[IP] East Washington teen's sketches attract Secret Service scrutiny

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

From: Gerry Faulhaber <gerry-faulhaber@mchsi.com>

So...let's just suppose that a month prior to the Columbine killings in
Colorado, the killers turned in sketchbooks to their art teacher with
sketches of, let's say, themselves murdering their fellow-students, and
maybe, let's say, people's heads on sticks.  And let's assume that the
teacher and principal decided not to do anything about it, because "then we
are living in '1984'".  Then after the killings, all of us would have
accused the school authorities of ignoring blatant warnings of impending
violence and they no doubt would have lost their jobs at the very least.

The principal absolutely made the right call to bring in the police; failure
to do so would have been gross dereliction of duty.  And I'm not surprised
the Secret Service got involved.  "If a 15 year old kid in Prosser is
perceived as a threat...."  Yeah, he certainly could be a threat; the
Columbine killers of approximately the same age were a huge threat to their
chosen victims.  Being 15 doesn't give you a free pass these days, nor
should it.

Gerald Faulhaber 

-------------------------------------
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/