Calling the Thought-Police

Adam-12, Adam-12 please respond to a code 10-280: Asian Teenager expressing emotions on a school assignment. I say again, that’s a code 10-280, Asian Teenage expression emotions in school.

This is just ridiculous. The story there will probably raise your blood pressure a few points, and I’d like to help.

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.

So, he didn’t threaten anyone or anything, he just a “violent” essay? I’m not sure I see the crime there.

Neither police nor the school would release a copy of the essay written Monday.

Oh good, let’s keep the evidence secret, that will really help the perception of this incident.

Cary Police Chief Ron Delelio said the charge against Lee was appropriate even though the essay was not published or posted for public viewing.

Disorderly conduct, which carries a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail and a $1,500 fine, is often filed for such pranks as pulling a fire alarm or dialing 911 unnecessarily, he said. But it can also apply when someone’s writings disturb an individual, Delelio said.

Yes, because Sweet God in Heaven forbid that someone ever penned something that another person found “disturbing”. It’s not like we have an Amendment to the Constitution about that or anything.

Some legal experts said the charge is troubling because it was over an essay that even police admit contained no direct threats against anyone at the school. A civil rights advocate said the teacher’s reaction to an essay shouldn’t make it a crime.

“One of the elements is that some sort of disorder or disruption is created,” said Ed Yohnka, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. “When something is done in private — when a paper is handed in to a teacher — there isn’t a disruption.”

I don’t really like the ACLU, but in this case they’re spot on. Just because some idiot teacher got her knickers in a wad over what this kid wrote should not make it crime. Almost anything can be taken as “offensive” or disturbing; if you criminalize offending people you’ve now essentially created “Thought Crime”.

The goals this month for Lee’s Creative English class were for students to communicate ideas and emotions through writing. But students were warned that if they wrote something that posed a threat to self or others, the school could take action

Did the student threaten anyone or anything? Not according to his principle or the cops. Explain to me why he was arrested again?

“The teacher graded [the essay] and was disturbed,” Albert Lee said. “She reported it to a department head, who reported it to the principal. The first contact I had was by the police, when they arrested him Tuesday.”

Let’s see – essay written on Monday, student arrested on Tuesday, parents called to inform them of child’s behavior…when? Look, if you’re going to do something about a kid writing a “violent” story for an assignment, maybe you should, oh, I don’t know…call his fucking parents?

And now for the coup de’ grace

The essay may have been a joke on his son’s part, but he can’t say for sure because he hasn’t read it, Albert Lee said.

His own father hasn’t been allowed to read the essay in question. Are you fucking kidding me?

There is so much wrong with this story, I can’t even see straight right now. What the hell are we doing where we arrest a kid because a teacher was disturbed about something he wrote, instead of contacting his parents first? Are we really to that point of Nanny-Stateism where it’s acceptable to arrest children for expressing negative emotions in a controlled environment?

(H/T to Uncle)