Cartoonists beware!
Secret Service questions student on drawings
Political cartoonists take note. Caricatures might not be enough any longer.
Secret Service agents questioned a high school student about anti-war drawings he did for an art class, one of which depicted President Bush’s head on a stick.
Another pencil-and-ink drawing portrayed Bush as a devil launching a missile, with a caption reading “End the war — on terrorism.”
The 15-year-old boy’s art teacher at Prosser High School turned the drawings over to school administrators, who notified police, who called the Secret Service.
The problem was apparently the depiction of violence. I guess it’s common to call the Secret Service when teenage artists depict violent images in their political cartoons.
The school district disciplined him, but district officials refused to say what the punishment was. [Prosser Superintendent Ray] Tolcacher said the boy was not suspended.
Disciplined? For drawing a political cartoon in art class? I might not agree with the kid’s message but I certainly don’t think that mimicking what you see in the newspaper every day should result in being disciplined.
(Tip credit to Joanne Jacobs)
Check that, the Secret Service is called when violence is depicted against the President, and presumably members of the first family, previous presidents, etc.
That’s correct. I was being a bit facetious in my post. The Secret Service is called on to investigate credible threats to the President and other protected persons.
A 15 year-old caricaturist on the other side of the country just doesn’t seem like a credible threat to me.
They don’t really make a distinction between ‘credible’ and ‘incredible’ threats against the president. If someone reports a threat to secret service, it’ll get investigated. What’s lunatic about the issue is that it got reported in the first place. School administrators felt compelled to bring in the police over a stupid cartoon. According to the article, they “involve the police anytime [they] have a concern.” That doesn’t inspire much faith in their judgement or suitability to handle a school, in my opinion.
He’s lucky he wasn’t locked up as a terrorist under the Patriot Act with no legal council.
Jack -
That’s just silly. I don’t want to turn this into a debate on the merits of the Patriot act, but threats against the president have been illegal since long before the Patriot act was passed, and this sort of thing would have happened prior to 9/11 as well.
I second Celeste - that was totally ridiculous, Jack. This is an issue of the school calling the Secret Service and saying he was threatening the President. That the SS investigated a reported threat to the President is exactly what they SHOULD have done.
And yeah, the whole “what’s in the daily newspaper” thing is SO true. What morons.
Drawing is a suspicious activity.
I was ‘busted’ for it–see the adventure at
http://www.hexatron.com/about/kc1984.html
(This was in Kansas City, MO in 1984)
Another child who needs to be removed from out society. I recommend incarceration or deportation.
My son (an excellent artist) was given an assignment in 7th grade to make a “just say no” poster dealing with sex and or drugs. My son’s poster depicted two shadowy figures doing it “doggie style” with the standard red circle and slash, and the required caption “JUST SAY NO”
I was called at work and told to pick up my son, who was expelled from school.
Appalled at my lack of outrage over the situation, they (the principal, assistant principal, counselor and teacher) grudingly obliged my request to see a few of the other posters. It was apparent that drugs were the topic of choice. The posters contained graphic drawings; including a needle hanging out of a “tied-off” arm and detailed drawings of drug paraphenalia. How do you draw a “just say no” poster without including what you are saying no to? If the faculty had put a positive spin on the assingment there wouldn’t have a problem. -nonsense at northshore jr high
Even if the assignment had been a simple drawing it is an incredible overreaction to expel him. Given that the assignment was essentially “Draw sex and put a slash over it” I can’t see how they could begin to justify this.
2 unusual things about patriotic things at school
1. My daughter 10-days after 9/11 wore a pin that had an American flag waving and below it it said “God Bless America” The principal told her to take it off saying that it was “gang paraphernalia” She refused and was suspended 1-year the police were called thankfully after I sued she was reinstated.
2. One school in Missisippi bans patriotism saying that it was too gang related. That school expelled a boy for saying the pledge, they called the police on a girl for singing the national anthem, they also threatened a boy with expulsion for singing “America the Beautiful” unusual huh?