Teenager jailed for his 'imagination.'
January 8, 2001 2:15 PM Subscribe
i know short little posts aren't very helpful...but i'm sort of speechless.
[as recommended by legal counsel]
posted by th3ph17 at 2:28 PM on January 8, 2001
posted by Zool at 2:28 PM on January 8, 2001
Actual violence? Go ahead! He was getting bullied, for God's sake. It wasn't the smartest thing for the poor kid to vent his anger publicly in this post-Columbine age, but Kee-rist . . . "uttering death threats?" So if I tell someone "Fuck you," is that a "rape threat"?
posted by Skot at 2:31 PM on January 8, 2001
Same stuff is being done in US, here, maybe not as severe, but, schools generally don't see the big picture, they only respond to something that can look bad for them. Like a shooting. God forbid they ever try to resolve or prevent the problem that causes these kids to do these things. It's like punishing a child after he tries to slash his wrists for attention.
You could see that I didn't at all enjoy school, any of it.
posted by tiaka at 2:32 PM on January 8, 2001
posted by th3ph17 at 2:33 PM on January 8, 2001
posted by th3ph17 at 2:39 PM on January 8, 2001
posted by Postroad at 3:01 PM on January 8, 2001
posted by cell divide at 3:12 PM on January 8, 2001
"w/out imagination there is no memory
w/out imagination there is no sensation
w/out imagination there is no will, desire...
THE ONLY WAR THAT MATTERS IS THE WAR AGAINST THE IMAGINATION
ALL OTHER WARS ARE SUBSUMED IN IT"
posted by dnash at 3:45 PM on January 8, 2001
Of course, it's Canada, so people just take their licks and continue on.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 3:51 PM on January 8, 2001
posted by Bag Man at 3:54 PM on January 8, 2001
posted by Steven Den Beste at 4:05 PM on January 8, 2001
You know as well as I do that there's a tendancy here to let things follow the normal course - let the cases go to court - before all the really good mudslinging starts happening.
Personally, I to am shocked by this. But in a way I'm happy about it. Rather than numerous suspensions of trenchcoated kids who say bad things, the first real nationally-publicised case is a big one.
There's been suspensions in Canada, too, by people who should know better in the unfortunate "post-Columbine" era than rocking the boat, but not nearly as many issues as I've heard about with zero-tolerance rules in the States.
By this one going to court so quickly, comparatively speaking, and being so astoundingly mishandled by the people in charge, it'll be struck down as terribly unconstitutional and a certain freedom of expression will be brought back.
Well, hopefully. We're just as much prey to cries of "Think of the Children" as America, but if the kid's lawyer raises enough noise - and I don't doubt someone will hop aboard the chance to raise noise about this and gain some national noteriety - there's an awfully good chance that in the future kids will again be able to write fiction that's to some degree based on themselves without fear of being sent to jail.
I'll say it again, it's most certainly not right and shouldn't have happened in the first place, but it's been building up all over North America. Hopefully this will stop it.
posted by cCranium at 4:25 PM on January 8, 2001
posted by Zool at 4:26 PM on January 8, 2001
posted by swank6 at 4:40 PM on January 8, 2001
posted by bytecode at 5:09 PM on January 8, 2001
"Sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to go to the principal's office"
posted by zempf at 6:43 PM on January 8, 2001
It sounds like people believe that it's okay to alter the world if someone's misbehavior gets enough press to make people sensitive to the issue. Never mind trying to assess what's logically right and/or appropriate.
posted by rushmc at 7:08 PM on January 8, 2001
posted by Bag Man at 7:08 PM on January 8, 2001
posted by sonofsamiam at 9:34 PM on January 8, 2001
It's scary to think that more than one nation can be so affected by a remote event sensationalized by the media.
Kill your TV?
posted by Neb at 9:43 PM on January 8, 2001
I agree there's been more of this sort of thing in the US schools lately than in Canada (at least, that we know of), but the ones here in the US have all ended within a few days, and I can't think of any of them that ended up with a kid being detained for any length of time. But this kid in Canada is still in jail, and has been for over a month! Even though the cops have searched like crazy for evidence and found nothing! That's just beyond the pale. And yes, Canadian attitudes are different. They don't seem to have nearly as many inalienable individual rights as Americans. What's being done to this kid would be unconstitutional in the US.
There seems no protection of civil liberties unless a lawsuit is brought. Alas, this may end soon enuggh in America when the GOP gets cracking on its long-held dislike of trial lawyers and its hope to put caps on damages awarded to plaintiffs who win in court.
Oh please. We're dealing with direct civil rights violations against an individual by the government. This doesn't have a damn thing to do with trial lawyers going against private companies for cash. The school authorities and police officers who ignored the parents' original assault complaints are the ones that need to be in court, as individuals, on charges of aiding assault and violating laws that require them to protect those put forcibly in their care.
after all Canada isn't, to my knowledge, known for human rights violations.
As defined by the UN, perhaps. There are many of us who believe there are quite a few more human rights than just the ones the UN are worried about, and Canada restricts a number of those.
posted by aaron at 10:08 PM on January 8, 2001
Good Point. I would like to add that some schools, like many other social structures, also don't really care about the person being bullied, but about their own image.
It's not unusual for the person who is being bullied to wear the blame for the problem or end up being punished twice for no reason. It seems that many institutions are first and foremost worried about their image, and they will protect that image in the most expedient way.
posted by lucien at 10:22 PM on January 8, 2001
However, I'm not sure how your comment applies to what I said. A universal "good," such as freedom of speech, is just that, universal. It is not as if 75% or 50%+1 more vote has been used to established such freedoms. We have come to embrace these trues not via a vote, but by our hearts and rational minds. The freedom of speech is the basis of any democratic regime and to remove it would be like taking away the foundation of house. History clearly shows us that oppression starts with the crackdown on this particular freedom.
