He drew a gun...no, really he only DREW a gun...
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Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Youth suspended over sketch of gun
Officials say drawing by teen 'absolutely considered a threat'
Posted: August 22, 2007
5:10 p.m. Eastern
A 13-year-old boy has been suspended for three days by an Arizona public school because he sketched a picture that resembled a gun, something school officials said they "absolutely" believed could pose a threat.
According to a report by KPHO Television, it's not the type of greeting the Mosteller family expected when they moved from Colorado Springs to Chandler, Ariz., a few weeks ago.
"My son is a very good boy," Paul Mosteller told the television station. "He doesn't get into trouble. There was nothing on the paper that would signify that it was a threat of any form."
The principal at Payne Junior High School kept the actual drawing, and officials with the Chandler Unified School District declined to release any information about the situation.
"Federal privacy law forbids the school or district from discussing student discipline," the station was told.
Mosteller said her son was just idly drawing pictures, and ended up with a fake laser.
"He was just basically doodling and not thinking a lot about it," she said. "We're not advocates for guns. We don't have guns in our home. We don't promote the use of guns. My son was just basically doodling on a piece of paper."
School officials who initially banned the student for five days lowered the penalty to three days after discussing the situation with the boy's father.
"I just can't believe that there wasn't another way to resolve this," Mosteller told the Associated Press. "He's so upset. The school made him feel like he committed a crime. They are doing more damage than good."
The drawing did not show blood or bullets. Nor did it show injuries or target anyone, the Mostellers said. It just resembled a gun.
Terry Locke, a spokesman for the district, told the AP the sketch was "absolutely considered a threat," and threatening words or pictures are punishable.
However, the school failed to contact police, and failed to provide counseling or an evaluation for the student to determine if he intended it as a threat, officials said.
The student's father, Ben Mosteller, said school officials told him how serious they considered the situation, and discussed the 1999 massacre at Colorado's Columbine High School, where two teens shot and killed 12 students and a teacher, and injured dozens more.
That, he said, was extreme and offensive. The family already has contacted the district's governing board about the incident.
The station said it checked the rules students must follow at school, and found there's nothing in a portion of the student handbook that addresses conduct to indicate the drawing of a weapon poses threat.
Participants in a local newspaper forum were irritated.
"If school officials believed this to be a threat, they are in violation of state law by failing to make a police report. Suspend them," said "Bobo A."
"This once great land of ours (now someone else's) gets SICKER by the day. Not the year, not the month, not the week, but by the DAY. Dennis Prager asked a very interesting question: How did the "Greatest Generation" give birth to the "Most Stupid Generation?" (my paraphrase)," added "loamy l."
Prager, a WND columnist, recently reported on the case in McMinnville, Ore., where students created something called "slap butt day" at Patton Middle School.
He reported that on one such day in February, "Two boys tore down the hall of Patton Middle School after lunch, swatting the bottoms of girls as they ran - what some kids later said was a common form of greeting. But bottom-slapping is against policy in McMinnville Public Schools. So a teacher's aide sent the gawky seventh-graders to the office, where the vice principal and a police officer stationed at the school soon interrogated them."
The students were read their Miranda rights and hauled in handcuffs to jail, where they spent the next five days.
All because the Yamhill County district attorney, Bradley Berry, brought felony sex charges against the two boys. When he finally explained himself under pressure from the media, Berry told the Oregonian, "From our perspective and the perspective of the victims, this was not just horseplay."
But Prager reported the girls, in fact, did regard it as horseplay. And they claimed from virtually the outset that they had been pressured into making a case against the boys.
"Our beloved country is flipping out. The effects of The Age of Stupidity ushered in during the '60s and '70s are omnipresent. It is highly doubtful that there is a living member of the World War II generation who could have imagined that seventh-graders would one day be brought in shackles into an American courtroom for playfully swatting a girl's buttocks," Prager wrote.
To view this item online, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57276
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Youth suspended over sketch of gun
Officials say drawing by teen 'absolutely considered a threat'
Posted: August 22, 2007
5:10 p.m. Eastern
A 13-year-old boy has been suspended for three days by an Arizona public school because he sketched a picture that resembled a gun, something school officials said they "absolutely" believed could pose a threat.
According to a report by KPHO Television, it's not the type of greeting the Mosteller family expected when they moved from Colorado Springs to Chandler, Ariz., a few weeks ago.
"My son is a very good boy," Paul Mosteller told the television station. "He doesn't get into trouble. There was nothing on the paper that would signify that it was a threat of any form."
The principal at Payne Junior High School kept the actual drawing, and officials with the Chandler Unified School District declined to release any information about the situation.
"Federal privacy law forbids the school or district from discussing student discipline," the station was told.
Mosteller said her son was just idly drawing pictures, and ended up with a fake laser.
