I spent this Sunday night drinking beer, eating homemade nachos and watching:

1) Desperation - a Stephen King adaptation which starts off with Ron Perlman as a sheriff who guns down an innocent man shortly after killing a little girl. (For a tv adaptation of a Stephen King book, pretty good, most tv versions of his book are horrible, but the book and the audio book are far better, the audio book guaranteed to keep you awake on long night drives in the desert.)

2) The Walking Dead - tonight with decapitations, arms severed, knifes to the head, and head shots.

I was about to start tonight's episode of Homeland, but it seems to have recorded poorly. Otherwise I was looking forward to some more torture.

But a ninja holding a sword? A soldier holding a gun? An imperial storm trooper holding a blaster? That kid is mentally ill.

This post is upsetting,I remember growing up and the boys all being into play guns etc and none of them went out killing other kids, what we see today in our society. It is saddening that this is what our world has become, having to monitor every little thing we do and analyzing every thought and action.If the boy is drawing and writing stuff that is supposed to be concerning, well is the boy displaying other behavior that would cause concern, nope, then why punish a child for being creative? And I am curious, was the journal something they took from the boy and read and invaded his privacy or was it school required work and they read it that way?It is a journal, writing and the art..its a boy being a boy and not having any other displays of odd behavior or anything, them trying to justify their wrong for kicking him out, its not right.
In all honesty, there have been plenty of cases that the kids or people that went out and shot a school up etc, no one knew they would even do that. They did nothing that truly showed that they were capable of such acts and they drop out a kid that was just being creative and writing about something that is out there in movies etc right now...hmm...leaves alot to think and mull over.

I know which, between the "headmaster" and the boy, I would feel safer to be with.

My daughter built a gun out of legos yesterday and ran around trying to shoot her stepfather and her uncle... She is now in a psych ward to "protect" her family. Here in the real freaking world I didnt even look up from cooking because it was NON freaking event. This is also the same child who lovingly tucks in stuffed animals at night and also just got honored at school for her amazing manners and citizenship. So I think the answer here is pretty clear the headmaster has nothing between his ears. I am pregnant with a boy this time his father and I are prepared to homeschool because I just don't see us and the administration seeing eye to eye on what "appropriate" behavior is

I probably would have been kicked out of grade school, or at least been sent for counseling for some of the pictures I drew at that time. I drew a lot at school, because I was usually bored out of my mind.

At the time, I was drawing variations of the young women in the gothic mystery paperbacks that my older sister had strewn all over the house. The woman in the negligee running across the moors,etc.

I was also a big fan of the horror magazines at the time, with the covers of a voluptuous young victim being accosted by zombies or vampires or monsters.

So I was drawing pictures of the woman on the moors before and after the monster got her.

A boy I liked paid me a nickel apiece for them. What he really wanted to see was boobies. I threw in just one barebreasted picture, but as a well-brought-up young lady I just couldn't do any more like that.

Well, I was only ten at the time.

His mom found the pictures and that was the end of that, but I personally never had to deal with any repercussions. These days? I don't want to think about it.

"Many of the third-grader's other journal entries were about saving the earth and protecting humanity...But Jeff said the headmaster told him he could not guarantee the safety of other students with his son around"

One way to guarantee the safety of other students would be to put this headmaster in a padded cell and never let him assume any authority over any children ever again.

and what if this boy grows up to be a Marine, or a policeman, or a doctor... what if he's the scientist that finally figures out how to make an economical and safe TOKAMAK reactor?

A headmaster should have enough brains to realize that guiding children is THE JOB, or you raise a group of kids that screams: "We don't need no education!" But maybe he's one of those guys with a psychopathic wife that thrashes him within inches of his life...

The kid may succeed despite anything his school does, and maybe his parents will yank him an put him in a better school. Maybe he'll learn the unfortunate truth that he can draw anything he wants, as long as it doesn't include weapons.

Does the headmaster understand that in 5 short years, the kid will prolly be playing Halo, or Call of Duty?

Probably not. All he cares about is pounding this child into a Politically Correct Square Hole.

And when you breed out the kind of people who will run towards danger, while moving everyone else away from it... When you make it impermissible for people to dream... Your civilization collapses into the ocean, unmourned... because it won't even save itself.

"And I am curious, was the journal something they took from the boy and read and invaded his privacy or was it school required work and they read it that way?It is a journal, writing and the art..its a boy being a boy and not having any other displays of odd behavior or anything, them trying to justify their wrong for kicking him out, its not right."

Yep. And then they wonder why boys don't learn to "use their words". Even in my day, as I child I remember the situations where there was nothing I could say that wouldn't get me in some sort of trouble, so I said nothing. I got in trouble for that too, but not as much.

Do you want to know the one thing your kid cannot get in trouble for, at school?

