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Student Arrested for Making Videogame Map of School
tanman writes "A student at the Houston-area Clements High School was arrested, sent to an "Alternative Education Center" and banned from graduation after school officials found he created a video game map of his school. School district police arrested the teen and searched his home where they confiscated a hammer as a 'potential weapon'. ' "They decided he was a terroristic threat," said one source close to the district's investigation.' With an upcoming May 12 school board election, this issue has quickly become political, with school board members involved in the appeal accusing each other of pandering to the Chinese community in an attempt to gain votes."
This royally pisses me off. I always wanted to build Quake levels for my high school, because it would have been the perfect multiplayer map. Two or more routes to any given place, wide halways, two floors, balconies, stairs at the end of every hallway...it would have been awesome.
But I never went through with it, because Columbine was still fresh in everyone's memory, and I was afraid that exactly this sort of thing would happen.
It's not a fear of terrorism that drives this sort of thing, or even a fear for our children. It's a fear of our children. We're so scared of the little guys that the instant they bring school into their video game hobby, we freak out.
This kid doesn't deserve to be arrested. He doesn't deserve to be thrust into "Alternative Education". He deserves to have someone ask him why he built the school in a video game. Let a psychologist evaluate him, and then either medicate the kid or let him go back to class.
(And someone should offer him constructive criticism on his level building techniques.)
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
Oh, that's right: never.
I'd read the article, but it's been Slashdotted.
Friends don't let friends line-dance.
When I was a young'un, I created a Quake map of the local Laser Tag joint. I even was working on a mod that changed the weapons to behave more along the rules of the game. Even worse, my mod gibbed you if you tried to illegally cross the center barrier. (*gasp!*) Should I have been arrested as a terrorist? Maybe I was planning to run in with a Phazer pistol and start shooting the place up?!? Actually, I suppose it's worse than that, because I did actually run in and start shooting the place up with a Phazer pistol. Oh noes!
I'm sorry, but the idea of creating a school map for you and your friends to play is something that goes back as far as Doom. Kids create these environments because they're familiar, not because they want to go shooting up the place. Only Jack Thompson believes that unbalanced people "train" for killing on these games. The truth of the matter is that ole' Jack is full of sh*t. His claim on Fox news that a previous shooter had created maps of his school turned out to be bunk. He had created maps for Counter Strike, but nothing even vaguely related.
If this map disturbed parents (which is an understandable concern given recent events), then the school's action should have been to evaluate the individual, not immediately kick him out of school. Pretty much all of the shooters in recent history were known to be mentally unbalanced prior to the shootings. An evaluation of the individual's mental state and school records would clarify if he was a threat or not. If not (which it doesn't sound like in this case), you ask them to discontinue the behavior, delete the maps, and go about school as usual. But instead, we give these kids a real reason to hate the faculty. Way to go guys.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
So where can I download this map? I'm certain it'll be pretty popular within the next few days, so I want my copy now...
There is no mod option "-1: Disagree" for a reason. "Overrated" is not an acceptable substitute. Post something instead.
As someone who made maps of campus for Doom back in college, I can attest that students have been doing this for years without ill-effect. It's a natural reaction to want to create a game map of places you know, especially somewhere you spend hours on a daily basis. This is purely reactionary BS on their part due to the current environment surrounding violent video games in our country. I doubt they bothered to check if he was troubled or someone to be concerned about, and simply jumped to conclusions.
I will shred my adversaries. Pull their eyes out just enough to turn them towards their mewing, mutilated faces. Illyria
Oh, wait it's not Russia, it's HERE. Christ, this is scary.
When I was going to high school, we had war games. Not simulated, but real - in person, on campus. And it was not the idea of some demented student, it was organized by the PE coaches.
The gym was one fort, the bleachers on the eastern side of the football field were the other. Each structure had a hose nearby. The gave us a bunch of balloons, and we had water balloon wars.
To the best of my knowledge, none of my classmates has committed any mass murders in the several decades since then.
I worry that policies as mentioned in TFA may actually increase violent incidents like Va tech. We were allowed - even encouraged - to burn off frustrations in acts of simulated violence. Then we dried off, went back to class, and were rather good students.
Today, young men are being denied symbolic outlets for violence. It come as no surprise to me that Chu did what he did. I worry that there will be more.
He made a mod of his school because it's an environment he wanted to play in. FPS games are like cops and robbers meets paintball. He wanted to play his game in an environment he's familiar with.
I'd absolutely love to make a mod for a racing game of my neighborhood, the Bay Area. If hundreds of people uploaded photos of their houses and nearby buildings, that would be a start for modeling the environment. Then people could speed through the streets safely, without actually endangering anyone or breaking the law.
