The Tease of Things I Don't Need

Zombie Terror

This one's out of Kentucky, where a high school junior was arrested this past Tuesday because of a story he wrote in his private journal concerning zombies overrunning a high school. Apparently this constitutes a "second degree terrorist threatening charge"

Even so, police say the nature of the story makes it a felony. "Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function it's a felony in the state of Kentucky," said Winchester Police detective Steven Caudill.

The above statement is incredible. Well, rather, my mind rebels at accepting it, especially the section I emphasized. Never mind the rest of the story, including that this kid's grandparents decided to read his journal and turn it over to the authorities. I wonder if the kid would have been taken down as strongly if he'd finished the story and submitted it in his English class; at that point, I suppose, it would have been at the discretion of his teacher.

There's the possibility that perhaps some other things were found at home to cast a darker light on all this, but given all the fuss that's being made on the supposed strength of some apparently ridiculously broad, cover-your-ass zero tolerance legislation, I'm doubting there's anything more threatening in the mix or else it would have been mentioned. The poor kid - based both on his quotes and his being an 18 year old high school junoir - probably isn't the sharpest butter knife in the drawer, but at least he was trying to express himself creatively.

Think of what these rules and the atmosphere that condones them -- "safety" becoming the all-important directive to excuse any and every intrusion and infringement of rights, the same post-9/11 B.S. that's crept into the larger culture and served this administration so well in suppressing thought -- and how this was already quickly becoming the norm in the year following the April 1999 Columbine incident.

(Very much a sidelight: Of interest may be a piece from last year that challenges and aims to dispel many of the early and persistent myths concerning the motives and methods of the pair who pulled it off.)

Given the policies they've been made to accept in schools for years now, stretching back into primary grades for some, is it any wonder that so many high school students find government censorship of news to be a good thing and that the First Amendment in general goes too far in what it protects? These are tomorrow's citizens, folks.

While I came across the seed piece for this post through the normal newsfeeds, while looking for some more information I came across Zero Intelligence, a site dedicated to reporting inane zero tolerance tales of searches, arrests and expulsions.