Girl Suspended in Doodle of Teacher

[Todd-'o'-Vision]

MOUNT LEBANON, Pa. –– A school suspended an 11-year-old girl for drawing two teachers with arrows through their heads, saying the stick figures were more death threat than doodle.

Becca Johnson, an honor-roll sixth-grader at Mellon Middle School, drew the picture on the back of a vocabulary test on which she had gotten a D.

"That's my way of saying I'm angry," Becca said, adding she meant no harm to the teachers.

The stick figures, on a crudely drawn gallows with arrows in their heads, had the names of Becca's teacher and a substitute teacher written underneath. Another teacher spotted the doodle in the girl's binder Tuesday and reported it, prompting the three-day suspension.

Becca's parents, Philip and Barbara Johnson, denied the school's contention the drawings were "terrorist threats."

"She had done poorly on a test that was handed back to her. We've always told her that you can't take your feelings out on your teacher, so write about it or draw it, as a catharsis," Barbara Johnson said.

She accused the school of applying a zero-tolerance policy that "does away with due process and inflicts a penalty without a hearing or investigation."

The district said its zero-tolerance policy applies only to gun or drug possession, and denied that no investigation was done.

"All I can say is that when we have taken action related to the activities of students in the schools, we have done so after a thorough investigation," Mount Lebanon School District Superintendent Glenn Smartschan said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20851-2002May2.html

 

[bluespoke]

Mad, mad, they're all mad I tell you!

Absolutely crazy!

 

[sunstruck]

Public school officials nationwide are banning children from playing "cops and robbers," citing zero-tolerance policies for anything resembling violence at school.

Children are being suspended or expelled, and civil rights activists argue the policies are too harsh because they punish first and ask questions later.
"I think the schools are paranoid, and the policies just don't work," said John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, an international legal and educational organization representing several students. Among those punished:
•A 9-year-old boy in California, who was threatened with suspension when officials caught him playing cops and robbers. The boy's father, an Army sergeant, removed his son from class to preempt the principal from suspending him.
•Two second-grade students in New York, who were suspended and criminally charged with making terrorist threats for pointing paper guns and saying, "I'm going to kill you." The criminal charges were dropped.
•An 8-year-old boy in Arkansas, who was suspended for pointing a chicken finger at a teacher and saying "pow, pow."
•A 9-year-old boy in New Jersey, who was suspended for one day and ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation after telling a classmate of his plans to shoot a fellow classmate with spitballs. Police questioned the boy but did not file charges.
•Four kindergartners in New Jersey, who were suspended for three days after they pretended their fingers were guns and said they wanted to shoot one another.
Other games recently banned from school playgrounds include duck, duck, goose; musical chairs; steal the bacon; and tag because they encourage exclusion, theft, bullying, aggression and competition.
Attorneys at Rutherford and the American Civil Liberties Union argue that school-administered punishment has changed for the worse.
Mr. Whitehead said zero-tolerance policies are flawed because they do not take into account children's intentions and often result in school officials suspending a child before telling the parents about the problem.
"This is a Draconian type of punishment that doesn't even look at intent," Mr. Whitehead said. "If you just look at intent in these cases, none of these kids would be guilty of anything."
Attorneys with the ACLU agree.
Kent Willis, executive director of the ACLU's Virginia chapter, said the policies infringe on the students' rights to free expression by prohibiting them from playing certain games during their free time.
"Zero-tolerance policies are narrow, unreasonable rules with extraordinary punishments, and that's where the constitutional issues come in," Mr. Willis said.
"Schools should be careful about banning student expression."
Officials at the schools where some of the incidents occurred did not return telephone calls seeking comment yesterday.
However, Gary Thomas, a superintendent of the Silver Valley Unified School District in California, where one of the incidents took place, told the Associated Press the school is trying to resolve the situation with the boy's parents.
Mr. Thomas also defended the zero-tolerance policy.
"We have suspended play when they're using imaginary weapons until the guidelines can be developed to help the staff differentiate between dangerous and imaginary play," he said.
School district officials in New Jersey, where the four kindergartners were suspended, said they will review their policy after one of the student's fathers complained that officials overreacted.