Wow, this is really frightening. They've taken a kid who had the knowledge and initiative to build a 3D map of his school, who hasn't done a single illegal thing, and kicked him out of school based on the fact that someone in his family owns a hammer. A hammer. Who among us doesn't own a hammer? I own three. One's kind of small for hanging pictures. Another one is a normal sized hammer that I've had for a long time, and the third is one that replaced my normal hammer when my neighbor borrowed it for 2 months. Am I a criminal because of my hammer collection?
This is so ridiculous that it hurts. There's been no scientific evidence that gamers--even gamers who enjoy violent video games--are any more likely to be violent people. And there's certainly been no evidence that game developers or game modders are any more likely to be violent people. Where do authorities get off assuming that someone with an active imagination, who enjoys the fantasy of games, is a terrorist? I hope he sues the school board, and wins.
ZuluPad, the wiki notepad on crack
I have heard of cops falsifying search records, but that notwithstanding how can anyone justify classifying a hammer as a potential terrorist weapon? I hope this kid's parents have a lot of money so that they can get some justice for their son.
Part of the hardcore faithful who believed in Apple long before it was cool again to do so
I died a little on the inside when I read this. :(
Don't worry, you'll respawn in Mrs. Crabapple's classroom for round 2.
"Information wants to be expensive" - Stewart Brand, the same guy who said "Information wants to be free"
Jedi Knight 2 had a map of the Raven offices. Same for Blood and Monolith.
FTA: "Speakers at the FBISD Board's April 23 meeting alluded to the Clements senior's punishment, and drew a connection to the April 16 shootings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, in which a Korean student shot and killed 32 people."
In which video games *WERE NOT INVOLVED*. But that clearly doesn't matter. Something bad happened involving people under the age of 21, and as such video games must be at the heart of it.
-lw
Mods: Disagreeing with me != my post Offtopic / Flamebait.
World without hate or war, invaded. Tragic?
As the original link is slashdotted, here is a couple more for the same story
o /4766843.htmld =5263782
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metr
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=local&i
I'd scream at the ridiculousness of it all, but, then I'd probably be arrested for practising some sort of arcane terrorist warcry.
Since this is slashdotted from here to kalamazoo:
Chinese Community Rallies Behind Student Removed From Clements
by Bob Dunn, Apr 30, 2007, 11 57 am
Members of the area Chinese community have rallied behind a Clements High School senior who was removed from the campus and sent to M.R. Wood Alternative Education Center after parents complained he'd created a computer game map of Clements.
About 70 people attended the Fort Bend Independent School District's April 23 meeting to show support for the Clements senior and his mother, Jean Lin, who spoke to FBISD Board trustees in a closed session.
While an agenda document does not specify details, the board is holding a special meeting tonight to address the boy's actions and the discipline that was meted out as a result, sources close to the matter say. The boy's name was not identified last week, and the district has declined to discuss his case.
Richard Chen, president of the Fort Bend Chinese-American Voters League and a acquaintance of the boy's family, said he is a talented student who enjoys computer games and learned how to create maps (also sometimes known as "mods"), which provide new environments in which games may be played.
The map the boy designed mimicked Clements High School. And, sources said, it was uploaded either to the boy's home computer or to a computer server where he and his friends could access and play on it. Two parents apparently learned from their children about the existence of the game, and complained to FBISD administrators, who investigated.
"They arrested him," Chen said of FBISD police, "and also went to the house to search." The Lin family consented to the search, and a hammer was found in the boy's room, which he used to fix his bed, because it wasn't in good shape, Chen said. He indicated police seized the hammer as a potential weapon.
"They decided he was a terroristic threat," said one source close to the district's investigation.
Sources said that although no charges were filed against the boy, he was removed from Clements, sent to the district's alternate education school and won't be allowed to participate in graduation ceremonies with classmates.
"All he did was create a map and put it on a web site to allow students to play," Chen said. "The mother thinks this is too harsh."
FBISD officials declined to comment on the matter Monday. "Our challenge is, people in the community have freedom of speech and can say what they want, but we have laws" covering privacy issues, especially involving minors, that the district has to respect, said spokeswoman Nancy Porter.
Speakers at the FBISD Board's April 23 meeting alluded to the Clements senior's punishment, and drew a connection to the April 16 shootings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, in which a Korean student shot and killed 32 people.
The Asian community "faces new pressures" as a result of the shootings, William Sun told board members. "We urge the school and community not to label our Asian students as terrorists."
"We should teach our children not to judge others harshly" and not to target people as being a threat because of their race, said Peter Woo, adding that the school district should lead the way in such efforts.
But Chen said Monday he and other community members don't consider FBISD's actions in the case to be racially motivated, and don't think they blew the incident out of proportion.
"They all think the principal has to do something - but how much? We do understand with the Virginia Tech incident...something has to be done," Chen said. "Someone just made a mistake, and we think the principal should understand that."
