Arvada boy, 11, arrested over violent stick figure drawing

[SoulSalmon]

Oh for fucks sake... I don't even really need to post do I? this threads seen enough "Omg thats stupid" posts

Instead I'd like to tell a little tale of my childhood, not one I'm proud of, but also not something I was arrested for.
I was misdiagnosed with ADHD at a rather young age, and prescribed ritalin... ritalin is a drug meant to calm down an ADHD affected kid, if the kid DOESN'T have ADHD... well... they become violent hyperactive machines bent on destruction.

My mother took me off the ritalin within a month of the prescription, but while I was on it, the following happened:
I ran around primary school with a sharpened stick trying to stab other students.
I threw a kid up against the wall and almost fractured his spine.
I ran around the school with a medium sized tree branch and caused severe bruising when I slammed it into a teachers side.
I was a right little shit, I was an out of control monster because of one stupid doctor and a few small tablets (something that is my main reason for being incredibly anti-drug, not just 'illegal' drugs but any kind of mind altering drug including mood enhancers).
And a lot of little things, property damage, injury, probably theft... can't remember it TOO well considering it was about a decade ago.

And yet, I was not arrested? A kid who caused physical harm, who could damn well have killed someone?
And here we see a kid being punished FAR more severely, a kid who DREW SOME STICK FIGURES getting a more severe punishment then the drug-addled monster I used to be.

The strange thing is the lack of consistency... if every kid who ever drew a violent picture in school was arrested then the schools would probably need to be torn down to build more jails anyway...

Quite frankly, if anyone should have been taken away from his home in cuffs, it should have been me, not him.

Thankfully the effects that plagued me are long gone, though my diagnosis has changed seven times over the years, I haven't been prescribed any other medicines and I'd probably sue any doctor that tried.
As for my actual condition? Most recently the doctors are crying "Aspergers" but I think they just can't accept my own little version of insanity.
(Really, make up your minds! Is it ADD? ADHD? Autism? OCD? I'm afraid you can only choose one, guys...) (Though I think the one who said OCPD was on to something... I fit the symptoms pretty well for that one)

 

[gmergurl]

Wow, so it's illegal now to throw away a piece of paper? I understand being concerned, but that's if the teacher didn't know he was going to therapy to begin with. I understand *maybe* sending him to a counselor or maybe (in extreme cases) to the principal to perhaps talk about this frustration, but why weren't the parents notified? I think I heard that they were, but did they not explain "it's therapeutic?" I agree with a majority of you, who hasn't drawn violent or angry pictures? I'm a girl, and while that has very little bearing, I believe it's generally accepted that boys are more violent (aggressive I would think would be a better word) than girls, and even I've drawn myself doing violent things to other classmates and teachers.

Like I said, while I understand the whole "concern" for this boy, booking him was taking it about 5,000 times too far. And only because I'm too lazy to write more 0's. And what he was charged with? "Disrupting" unless he got up and announced he was throwing away a violent picture, what disruption was there? For throwing away a piece of paper! Oh wait! Maybe that was it! Maybe he should have recycled!

America, you make me weep sometimes (I am American).

 

[Alluos]

Won't he have to mention this in any job interviews he may go to in the future?
I'm not familiar with how criminal records work in the US.

 

[Joshroom]

I'm really confused about this story. After watching the report, neither the school, the parents or the theropist thought that it was a major deal.

So who notified the police? And why was it treated as such a huge thing?

 

[Rickyvantof]

I've been drawing my whole life and 9 out of 10 pictures I draw have some form of violence in it. Be it weapons, battle, or whatever.
I remember drawing scenes of war, both modern and medieval, back when I was about the same age as this kid. These scenes were pretty graphic with limbs flying everywhere and lots of blood. There's just something satisfying about drawing violent scenes. I guess the same reason why people watch violent movies and play violent video games.
And don't get me wrong, whenever I see violence in real life, like on the news or in front of me, I'm not particularly enjoying it. Just as long as it's fiction, it's alright.

More on topic: I really don't think the kid actually wants to kill his teacher. But, I guess it's a good thing to find out whether or not that's the truth... I mean, maybe he's a little psycho, who knows?

 

[ReservoirAngel]

There are thousands upon thousands of boys that draw violent shit. It's what we do at ages like that.

There are thousands upon thousands of boys that dislike their teachers.

There are thousands upon thousands of boys who have, at some point, drawn their teachers being killed, often by them.

There are many one or two kids out of that number who have ever attacked and killed their teacher.

