Arvada, CO Police arrest 11 yr old boy for stick figure drawing

[Perd Hapley]

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2009/12/20/

I hope Bill Watterson is at an "Undisclosed Location".....

Awesome, thanks. I liked this comment:

Don’t you love how Watterson draws most of the cartoons in comic style, but does some very realistic, detailed stuff when it’s called for?
Spaceman Spiff’s ship, for example, is an interplanetary sport craft with a General Hulls #2 hull, specially modified for rough landings. ;-)

[Scout26]

My favorite comment on the Calvin and Hobbes Strip:

I used to dream the same dream, only I was the vice-principal. Big sigh.

[230RN]

vaskidmark:

While I know, intellectually, that most of the time kids to do not get the JBT treatment it seems to me that there are more and more stories going public where the screw-ups are massive.  Are the number of incidents increasing or is it just that they are being covered more by the press?  Either way there are lots of folks who are losing their confidence in the public edukashun system.

I think it's obvious that the news folks are monitoring sites for stuff like this incident when it goes "viral."  It was on the local late news tonight.  The twist to the story was that it raised quite a fuss, and not that much about the incident itself, though they did prominently mention that the boy was behaving pursuant to his therapist's advice, and included some remarks by the therapist himself.

I loved that Watterson cartoon, and I expect that the cartoon itself might be on the news sooner or later to illustrate the lack of a genuine problem --viz, Calvin's big sigh as he gets off the bus and approaches the school.

I think the teacher, the cops, and the administrators will be looking for hidey-holes like this before too long.



Maybe they can hide in Calvin's imaginary crater.  You s'pose?



     

Terry, 230RN

[seeker_two]

The twist to the story was that it raised quite a fuss, and not that much about the incident itself, though they did prominently mention that the boy was behaving pursuant to his therapist's advice, and included some remarks by the therapist himself.

This......

I don't know about special education law in Colorado......but, in Texas, the school's actions could bring them a lot of trouble. If the kid is diagnosed as emotionally disturbed or learning disabled and is following his therapist's plan, the school can't discipline him for it. In fact, they'd have to provide him supports to do so. If Colorado education law is similar, the school is in deep ju-ju.....

[vaskidmark]

This......

I don't know about special education law in Colorado......but, in Texas, the school's actions could bring them a lot of trouble. If the kid is diagnosed as emotionally disturbed or learning disabled and is following his therapist's plan, the school can't discipline him for it. In fact, they'd have to provide him supports to do so. If Colorado education law is similar, the school is in deep ju-ju.....

Congress passed PL I-forget-the-number back in the 70's.  It's the one that covers what you are referring to - along with all sorts of state legislation making even more demands for accomodation and support for special education.

And yes, ADD is one of the emotional disturbances/learning disabilities.

I am so glad to hear that the school officials are perplexed as to how come this incident is getting so much attention.

stay safe.

[roo_ster]

Holy crap, me and my friends would have been sent up the river for good. 

Every picture we drew had the school being strafed by aircraft (with lots of ugly guns and missles on them), shot up by tanks and when we got real creative (we were in Indianapolis), getting blown up by battleships.


Like this:
http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2009/12/20/

I hope Bill Watterson is at an "Undisclosed Location".....

Whoa, I drew similar stuff, but without the talent.

All my drawings were "kinetic" in that they showed an evolving battle where, in the end, everthing got blown up.

[Hawkmoon]

I think it's obvious that the news folks are monitoring sites for stuff like this incident when it goes "viral."  It was on the local late news tonight.  The twist to the story was that it raised quite a fuss, and not that much about the incident itself, though they did prominently mention that the boy was behaving pursuant to his therapist's advice, and included some remarks by the therapist himself.

Out of curiosity -- what did the therapist have to say?

[vaskidmark]

Saw him on the TV news a couple of times yesterday.  Overall impression follows:

Very calm, reserved, professional.  Young-ish.  (Heck, everybody looks young to me, including Grandpa Shooter and 230RN.  At least he looked not-young enough to have graduated from college, unlike the cop I talked to the other day who must have wandered away from the junior high school during recess.

In other words, he never once uttered "Those damn fool idiot (**&(*$)&$#s", although you could tell he really, really wanted to.

