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South Carolina Student Arrested For "Killing Pet Dinosaur"

Posted by timothy on from the tell-me-again-about-our-troubled-youth dept.

Rambo Tribble (1273454) writes In South Carolina a 16-year old boy, Alex Stone, was arrested and charged with creating a disturbance at his school, as well as suspended, for choosing to write: "I killed my neighbor's pet dinosaur. I bought the gun to take care of the business," in response to a class writing assignment. The story has attracted international attention.

36 of 421 comments (clear)

  1. Land of insanity by qbast · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Only in America ...

    1. Re:Land of insanity by CQDX · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If I was a kid today I'd probably be institutionalized.

      When I was in 1st grade or so the Vietnam War was on the news all the time and I was just getting into plastic model building. My favorite thing to do was to build Army tanks and helicopters and play war with them. One day at school we had to write a little story and draw a picture with it. I wrote little scenario where a bunch of Army tanks and helicopters were blowing a bridge with a bunch of NVA crossing it (didn't know what a NVA was, they were just the bad guys). The picture had lots of explosions and bodies flying everywhere. It was very colorful and had a lot of detail. I got a good mark for my creativity.

      In the afternoon we'd play Army with plastic guns that looked liked the real thing. None of this pink gun shit. We didn't shoot imaginary dinosaurs. We were out hunting Germans and Japanese soldiers. Whoever got stuck being the enemy would at least have fun hamming up his death scene. I guess it wasn't such a big deal back then because I grew up in San Diego and there were more than a few WWII vets that would egg us on.

      I don't look forward to seeing what our world will be like when the current crop of kids grow up to be our nation's leaders.

  2. LOL by war4peace · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Only in 'Murica.
    Here' if a 16-year old writes something like that, everyone would have a good laugh.

    --
    ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  3. Just like Happy days.. by mrbcs · · Score: 3, Insightful
    America has jumped the shark..

    This is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Will it ever stop?

    --
    I'm not anti-social, I'm anti-idiot.
  4. Please, don't tell them ... by Rambo+Tribble · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... but I strangled my neighbor's unicorn, last night.

  5. Mandatory panic! by khasim · · Score: 5, Insightful

    a. He's a he.
    b. He's a teenager.
    c. He goes to a school.
    d. He wrote the word "gun" in a "fantasy" story.

    Mandatory panic! Alert the police! Search EVERYTHING! Connect the dots!

    Personally, I blame the teacher for not sufficiently explaining the limits of the assignment.

    1. Re:Mandatory panic! by jedidiah · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Actually, based on the writeup it sounds like he could be guilty of nothing more than knowing his rights.

      He was questioned by police without his parents. That's not acceptable. He shouldn't be punished for anything that arose from an illegal interrogation. He may have simply refused to cooperate.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    2. Re:Mandatory panic! by BronsCon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I dunno, I robbed a bank once by walking in, unarmed, writing "gun" on a piece of paper, and then shooting everyone in the place with it. Once I'd shot all of them, there was nobody to trigger the alarm or stop me from walking out with all the money.

      Letting people write the word "gun" on a piece of paper is very dangerous.

      And yes, for those who can't detect satire, this really did happen. We should ban pens and paper so it doesn't happen again.

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
    3. Re:Mandatory panic! by meerling · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Irate? Yeah, I'd have become "irate" if some blithering idiot was accusing me of violating the law for a piece of fiction written for class in which his character (modeled as himself) hunted a species that became extinct millions of years ago. (Of course, being a "pet dinosaur" you could probably classify it as fantasy.)

      As to fiction including guns. Oh no! Go arrest EVERY AUTHOR ON THE PLANET!!!

      The ones disturbing the school were the police and the idiots that panicked over the short story/assignment. At least one person deserves to be fired.

      When I think back to the stories I wrote for class back in high school, morons like the ones at his school would have called out the police, fire department, FBI, NSA, NASA, Marines, Air Force, and MIB!

    4. Re:Mandatory panic! by flayzernax · · Score: 5, Insightful

      yeah, losing your shit is a sure fire way to demonstrate calm and respectful behavior to a young kid writing about *his* fantasies.

      if it was a girl she probably would have been treated differently too

      our culture is a culture of fear and cowardice :( plain and simple, when we all realise this collectively (lets hope it doesn't take a collective ass kicking) we'll grow up

      Until then, our empire is tiny and shitty compared to the aztecs and mighty vikings that came before it, we will see

    5. Re:Mandatory panic! by flayzernax · · Score: 3, Insightful

      p.s. ps this isn't a testosterone fueled rant, about warrior races, this is coming from someone who is out and proud of who they are and unafraid of their speech still.

      we could stand to learn a lot from independent more decentralized cultures from all over the world if they were studied as such, but they are put down as primitive and backwards in history class, while the great white empire of the east india trading company and royal academy of sciences is touted as the greatest achievements of mankind

    6. Re:Mandatory panic! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So, you do not find cops questioning and searching 16 years old boy after fictional Facebook post mentioning gunning down dinosaur overreaction?