They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
It sounds to me as if half the school board members and police need psychological councelling. The kid is fine, but he will probably do better in a different school with normal people.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
I did this with my high school. I showed it to my teacher in CAD class. He loved it. We converted it to a Doom II map. we played it. No one died, no one cared. in fact, I was given an award from my school for my "excellent achievements", partly due to that.
I also remember a group called the POCD made a DoomII mapset with school layouts. The maps turned out to be a hit in deathmatch, especially on "Last man standing" mode that was added in a recent Doom port, Skulltag.
Now you can be arrested for...... this? What I got.. this plaque for?
*a tear falls down his cheek*
America, what is wrong with you?
"No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson
"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it." I think that sums it up nicely. Oh and thats John Lennon.
Please take heart. Not all of us adults are such utter fucking morons.
Not that you'd know it from the comments on the article, where a depressing number of people say they hope he has learned from his "mistake."
I bet he has. He's learned to keep his activities secret from the authorities if he values his freedom. He's learned a little bit about what it's like to live in an increasingly paranoid, authoritarian society, where innocuous activities that harm nobody can get one declared an enemy of the people. He's learned that politicians have no compunctions about advancing their own careers by ruining the lives of the people they supposedly serve.
His mistake wasn't making the map. If FPSes had been around when I was in high school I would have loved to play on a map of the school; unlike a bunch of adults, it seems, I understood and understand the difference between video games and reality. His mistake was not being sufficiently clandestine when he shared it with his friends. Hopefully he will take this as a valuable lesson about the value of covering his tracks thoroughly in his daily life.
At the university of South Australia they've made a whole virtual world based on their campus where people go round in VR headsets on the campus groups shooting each other. It's understood that these people are not just training to switch to real weapons.
w /
http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/projects/ARQuake/ww
A hammer is a terrorist tool because you couldn't crucify Jesus without a hammer! See? They hate Jesus! And freedom!
Look, I found a terrorist song!
If I had a hammer I'd hammer on the freedom
I'd hammer on the infidels
All over this land
I'd hammer out patriots
I'd hammer out christians
I'd hammer out apple pie and baseball
All over this land
http://twitter.com/OLDTELEGRAM
But I have one question for the school board. Did they bother to make sure that he weighs as much as a duck before they took action against him?
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
---GEC
I'm but the humble pupil, seeking to snatch the scratchbuilt pebble from the master's fully articulated hand
My Visual Arts teacher gave me an "Incomplete" for the course. I shouldn't have made my map for Duke Nukem Forever.
Yank your kids from public school. Homeschool or send them to a private school of your choice. If enough people do this the whole public education system would collapse and implode. Then we can figure out how to best spend those property tax revenues.
Normally, I would oppose such a suggestion. Were the US run like typical European democratic-socialists the schools would probably be responsibly managed. But with one political party fighting to destroy public education, and the other party in the pocket of the public school bureaucracy, there's no voice left for the kids being ruined by these bullshit political non-events.
I honestly think government can do a good job of providing basic public services. But right now, the US government cannot. At least not until the leaders of our political parties come to some basic consensus on the role of government. Until then, it will be one crazy situation after another as they duke it out. All while citizens and their kids get fucked by the very public institutions that were ostensibly created for their benefit.
The Spiderman 3 game has a realistic map of New York City.
Are the devs terrorists?
Add to this a mix of fascist officials and craven lawmakers who choose to ignore rights in search of appearing to address the security problem (insert Ben Franklin quote here).
You're right, it's a culture of fear, but it goes beyond our children. It's the technology and to a large extent, a media-inspired culture of fear... of EVERYTHING.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
An overreaction is when you lock up someone for life when they stole a loaf of bread. This doesn't even accomplish their stated goal - to protect their school from an unbalanced and violent individual.
Let's assume for a second that they are right. The guy is violent, mentally unstable and is using his home grown CS map to practice his planned killing spree (which was apparently to be carried out with a hammer). What do they do? They merely transfer him to a different school. In no way, shape or form do any of the school's actions prevent him from entering the school again and carrying out his assumed plans. At best, they've moved the problem to a different place, and put others at risk that hadn't been at risk before. At worst, it really pisses him off, and he escalates his planned violence (pipe bombs really aren't hard to make). Any which way you look at it, the actions of the school and the police were completely irresponsible.
Factor in that the guy had none of these plans to begin with, and you're looking at a massively incompetent school administration, board and police whose only goal is to cover their ass. They don't care whether what they did solved any issues; all they wanted was to have something to point to if the student does go apeshit and the inevitable question of "who's to blame?" rolls around.
The US is going down the shitter, and attitudes like these towards kids and education are the reason why. Way to ruin your future generation.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
Don't underestimate the hammer. Remember the Blacksmith of Brandywine.