"He was just basically doodling and not thinking a lot about it," she said. "We're not advocates for guns. We don't have guns in our home. We don't promote the use of guns. My son was just basically doodling on a piece of paper."
School officials who initially banned the student for five days lowered the penalty to three days after discussing the situation with the boy's father.
"I just can't believe that there wasn't another way to resolve this," Mosteller told the Associated Press. "He's so upset. The school made him feel like he committed a crime. They are doing more damage than good."
The drawing did not show blood or bullets. Nor did it show injuries or target anyone, the Mostellers said. It just resembled a gun.
Terry Locke, a spokesman for the district, told the AP the sketch was "absolutely considered a threat," and threatening words or pictures are punishable.
However, the school failed to contact police, and failed to provide counseling or an evaluation for the student to determine if he intended it as a threat, officials said.
The student's father, Ben Mosteller, said school officials told him how serious they considered the situation, and discussed the 1999 massacre at Colorado's Columbine High School, where two teens shot and killed 12 students and a teacher, and injured dozens more.
That, he said, was extreme and offensive. The family already has contacted the district's governing board about the incident.
The station said it checked the rules students must follow at school, and found there's nothing in a portion of the student handbook that addresses conduct to indicate the drawing of a weapon poses threat.
Participants in a local newspaper forum were irritated.
"If school officials believed this to be a threat, they are in violation of state law by failing to make a police report. Suspend them," said "Bobo A."
"This once great land of ours (now someone else's) gets SICKER by the day. Not the year, not the month, not the week, but by the DAY. Dennis Prager asked a very interesting question: How did the "Greatest Generation" give birth to the "Most Stupid Generation?" (my paraphrase)," added "loamy l."
Prager, a WND columnist, recently reported on the case in McMinnville, Ore., where students created something called "slap butt day" at Patton Middle School.
He reported that on one such day in February, "Two boys tore down the hall of Patton Middle School after lunch, swatting the bottoms of girls as they ran - what some kids later said was a common form of greeting. But bottom-slapping is against policy in McMinnville Public Schools. So a teacher's aide sent the gawky seventh-graders to the office, where the vice principal and a police officer stationed at the school soon interrogated them."
The students were read their Miranda rights and hauled in handcuffs to jail, where they spent the next five days.
All because the Yamhill County district attorney, Bradley Berry, brought felony sex charges against the two boys. When he finally explained himself under pressure from the media, Berry told the Oregonian, "From our perspective and the perspective of the victims, this was not just horseplay."
But Prager reported the girls, in fact, did regard it as horseplay. And they claimed from virtually the outset that they had been pressured into making a case against the boys.
"Our beloved country is flipping out. The effects of The Age of Stupidity ushered in during the '60s and '70s are omnipresent. It is highly doubtful that there is a living member of the World War II generation who could have imagined that seventh-graders would one day be brought in shackles into an American courtroom for playfully swatting a girl's buttocks," Prager wrote.
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Obviously, more lives saved......[xx(][xx(] 0 -
This country gets more obsurd by the day. 0 -
Wow, this is big time horse pucky. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by Ramtinxxl
The student's father, Ben Mosteller, said school officials told him how serious they considered the situation, and discussed the 1999 massacre at Colorado's Columbine High School, where two teens shot and killed 12 students and a teacher, and injured dozens more.
What is the relationship of Columbine to a drawing of a gun? Didn't those criminals use real guns? Maybe this kid could have wielded this dangerous weapon in a manner so as to give someone a paper cut? Oh, but wait, even then it wouldn't matter what was ON the paper, just that it was PAPER! Good grief, what could those morons possibly be thinking?0 -
you guys are saying this isnt serious and the drawing posed no threat but last week i drew a picture of a gun and pointed it at my dog. guess what ? the damn thing went off and my poor dog was shot. i say expell the 13yr old terrorist from school and maybe deport him from america.
on a serious note though...this is what concerns me....
The principal at Payne Junior High School kept the actual drawing, and officials with the Chandler Unified School District declined to release any information about the situation.
"Federal privacy law forbids the school or district from discussing student discipline," the station was told.
...do federal laws allow a principal to seize a students belongings without a court order or subpeona ? Do schools still teach or follows the Consitution and the 4th Amend ??? That piece of paper is PROPERTY of the student and cant be confiscated by a teacher or principal just because they feel like it.0 -
Man I would've been screwed. Took me years to break my habit of doodling guns. 0 -
http://ww2.chandler.k12.az.us/payne-jrhigh/
just in case anybody would like to make a phone call in support of the boy0 -
Maybe he should have drawn a picture about chopping someone up with a Meat Cleaver! Is there a Healthy Brain Left in this Country? 0 -
Remember when Yosemite Sam told Bugs Bunny to draw and Bugs drew a picture. That was fuuny. 0 -
Where is the chlorine? 0 -
quote:Originally posted by fizzer
http://ww2.chandler.k12.az.us/payne-jrhigh/
just in case anybody would like to make a phone call in support of the boy
Thanks! I left a message..."what a way to educate our young people in how STUPID adults can be."