Besides, I'm not sure about Canada, but in the US the tyrannical tendencies of the majority and the minority are mitigated by such things as the Electoral College, Division of Power, and the inclusion of a wide verity of dissenting opinions.
posted by Bag Man at 1:16 AM on January 9, 2001
posted by harmful at 6:25 AM on January 9, 2001
But, by contrast, how many kids have been killed by fellow students who believed themselves, with or without substantiation, to be oppressed or neglected? Dozens, and all over the place. Parents have a very legitimate reason to fear from these kids ... and using law enforcement to restrain them is far better than allowing the law of the jungle -- the other kids, the neighbors -- to act in prophylactic self-defense, which could be pretty ugly.
Under current social circumstances, writing clear first-person-fantasies of murderous revenge against student oppressors falls within Holmes's classic exception to the freedom of speech: shouting "fire" in a crowded theater.
The kid's story is pretty sad -- but it's his parents who are the real villains. "Gentle, creative kids" aren't a good fit in a tough public school, and they never have been: it's a fixed and immutable principal of behavior. No amount of complaining to the principal can ever change that ... yet they let him be harassed for years and years. Sending a kid who isn't physically strong or socially adept enough to protect himself in even the most minimal of ways is just plain child abuse.
(I have always thought that the worst thing that parents who fancy themselves enlightened can do for their boys that they think are "gifted" is not to push them into sports at a young age -- sports is where people learn to be physically assertive, to form bonds, to compete, and, especially, where smart kids learn the very important lesson that the world is not just handed to you on the basis of intellect.)
posted by MattD at 6:56 AM on January 9, 2001
All hail the checks and balances against the tyrannical citizens! We are saved!
posted by rushmc at 7:16 AM on January 9, 2001
One gigantic difference: you are not legally required to go through airports. You are not legally required to sit in an airport for upwards of six hours a day, five days a week.
But, by contrast, how many kids have been killed by fellow students who believed themselves, with or without substantiation, to be oppressed or neglected? Dozens, and all over the place. Parents have a very legitimate reason to fear from these kids ...
Aaargh. Pathetic. So we should persecute everyone who resembles the kids who have committed murder? Are you sure you're not my old English teacher? As I recall, she had a very similar ideology, except the basis was the riots in Detroit in 1968 and she hates African Americans. But by your standard, her racism would be perfectly acceptable.
sports is where people learn to be physically assertive, to form bonds, to compete, and, especially, where smart kids learn the very important lesson that the world is not just handed to you on the basis of intellect
No, the world's handed to you if you can throw a football and run into guys, and you learn such valuable skills as hating people from rival teams (and their schools) for no apparent reason, that girls exist to cheer you on and show off their legs and breasts, and that violence solves everything.
posted by dagnyscott at 7:50 AM on January 9, 2001
Why isn't it the other way around? Why isn't it a bad thing for parents of athletic children not to push them into academics, where they will learn that the world isn't handed to you based on athletic prowess?
posted by dnash at 7:53 AM on January 9, 2001
But I don't think that pushing kids into team sports is right, and pushing kids into one "all-American" mode of thinking is just wrong. MattD's suggestion has some merit, but suggesting that it's ideal for everyone is ludicrous.
posted by dhartung at 8:00 AM on January 9, 2001
I went to computer camps as a child in the mid-80s, how's that for nerdy? And no, they didn't give each of us a terminal and have us spend 8 hours in front of them, there was a lot of group activity there, too. If you're able to help your kid out by sending them to extra-curricular activities, then being attuned to your child's likes and dislikes can make the experience beneficial for both you and your kids.
I think MattD's right in principle, I'm just trying to expand the possibilities for interested folks.
posted by cCranium at 8:27 AM on January 9, 2001
posted by Cobbler at 8:39 AM on January 9, 2001
--Woody Allen
posted by Skot at 9:36 AM on January 9, 2001
Sports, and other extracurriculars, for the "sensitive". A couple of things. First, athletics has always been understood as an integral aspect of education of the "whole" person, and not at all exchangable for other sorts of extracurriculars. Mens Sana en Corpore Sano does not mean "Sound mind in a clarinet-playing, chess-club-attending body."
Dhartung raises a good qualification, as do others, that competitive team sports, like football, are not necessarily the best thing for everyone. Swimming, cross-country, golf, tennis, etc., can offer people alternatives that they may find more suitable. And there is precious little evidence that anyone who is not actually disabled cannnot develop some significant athletic capabilities given determination.
It's also a total red herring to suggest that kids who are naturally gifted at sports aren't "pushed" into academics. Every school-field standout is forced to spend six or more hours a day in academic coursework, like it or not, and no matter what their natural gifts or lack thereof, are towards literature, math and science. And only the most stupid don't very quickly get the message that it is the academically gifted who get the lion's share of the goodies in the world.
(My experience was that the most gifted athletes in high school -- those who actually had the potential to be world-class -- were usually quite modest and had a good deal of respect for the top-shelf scholars as fellow achievers. The reasonably smart among the reasonably gifted athletes knew the long-term score and did their best to get into the AP classes and play the game well. It was those who were dumb and good-but-not-great at sports who were most viciously mean to the "nerds.")
posted by MattD at 11:40 AM on January 9, 2001
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Remind me to avoid opening my mouth when in Canada.
posted by salsamander at 2:22 PM on January 8, 2001