Failing!

My 4 year old can make a weapon out of anything. He cracked me up last week by taking his boots off, putting one upside down inside the other, and saying "look mom! A boot gun!!". If any school admin ever tries to tell me he is too violent, I'll be homeschooling. Ditto with my girls, who own bow sets and have shot BB guns, and who will shoot real ones in a another few years.

We were in the little hometown my mom lives in visiting a few weeks ago. We hit up the graveyard their great Gma is buried in one night, after dark. My kids hopped out of the car and commenced to attempting to raise the dead by uttering made-up-on-the-spot spells. Compare that to the 5 year old girl I watch after school. Apparently my 6 year old told her a story about a witch on Thursday (um, Halloween??). She woke up screaming (according to the mom) all weekend. I'll take my unscared kids any day. Bad crap happens. That's why kids stories are (used to be...) so dark. To teach kids how to handle that part of life. Now, our sheltered little flowers are incapable of anything-even living on their own in their 20's and 30's. Not cool.

I think that if the parents aren't too happy about their son playing with toy guns at HOME, the least they can do is tell him he can have any fake-looking toy gun he wants - so long as he pays for it himself. That should slow his consumerism rate by a lot.

And speaking of that, I don't quite understand why, regarding the Santa Rosa case of 13-year-old Andy Lopez, who got shot by police when he allegedly pointed a gun at them and refused to drop it (and it turned out to be a toy that looked like an AK-47), the grieving residents are targeting the toymakers rather than stupid parents who LET their sons own such toys in the first place. At an amusement park, when a five-year-old I was caring for won such a toy, I told his father: "You know he could get seriously hurt if the wrong person sees him with this, right?" He returned it almost immediately.

After all, it's not just police one has to worry about - there are gang members too.

Momof4: I suppose it's OK to read Grimm stories to kids, but at the same time, I think there's plenty to be said for keeping kids away from scary TV, movies, videos, etc. A 7-year-old I know enjoys some movies, but she doesn't gravitate to them as a rule because she's easily scared, and I consider that a good thing, in a sense. Movies just aren't the same as spooky printed words. Why NOT see how much more empathetic kids become when kept away from violent video games?

And speaking of that, I don't quite understand why, regarding the Santa Rosa case of 13-year-old Andy Lopez, who got shot by police when he allegedly pointed a gun at them and refused to drop it (and it turned out to be a toy that looked like an AK-47), the grieving residents are targeting the toymakers rather than stupid parents who LET their sons own such toys in the first place. -- lenona at November 5, 2013 3:02 PM

I haven't heard about the "targeting the toymakers."

But I still think the cops fired too fast.

"At an amusement park, when a five-year-old I was caring for won such a toy, I told his father: "You know he could get seriously hurt if the wrong person sees him with this, right?" He returned it almost immediately."

Abd there we have it: an example of how the American culture of fear is perpetuated.

Why be afraid? Because some nice person next to you says it's the rational thing to do.

Just Choose Fear™. It's All-American!

I haven't heard about the "targeting the toymakers."

But I still think the cops fired too fast.

Posted by: Jim P. at November 5, 2013 9:52 PM
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I'm in a rush, but on TV some days ago, I saw something about activists demanding that all toy rifles, in particular, be made in bubble-gum pink - or orange. The NRA, of course, is opposed, and as someone else pointed out, no teen boy WANTS a toy gun - other than a water gun, maybe - that can clearly be recognized as a toy from a mile off, so why would toymakers waste their money making them in such colors?

I have to say, when teens refuse to drop a realistic toy gun, there's only so much blame you can put on the police.

regarding the Santa Rosa case of 13-year-old Andy Lopez, who got shot by police when he allegedly pointed a gun at them and refused to drop it

Got video? Cause until you do, what with cop claiming shiztus. pekineses, and guys facing a wall being a deadly threat I dont trust a fucking thing cops say.

My bet half a dozen cops shouted conflicting orders, one got trigger happy and the rest overreacted

"At an amusement park, when a five-year-old I was caring for won such a toy, I told his father: "You know he could get seriously hurt if the wrong person sees him with this, right?" He returned it almost immediately."
__________________________________

Abd there we have it: an example of how the American culture of fear is perpetuated.

Why be afraid? Because some nice person next to you says it's the rational thing to do.

Just Choose Fear™. It's All-American!

Posted by: Radwaste at November 6, 2013 6:44 AM
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I should probably have made it clear that the kid didn't even NOTICE the gun was missing, later on - not just because he was having too much fun at the fair, but because his dad was buying him cheap plastic toys and ice cream about twice a day on that particular two-week vacation.

Some liberties, especially for children, just aren't that important in the big picture, IMO. As I said, it's not just trigger-happy cops one has to worry about.