BTW, if you click on the link below, you can see the TV image of the "threatening" sketch.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=572760 -
quote:Originally posted by drobs
Man I would've been screwed. Took me years to break my habit of doodling guns.
Amen, I still haven't stopped doodling guns.0 -
This is the threatening drawing???! You got to be kidding! 
I just called the school and the Chandler School District at 480-812-7631 and left a message for them.
Where will it end? What if the kid had drawn a picture of boxing gloves or a fist? Would that be considered a threat? It's quite a stretch to equate a mere drawing that somewhat resembles a gun to the Columbine tragety! What about this kids freedom of speech? I hope this family sues the Chandler school district. They have one heck of a case!0 -
Wonder what would of happened if he drew a picture of a knife? This is Bull! 0 -
Where are we going, and how come we're in a handbasket? 0 -
quote:Originally posted by fizzer
http://ww2.chandler.k12.az.us/payne-jrhigh/
just in case anybody would like to make a phone call in support of the boy
I went to this link and clicked on Staff. There they have a link to the principle, vice principle, and dean of schools. Funny, but they locked the link to the principle and dean of schools. Suppose they are getting alot of comments about this. Idiots!0 -
Need more coffee....too absurd to process on one cup....
I, too, conjured images of Bugs and Yosimite Sam....
Wow, I better speak to my 11 year old. He is a doodler, and one of his favorite themes is warplanes, dropping bombs, and rocket lauchers, and tanks.
Maybe he's a candidate for therapy to deal with his repressed aggression.[:0]0 -
This is PC gone crazy. I read this and almost spit out coffee on my key board. If this would have been me I would not have ever compleated any schooling. The darn picture looks like a building more than a gun. My pictures looked like real guns, and I drew pictures of people being shot too. Cowboys & indians were big back then. The Lone Ranger & Roy Rogers were always shooting up bad guys, and the evening news had shot up soldier's in your face every night.
Trinity +++0 -
quote:Originally posted by fizzer
http://ww2.chandler.k12.az.us/payne-jrhigh/
just in case anybody would like to make a phone call in support of the boy
Or if anyone would like to send an E-mail in support with a real picture of a gun so she'll know the difference in the future.
martin.karen@chandler.k12.az.us
Smitty0 -
So does that mean that any kid who draws a picture of a tank, or a jet, or a warship is also going to be suspended? 0 -
The phone number to the school is 480-812-7000--- Flood em with calls ---
The lady I spoke with stated that that picture is not the one in question, and they were not allowed to discuss the matter further...
Our resident artist Wallie even draws a bit better than that "O)0 -
there are smiley faces and people standing on it. what the heck is it a building sized howitzer.
the school is extremely unjustified in there actions here. and to me that doesnt even look like a gun. it looks more like an arial photo of a factory. so now we will ban all pictures that resemble a grip and a slide. cut down all trees that have branches that resemble the barrel of a gun or sword or knife. what about finger guns and saying bang at the same time. this is F'in ridiculous0 -
If YOU have ever been shot with a picture of a gun you would understand why the boy was kicked out of school 0 -
Gt real guys. This is a serious issue. He could have given someone a serious "paper cut" with that drawing of a gun. In my eyes that makes it dangerous!!!![xx(]
quote:Wow, I better speak to my 11 year old. He is a doodler, and one of his favorite themes is warplanes, dropping bombs, and rocket lauchers, and tanks. Wow, I did the same thing... in school no less. So far I have not killed anyone or commtted any serious
crimes.[^]
quote:to me that doesn't even look like a gun. it looks more like an arial photo of a factory. I agree. If no one had told me a gun would be near the bottom of the list of guesses I would have made and I'm a gun nut.
The only real danger hear is if the kid wants to become an artist. Apparently the school dosn't have much of an art/drawing class.0 -
I wonder if i could turn that in on a gun buyback day an get a Walmart
giftcard[:D][:o)][:)]0 -
quote:Originally posted by oneeyedokie
I wonder if i could turn that in on a gun buyback day an get a Walmart
giftcard[:D][:o)][:)]
It doesn't look like a gun to me.0 -
I called and thanked them from protecting us from future terrorists in art classes. 0 -
I called the school district today and asked if a picture of a gun is really dangerous. They transferred me over to community relations who said no comment. I told them the principal is an idiot and should be fired, that this incident has now hit international news and makes them all look like idiots. They said they are forwarding all comments to the superintendent of the schools. The school board is (480) 812-7000 0 -
Is that what they mean by zero tolerance? 0 -
This just makes me wonder what the school would do if some high schooler brings in a picture of them during deer season with their first buck and a rifle in the picture... 0
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