.
The assignment was something about America's influence on world economics, I was praised for my originality but lost a grade point for steering too far off topic

I couldn't be a kid today
 
After reading the "essay" I say give him an F send him to remedial English and be done with it

After reading the assignment I take that back, she got what she asked for
 
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