 

[Mischka]

*bangs head against wall*

We cannot expect to extract an educated citizenry from schools that have lost all sense of reason and common sense.

I just sent a letter to the Superintendant of that school district. Fat lot of good it will do, but it made me feel better.

 

[Calamity Jane]

The daughter of a friend recently received 3 days of in school suspension for telling another student that she wished he'd explode.

She's in 4th grade, and has been mercilessly picked on by this boy for the entire semester. The teacher, in a moment of extreme clarity of thought, paired them up to work on an assignment together. My friend's daughter is LD and has a hard time with reading comprehension. The boy's job was to read her the instructions, and help her with questions. He repeatedly read the instructions as fast as he could, giggling everytime she asked him to repeat something. Other students were pointing at them and laughing. Finally, my friend's daughter had reached the limit of her patience and yelled at the boy.

He received no punishment, because he 'hadn't done anything that was clearly against school rules'.

 

[sunstruck]

Teachers can't hug crying 5 year olds anymore, children are barely allowed to touch one another, all games that involve any ideas of good an evil are forbidden, principals are forcing high school girls to engage in a thong search before being allowed to enter prom....what kind of emotionless, humorless, morally confused little robots are trying to raise?
And all to avoid law suit. NO other reason.
I think what we need to do is not necessarily re-work the educational system, but the court system. Frivolous law suits need to be restricted. This is getting rediculous.

 

[Calamity Jane]

I don't understand any of it.

I grew up playing with cap guns, playing all those games that were listed as banned, and I read most of the books that are on the banned lists. I have yet to lash out violently against anyone, let alone actually kill someone.

When did competitiveness, imagination, and emotions become bad things?

My little sister was chastised by a teacher in high school for getting excited that she aced a test, because it 'might make the ones who didn't do as well feel that they'd failed'. Students aren't allowed to get pissed off, and they're not allowed to be 'too happy' either because someone's feelings might be hurt.

 

[sunstruck]

Appropriate

 

[sigh]

The thing school administrators (and all of us, actually) must remember regarding the actions of children is that like other animals, play in children is in large part practice for the realities of adult life.

Is it no surprise that children play at shooting and fighting when the vision of adulthood they're constantly fed is just that? Watch a cartoon show on television or go to a family movie or see what's on that gameboy your kid spends more time on than his homework. Kids playing at being violent is perfectly natural in this context. And it's very, very, very important for us to recognize that it simply is play, and nothing worthy of punishment.

In fact, it makes sense considering the nature of beast they're aspiring to become.

 

[Calamity Jane]

The thing school administrators (and all of us, actually) must remember regarding the actions of children is that like other animals, play in children is in large part practice for the realities of adult life.

Is it no surprise that children play at shooting and fighting when the vision of adulthood they're constantly fed is just that? Watch a cartoon show on television or go to a family movie or see what's on that gameboy your kid spends more time on than his homework. Kids playing at being violent is perfectly natural in this context. And it's very, very, very important of us to recognize that it simply is play, and nothing worthy of punishment.

In fact, it makes sense considering the nature of beast they're aspiring to become.

That's a pretty unfair generalization, Sigh. My kids don't watch violent cartoons or movies, they don't own any game systems, and the most intense game the oldest currently plays on the computer is My Little Pony.

She also loves to play pirate with her inflatable sword and canon, and plays cops and robbers/cowboys and indians with abandon. It's called being a kid. And 'violent' play acting is no more indicative of future behavior than any other type of fantasy play is.

 

[dancinvixen]

That's a pretty unfair generalization, Sigh. My kids don't watch violent cartoons or movies, they don't own any game systems, and the most intense game the oldest currently plays on the computer is My Little Pony.

She also loves to play pirate with her inflatable sword and canon, and plays cops and robbers/cowboys and indians with abandon. It's called being a kid. And 'violent' play acting is no more indicative of future behavior than any other type of fantasy play is.