      They questioned and searched him and he became difficult cause they acted like bunch of idiots. Then they arrested him, because you have to totally submit yourself to cops no matter how ridiculous their reason for detaining and searching you. Right?

    7. Re: Mandatory panic! by TheTurtlesMoves · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, but a lot of peoples reaction to the event will.

      --
      The Grey Goo disaster happened 3 billion years ago. This rock is covered in self replicating machines!
    8. Re:Mandatory panic! by arth1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Exactly, the pen is mightier than the sword! Will someone think of the children having to witness these horrors!

      Google does. Their new e-mail filter might reject statements like the above depending on the word frequencies in spam du jour, because it contains the phrase "pen is".

      I wish I were only joking.

    9. Re:Mandatory panic! by DexterIsADog · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Contrary to what many, especially Americans, think, you cannot win a war. The "winners" are simply the last ones standing, whether they have lost arms legs or heads. We still lost the war, like every other participating country.

      It's not that I disagree, it's that you are demonstrably wrong.

      Which countries redrew borders in the Middle East after World War I? Germany? Guess again. Did Germany voluntarily pay reparations? No.

      Which country dominated the world in trade and influence after World War II? Again, not Germany, Italy, Japan, etc. It was the "winner", the U.S.

      If you are making the point that even the winners were worse off after the war, I'd have to disagree. The U.S. was booming within a few years. If you argue that the world as a whole was worse off after, for example World War II, tell me, do you think it would have been better to let Germany continue its policy of lebensraum, or two fight the war?

      I avoid violence whenever possible, it sickens me. But I cannot deny that it sure solves lots of problems.

    10. Re:Mandatory panic! by lgw · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Through all of history, every place with a remotely hospitable climate was eventually governed by a nation with a strong military. If on government didn't have that, it would be conquered by one that did. There's no evidence that it's even possible to not have a strong central military for a long time (unless you live someplace where the environment is so hostile it's not worth anyone's effort to conquer, but sometimes even then).
       

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    11. Re:Mandatory panic! by lgw · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Based on what? The official numbers published by China? China executes so many of it's people that they need custom-built execution vans for logistical convenience. America is a China-wannabe when it comes to human rights violations. We try (Delaware apparently bought 1 execution van in 1986), but we always fall short. Write a story about violence in Tiananmen Square and see what happens.

      But that doesn't change the fact that the US has gone absolutely fucking insane about both guns and drugs in schools. When you punish a student for eating a Pop-Tart in such a way that it briefly looks like a gun, it's time to back slowly away from the levers of power and let someone sober, sane, and rational take over. And at least that incident has prompted a couple of state legislatures to take action in defense of sanity, but clearly not in South Carolina.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    12. Re:Mandatory panic! by Rick+Zeman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's one thing to say "no guns in school". It's quite another to ban any mention of them. This isn't China.

      Why the China bashing? It is not illegal to write a story about guns in China, and I have never heard of this sort of political knee jerk reaction there. An American is FOUR TIMES as likely to be arrested and imprisoned by their government as a Chinese citizen.

      Hey, did you see the Dalai Lama in Tiananmen Square? He was talking about all of the corruption in upper reaches of the Chinese government with some Maoists while he was on his way to the Falun Gong Meeting.

    13. Re:Mandatory panic! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That's bullshit. If you hand a teller a note that involves violence or a gun, that's the likelihood. If you hand them a fantasy short story they'll likely promptly not read it and go about their business.

      A story about killing a pet dinosaur is only worth worrying about if there's signs of mental illness or it's showing up somewhere other than as part of a fantasy writing assignment.

      Yes most people aren't trained to tell the difference between the crazies and other folks, but for God's sake it was a paper about killing a dinosaur with a gun! It wasn't even a fantasy about killing classmates or other people.

    14. Re:Mandatory panic! by hawkinspeter · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Unless you were there fighting the war, it's a bit disingenous to take on other people's war victories as your own. I'm a Brit, but I had nothing to do with World War II or any other war since then. Just being born on the same piece of land as someone else is a strange way of measuring your worth.

      --
      You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
    15. Re: Mandatory panic! by LordLucless · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There's also quite a difference between "strong central military" and "three times the size of any other military force in the world"

      --
      Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
    16. Re: Mandatory panic! by schlachter · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think China has a military of this size partly to keep people employed. It's not like they really use it.

      But it is only twice as large as any other force in the world...twice the size of the USA, twice the size of India, and North Korea.