Basically...this is just retarded in every conceivable way

 

[Blondi3]

That's absurd. I mean for real...

I also don't see this as a "death threat against his teacher" as some have said. Mainly because he draws a bunch of teachers, no one specific. It was more of a general frustration over teachers in general. Or so it seems to me. What kid doesn't dislike school and his teachers?

 

[Treblaine]

http://www.kdvr.com/news/kdvr-arvada-police-arrest-11yearold-over-inappropriate-stick-figure-drawing-20110221,0,7099823.story

An 11-year-old, who was told to draw out his frustrations rather than act out his anger in class was arrested for drawing a violent stick-figure picture in which he shoots his teacher.

I have my opinion, but I'd like to hear from everyone else on whether or not I'm being too lenient/ reactionary.

At what point does it constitute real threat, and at what point does it become a suppression of free speech? When does the school and (American) justice system go too far?

This is beyond freedom of speech, no 11 year old with learning difficulties should be treated that way, no matter what they are accused of.

I'm glad they are reporting on this story, it obvious Americans will not stand for this treatment. The federal government has to step in here and stop all these local police and prosecutors going out of control all the time.

Frankly this is incompetence, the authorities WRONGLY think over-reaction is better than under-reaction well the United States and the bill of rights and everything that makes the US the US is founded on the opposite, that the power of the state must ALWAYS be tempered. That is because the state is so powerful and detached.

I mean police have the power to lock up a vulnerable little kid in a cell and they are the people LEAST qualified to make such a decision.

Ultimately nothing will change as long as these police departments remain boys' clubs where there are no real repercussions for being oppressive and they will always protect their own from any outside attempts at enforcement.

This is the 2nd story in a week of the law over-reacting to "gotta protect the kids".

 

[Lilani]

Arrested? Really? The school determined he wasn't a threat. If they wanted to act in his "best interests," involving the police is the last thing they want to do. They should have had a sit-down with the kid, his parents, the teachers, and the school counselor and had a talk about it. This is how youth become killers--the people around them overreacting to what they do. This is sickening--if anything the parents should press charges on the school.

 

[Podunk]

When I was a lad in elementary school, I had to go to some psych evaluation thing because I once drew a picture of the school exploding (though I'm pretty sure I drew everyone in it outside looking on). This is really ridiculous. Kids draw shit, and it's time the world realizes that and gets over it.

 

[Xojins]

He's an 11-year-old... They arrested an 11-year-old for drawing a picture... Wow.

 

[SomeBoredGuy]

This, my friends, is called the "Bored Policeman Crime". It is when you do something not actually that bad, but a bored policeman hears about it.

 

[Choppaduel]

First of all, if an adult tells an 11 year old to do something illegal, the adult gets arrested, not the kid.

Secondly, 11 year olds shouldn't have access to guns, to the "death threat" as some have called it is a empty as any there are.

Third, if the system really burns this kid he's likely to hate it and do illegal things later in life.

 

[userwhoquitthesite]

This is disgusting.

I hope the parents sue the piss out of the cops. I'm not one to advocate litigiousness, but the actions of the police and, presumably, the school as well are appallingly reprehensible and should be held accountable for the very real trauma they put this family through in response to an entirely fabricated offense.

 

[elvor0]

Really? This is the sort of thing you'd find in a certain 80s British Sketch show:

"And on april 18th, Savage, you arrested an 11 year old boy for a violent stick figure drawing."
"Well it was very violent sarge."

Christ, if the kids fustrated and you specifically ask him to draw something, then you arrest him for it, it's not exactly going to help him, much rather just chuck him in the legal system and forget about him, because that's going to create a well balanced individual.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

Those pictures aren't very good anyway!

 

[MasterChief892039]

Although it was a fairly suspicious drawing that would have raised a red flag for me had I been the teacher, young kids often draw violent stuff and pretend to have gun fights on the playground because they think it's cool. The fact that it was an instruction from the kid's therapist makes it even more absurd that they would arrest him.

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

Oh please! That's a pitiful excuse for a "violent" drawing, I have done waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay worse things such as torture sketches when I was 12 but as far as I know, I turned out pretty normal.

...

But that's what ALL the crazy people say...

 

[Cormyre]

yeah... with some of the stuff that my best friend and I drew in class... we probably would've been put straight on death row

Cellmate:"So what are you in for?"
Kid: "I drew a picture of me throwing a killer whale at my teacher and it ate her... they said it was a threat"