I have to agree with all of you. In our haste to protect our children from being killed, we have gone overboard.
Since my husband is in the army, we travel quite a bit. My daughter has been three schools already and she's only in the first grade. In two of the schools, extreme measures were taken to ensure the protection of the children. My daughter almost got suspended from school for playing Pokemon with her friends.
I think that the parents and school administration all need to take a step back from this and take a look at how obsurd it all is. We are denying our children the games that will help them grow up into adults. My daughter is incredibly smart, and she once shocked me beyond anything I have ever heard. I mean we all ask our children "what do you want to be when you grow up?" I asked my daughter this question and she stated " I want to be either a dancer or a doctor." So I asked her why she chose these professions and her answer astounded me," Because mom, I don't ever want to be the one who has to tell a mommy or daddy that their kid either did something really bad, or they hurt someone. It hurts me just thinking about it."

What happens when we take away the freedom of our children, are we next? Will adults start being arrested for playing children games with our own kids?

 

[vylette]

ok...here it goes and i know i am going to get slammed, but bear in mind we are are entitled to our opinions..

I taught elementary school for almost 8 yrs (quite to raise my son). I am in favor of zero tolerance and support the school systems completely.

 

[dancinvixen]

ok...here it goes and i know i am going to get slammed, but bear in mind we are are entitled to our opinions..

I taught elementary school for almost 8 yrs (quite to raise my son). I am in favor of zero tolerance and support the school systems completely.

Vylette, everyone is entitled to their opinions. My mother was a high school teacher for many years before becoming a university prof. and she has the same views.

 

[Rubyfruit]

I don't think it's normal or healthy for a child to draw pictures depicting death to her teachers. I don't agree with the suspension, but I'm glad this was brought to her parents' attention - not that they seem concerned though.

If she were my child, I would explain that her anger was misplaced. A spelling test is not subjective. It was not the teacher's fault that she did poorly, it was her own.

 

[APhil]

I still don't agree with zero tolerance because it gives too much leeway to administrators who think that a child with a pair of nail clippers is dangerous, or a student with aspirin is a drug dealer.

 

[RawHumor]

I don't think it's normal or healthy for a child to draw pictures depicting death to her teachers. I don't agree with the suspension, but I'm glad this was brought to her parents' attention - not that they seem concerned though.

If she were my child, I would explain that her anger was misplaced. A spelling test is not subjective. It was not the teacher's fault that she did poorly, it was her own.

Actually, when I was in 4th-6th grade, the top 10 people in my class (including myself) were allowed to enter a creative-thinking type of class. While we had breaks, some of us used to try to one up each other by creating elaborate teacher-killing stories.

It was a joke at that time, because nobody would ever do something like that... at least not back then.

Our teacher saw one of them (a drawing similar to the one in this discussion) and she laughed about it, thanking us for our high opinion of her. Here's the thing - she took it as a joke, as it was MEANT to be taken.

I'm not advocating this type of thing, especially in this PC age of ours, but I definitely don't think it's abnormal.

 

[Rubyfruit]

I see your point, RH. My main concern was that the student was angry at her teacher because she did poorly on a test.

I see so many kids today without any sense of responsibility or accountability.

That bothers me a great deal. Going through life blaming others for your mistakes is not very productive, and, frankly, wont get you too far either.

 

[sunstruck]

I don't think it's normal or healthy for a child to draw pictures depicting death to her teachers. I don't agree with the suspension, but I'm glad this was brought to her parents' attention - not that they seem concerned though.

If she were my child, I would explain that her anger was misplaced. A spelling test is not subjective. It was not the teacher's fault that she did poorly, it was her own.

Ruby's right. Parental involvement is key. Teachers should use that as a FIRST step rather than going to such an extreme and alienating the parents. Putting them up in arms and against the school system is the worst possible thing you can do to the kids as it then gives them the impression that the school system is not to be respected.
Believe me, the first time my mom went off on a teacher was the last time I really listened to that teacher.

 

[Cibo]

I dunno, suspending all those kids, especially the kindergardeners is just plain stupid to me.

 

[Calamity Jane]

I see your point, RH. My main concern was that the student was angry at her teacher because she did poorly on a test.