During the US revolutionary war, a blacksmith performed an errand for General Washington, only to return home and find that redcoats had murdered his family in his absence. The blacksmith took a heavy sledge from his workshop and walked onto the battlefield of Brandywine. There, before they finally brought him down, he slew 20 british soldiers. With a hammer.
No, I'm not being serious about a hammer being a viable weapon, not these days. (Although note that the Blacksmith story is true, from all references I can find.)
I just found it ironic, that the Blacksmith of Brandywine went on a murderous rampage in response to oppression from a ruthless government...and now, our government is so scared of our children that they're even taking our hammers away.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
"If a person cannot walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm, then that person is living in a fear society, not a free society."
How ironic.
Step into a huge movement. Don't Tread In Me.
Royally pissed off? Explain your viewpoint to the school.
The School's site is here.
Principal: Kevin Moran - Kevin.Moran@fortbend.k12.tx.us - 281-634-2156
Assistant Principal: Lorri Hubert, Lorri.Hubert@fortbend.k12.tx.us - 281-634-2164
Lead Counselor: Alice Ledford - Alice.Ledford@fortbend.k12.tx.us - 281-634-2157
Fort Bend ISD's site is here.
Superintendent: Timothy R. Jenney, Ph.D. - superintendent@fortbend.k12.tx.us -
The entire board of directors of the Fort Bend ISD can be reached here. (Google Cache in anticipation of slashdotting).
Mod my comments down. It'll be fun.
Seriously, I wonder how many of the local Police are familiar with the layout of this local High School? They should ask the kid for a copy of the game and put all their force through intensive training utilizing it. This would best prepare the Police if any incident ever happened in the school. Better still the kid should spend time at the Police office helping to train the members. This would allow interaction between the police and the kid and probably generate a better understanding of each other. Now it's likely the kid is developing a dislike for the Schools management and considers the police people to be avoided and NOT trusted. Makes me wonder why educators can't grasp such a situation and make something really positive come out of it.
Marines know that their Rifle Safety Rules can be applied to their everyday lives, ie:
1. Treat every hammer as if it were dangerous.
2. Never smash anything you do not intend to break.
3. Keep your fingers straight and off the handle until you are ready to smash.
4. Keep your hammer holstered until you are ready to smash.
Since it clearly wasn't in his hand when found, the kid didn't break the rules and, therefore, did nothing wrong.
On a second note, I thought this was rather humorous... the police took the kid's tool, but he received a "ban hammer" from the school. (yeah, that was corny)
I couldn't agree more. I think the really scary thing is that there's a kid out there that spends his every waking moment in a building moving from section to section each year and wouldn't be able to model his school! Furthermore if you're afraid of what could happen, wouldn't knowing the layout of the building you're in be a Good Thing if the lead ever did start flying?!
This quote is so incredibly stupid I almost refuse to believe that the reporter didn't lead the kid into the question and then quote him out of context. I can't fathom what the question could have been, but the alternative where I accept that this kid is a potential canidate for making any kind of policy or decision in his future at work, politics or anything other than "paper or plastic" is so terrifying, in and of itself, that I refuse to entertain the very notion for fear of my head exploding. If that's true, I just know somehow he's going to be my PHB 15 years from now.
If I mod you up, it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with what you've said, sorry.
The community deserves to be able to take a "virtual tour" through this facility to ensure our kids it's safe and sound - quick, someone make a Quake map of it!
Apart from that, i do think that the restrictions put on pot are pretty stupid - putting a pot smoker into ALC would be just as stupid as putting the guy the story is about in ALC. Thats doesnt make smoking pot "ok", but that does make overzealous punishment "idiotic".
Besides, ANY mind altering act (be it sex, drugs, alchohol, anything) done to get away from emotional pain will always get worse. Doing it for fun or socially is fine - just like drinking alchohol, its ok in moderation.
Speaking of moderation, maybe you outta give it a try. Lay off the speed.
-Red
Guns don't kill people, "with glowing hearts" kills people.
"They arrested him," Chen said of FBISD police, "and also went to the house to search." The Lin family consented to the search, and a hammer was found in the boy's room, which he used to fix his bed, because it wasn't in good shape, Chen said. He indicated police seized the hammer as a potential weapon.
Attention deficit disorder is a complicated issue, spanning several major... HEY LET'S GO RIDE BIKES!
Yeah, that law is called the PATRIOT ACT, which gives law enforcement basic carte blanche to arrest yo ass under any suspicion of terrorisms. Making a map of school? He MUST hate freedom! Therefore, as a freedom hater, we have reason to suspect he is a terrorism! And thanks to the rubber stamp formerly known as Congress, under the PATRIOT ACT, that poor kid can wind up screwed. What's really sad is that when he applies to jobs and a background check is run.... "Detained for suspected terrorist activity" is likely to come up. Anyone gonna hire him if they run such a check?
Sig Registration Form 34c_766(a) submitted to Ministry of Signature Management. Approval pending.