Professional ethics, doctor/patient confidentiality and the probably-upcoming (as in "Do you think the sun will rise in the East tomorrow?") lawsuit by the parents prevented him from saying much specific about the kid.  He avoided getting into anything related to special education.  Talked about dealing with ADD and other stuff with alternatives to drugs.

stay safe.

[vaskidmark]

I got really curious and went looking for the Colorado law he violated:
http://www.michie.com/colorado/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=main-h.htm&cp=
   
 
 

18-9-109. Interference with staff, faculty, or students of educational institutions.
 
 (1) No person shall, on or near the premises or facilities of any educational institution, willfully deny to students, school officials, employees, and invitees:

 (a) Lawful freedom of movement on the premises;
 
 (b) Lawful use of the property or facilities of the institution;
 
 (c) The right of lawful ingress and egress to the institution's physical facilities.
 
 (2) No person shall, on the premises of any educational institution or at or in any building or other facility being used by any educational institution, willfully impede the staff or faculty of such institution in the lawful performance of their duties or willfully impede a student of the institution in the lawful pursuit of his educational activities through the use of restraint, abduction, coercion, or intimidation or when force and violence are present or threatened.
 
 (3) No person shall willfully refuse or fail to leave the property of or any building or other facility used by any educational institution upon being requested to do so by the chief administrative officer, his designee charged with maintaining order on the school premises and in its facilities, or a dean of such educational institution, if such person is committing, threatens to commit, or incites others to commit any act which would disrupt, impair, interfere with, or obstruct the lawful missions, processes, procedures, or functions of the institution.
 
 (4) It shall be an affirmative defense that the defendant was exercising his right to lawful assembly and peaceful and orderly petition for the redress of grievances, including any labor dispute between an educational institution and its employees, any contractor or subcontractor, or any employee thereof.

 (5) Any person who violates any of the provisions of this section, except subsection (6) of this section, commits a class 3 misdemeanor.
 
 (6) (a) A person shall not knowingly make or convey to another person a credible threat to cause death or to cause bodily injury with a deadly weapon against:
 
 (I) A person the actor knows or believes to be a student, school official, or employee of an educational institution; or
 
 (II) An invitee who is on the premises of an educational institution.
 
 (b) For purposes of this subsection (6), "credible threat" means a threat or physical action that would cause a reasonable person to be in fear of bodily injury with a deadly weapon or death.

 (c) A person who violates this subsection (6) commits a class 1 misdemeanor.
 
Source: L. 71: R&RE, p. 468, § 1. C.R.S. 1963: § 40-9-109. L. 73: p. 539, § 8. L. 2005: (5) amended and (6) added, p. 1499, § 4, effective July 1.
 
Cross references: For affirmative defenses generally, see §§ 18-1-407, 18-1-710, and 18-1-805.
 
ANNOTATION 
 
 Subsection (2) is not unconstitutionally vague since it gives fair notice of a reasonably narrow range of prohibited conduct, in terms sufficiently precise so that persons of ordinary intelligence need not speculate as to the conduct that is proscribed. People ex rel. J.P.L., 49 P.3d 1209 (Colo. App. 2002).
 
The plain language of subsection (2) makes clear that the language requiring proof that the impeding was accomplished "through the use of restraint, abduction, coercion, or intimidation", or that "force and violence [were] present or threatened", applies to both the staff-faculty clause and the student clause. People ex rel. C.A.J., 148 P.3d 436 (Colo. App. 2006).

Focus on Section #6 and the use of the term "a reasonable person".  I'm wondering how the cops are going to explain their apparent knee-jerk zero tolerance response under the guise of being "reasonable" in determining that the threat was "credible".

Sure, kids younger than 11 have gotten hold of guns from home, neighbors, etc. and brought them to school intending to kill someone.  But apparently the kid's own therapist was willing to go out on a limb and say the kid was not a Tarasoff case. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarasoff_v._Regents_of_the_University_of_California

I'm still just amazed at how much the cops did wrong.  Especially after the school folks, after seeing the drawing and talking with/to the kid, decided he was not a threat.

I'm also wondering about how the cops even knew about the issue.  OK, I know the school had to have contacted them.  But under what rule/regulation?

stay safe.