I see so many kids today without any sense of responsibility or accountability.

That bothers me a great deal. Going through life blaming others for your mistakes is not very productive, and, frankly, wont get you too far either.

I totally agree. But we have to stop acting as if all these issues are black and white. Zero tolerance isn't the way to go.

 

[Spinaroonie]

How did I know Todd would post this?

Abyways, in 5th grade, I believe I made what you would call a formal death threat against one of my teachers. This was near the end of the year, I'd had issues with some of the assignments (particularly sewing in a math class and the project we were currently doing) So we were geving some menial self-administration task to say which math assignments we did well at (not like our fucking grades would show that). Anyways, I turned mine into a rambling manifesto which included a death threat or something that the admins considered a death threat. I don't remember how the teacher got a hold of it... but anyways, it got me pulled out of my classes for about a half a week or so, and a trip to the consulor. The consulor suggested I become a writer. (She later told my parents that I was death-obsessed. My parents explained it because I was havign to deal with death the first time w/ the loss of a close grandfather)

Anyways, the next year I'm in science, and the teacher had just nothing planned. She planned a 25-30 minute expiriment or lecture or something for a 45 minute class. I sat patiently, just waiting. Then I was incouraged by the teacher and other students to draw. So I did. I drew a spider eating my teacher. The teacher somehow saw it and took me out to the hall to meet with my current math teacher (Not the one above). Nobody is reading this. The math teacher saw the problem- I was drawing in class. She had me sign it and it went (for some reason) to the principal's office. I was labeled as a repeat offender and suspended for a week (During which time a teacher left a candle burning in the school and part of it caught on fire. Had there been evidence of arson, I'd probably be unjustly jailed.) When I came back to school (actually a different school cos of the damage) I was sent to a different set of teachers. The work was incredibly easy and all the other students thought I was beyond a genius (due to math and comp skills) and I had a fun time.

See? I turned out just fine. Children draw, children get angry.

That girl will be just fine.

 

[SleepingWarrior]

Stupid just stupid. Not letting kids be kids is wrong. Reminds me of when I was in 6th grade and brought a water gun to school because me and my friends were gonna go to the park and play with them after school. Well anyway, one of my friends wanted to see which water gun I had brought so we went to my locker and I showed it to him. A teacher saw it, collared me and brought me to the principal's office, got a 3 days of out of school suspension and 2 days of in-school suspension because it was a 'look a like' weapon. The stupid part of all of this being... I was suspended for bringing in a 'look a like' weapon that was made of CLEAR plastic.

 

[vylette]

originally posted by pagancowgirl
I totally agree. But we have to stop acting as if all these issues are black and white. Zero tolerance isn't the way to go.

Oddly enough in most areas I see things totally "gray", but had my son been suspended for the picture, I would have backed the teacher. I would be so concerned if my son had drawn that picture.

 

[Calamity Jane]

I'm not saying there was no cause for concern. BUT if the way that she deals with anger is to draw what she did, big deal. I used to draw pictures of my sister's being eaten by sharks. Didn't mean I wanted them to be ripped into little pieces and scattered throughout the ocean.

The issue is intent, and that's where zero tolerance policies sell people short.

Is there any history that would lead the administrators to believe that there was a real threat? Does the girl have behavioral or emotional issues?

If your son drawing that picture would disturb you, fine. My daughter drawing that same picture wouldn't disturb me in the least, because I know there would be no intent to harm.

 

[Todd-'o'-Vision]

. . .the school's contention the drawings were "terrorist threats."

This is the quote that upset me the most

the kid was 11 years old, and what did they label him? A terrorist threat.

I don't know one kid boy or girl who does draw war scenes, fight scenes death scenes at some point in thier growth and personal exploration.

I would much rather they draw it and get it out of thier system than to bottle it up and become the next raging killer.

Zero tolerance = zero common sense

Why should a parent, school teacher, admininistrator have to think when it is easier to boot.

Whats next no pens and pencils because they could be used as weapons or they could be used in the wrting of propaganda and other terrorist threats