      --
      My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
  6. I thought this only happened in Florida by Issarlk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And as for the kid and his pet dinosaur killing, here's an even more disturbing news: so kids as young as maybe 8 are shooting at each other in pretend cowboy-indian or thief-policeman "games". Time to build more prisons for youngsters.

  7. South Carolina by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    What will those wacky liberals in South Carolina come up with next?

  8. Debbil in de details by paiute · · Score: 1, Insightful

    If you read the details of the story, it becomes quite a bit less sensational.

    --
    If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
    1. Re:Debbil in de details by WaffleMonster · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If you read the details of the story, it becomes quite a bit less sensational.

      The details make it worse because not kissing police officers asses resulted in bullshit disturbance charges. (e.g. retaliation)

      Not only did the grownups at the school abuse their authority so did the police.

    2. Re:Debbil in de details by jedidiah · · Score: 1, Insightful

      No. If you read the details of the story, it becomes MORE sensational.

      A minor was questioned by the police without his parents present.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    3. Re:Debbil in de details by sjames · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In what way? 16 year old writes two clearly flippant sentences that cannot possibly be true. School officials, apparently too mentally ill to distinguish reality from fantasy, call the cops. Cops, apparently also mentally ill, question the boy as if what he wrote could possibly be a confession. They then arrest him for the perfectly natural outrage he expressed at being subjected to their madness. Then principal Nutty McCuckoo suspends him for a week over the incident that the school instigated.

      In what way is that not sensational?

      In a just world, the students and their parents will mock and ridicule the principal until he is forced to resign. He brought it upon himself by refusing to be more mature than the kids in his charge.

  9. Probably all too plausible by sacrilicious · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The school officials probably felt that since it was only 6000 years ago that dinosaurs weren't only confined to zoos, the plausibility of the essay was too eerily real.

    --
    - First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
  10. Yes it is. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This isn't China.

    We have gone to idiotic mode here in the States - beyond plaid.

    We have been taken over by the lying bullying pundits - Hannity,Maddow, O'Reilly, Oberman, etc ....

    Our media isn't really state controlled as it is corporate controlled - the corporations use the government to solidify their idiocy.

    Even my beloved NPR doesn't escape my cynicism when the Koch brothers sponsor it along with many corporate sponsors - regardless of their political leanings.

    We are being bombarded by shit.

    Shit media.

    All of it.

    And it has become impossible for us to differentiate the shit from the Truth.

    Mix in 110 proof pundits like Hannity and Limbaugh, and we're fucked.

    I am trying to cut myself off from media - even the Internet.

    It is getting ridiculous.

    To paraphrase Thich Nhat Hanh, 'Don't watch the news. If it is really important, you will hear about it.'

    I don't mean to stick my head in the sand, but when I cannot get the facts - or I have to sift through countless media outlets to get it - I just have to say, "Fuck it! Let me take care of my neighbor!"

    1. Re:Yes it is. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "my beloved NPR.." - there's your problem. No news organization should be "beloved". It just makes you their bitch. Just because you don't like the facts that you are getting doesn't mean that you "cannot get the facts".

    2. Re:Yes it is. by lgw · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There's no better decision you can make, IMO, than to walk away from broadcast media, and newspapers, and all those centrally-controlled outlets for news. If you have a deep distrust of blogs, that can work for you. Find a blog or two of interest; look for ones that routinely correct stories when commenters point out flaws, avoid those that instead ban the commenters. As long as you keep your distrust of blogs, that's a good way to keep your head out of the sand.

      The only way to learn anything about current events is the combination of a hard-to-censor channel, a willingness to correct mistakes, and your own distrust of everything on that channel.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    3. Re:Yes it is. by AuMatar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Where do you think those blogs are getting their info from? Their large collection of reporters circling the globe and getting the real scoop? Or do they just check out the big news sites for 99% of their stories? (Hint: the answer is B). So you have yet another layer of obfuscation and bias in there. Congratulations, your news is even worse.

      --
      I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
  11. Mod parent up! by khasim · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From TFA:

    Police told My Fox Chicago that Stone was difficult during questioning and they arrested him and charged him with disturbing the school.

    How did "the school" know about this? At most his teacher and the school principal and the regional/district/whatever superintendent should have been aware of the issue.

    If anyone was "disturbing" "the school" it would have been one of those three (or the cops) and they should be arrested.

    For a student, being "difficult during questioning" should (at most) result in expulsion AND NOT ARREST.

    1. Re:Mod parent up! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "For a student, being "difficult during questioning" should (at most) result in expulsion AND NOT ARREST."

      being "difficult during questioning" by police should result in nothing at all since that is a constitutionally protected right.

  12. Hanity runs the government? or points out stupid by raymorris · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hannity,Maddow, O'Reilly and Oberman run the government? I thought their job was to point out when the government is screwing up. Matter of fact, if you go to their web sites and look for this story, that's exactly what they're doing.