# Creative writing or a cry for help?



## fish_doc (Jan 31, 2005)

A senior at Cook County High School in the Cook County Independent School District discovered just how bad the system can be. He turned in a creative writing assignment that played on the title of Michael Moore's "Bowling in Columbine". When all was said and done he had been suspended and the police, Child Protective Services and the County Prosecutor had all been involved.

The incident developed from an essay the student had written for a creative writing class where he talked about the killings at Columbine High School in Colorado. “His writing raised the concern that he might be a danger to himself or other students or teachers at the school,” Hennessy said.

But the student’s mother said she is outraged by the incident. “He wrote a story for a creative writing class,” she said. “There were no boundaries set. It was written last fall.”

She said she, her son and family were shocked when the sheriff’s deputies knocked on their door last week and escorted him to the hospital in Duluth for observation.
Continue Reading Creative writing assignment deemed too creative - cops and social services called »


The school called the police, the police involved Child Protective Services. They got a court order to seize the child, did not inform the parents, and showed up at the door unannounced to take him away for testing and evaluation. County prosecutors then evaluated whether to charge the boy for an unspecified crime.

For a creative writing assignment that was creative.

[Bill Hennessy, county attorney] said he and the assistant county attorney, Michael Boese, evaluated the evidence and determined that essays the student wrote for an English class could be interpreted in two ways — either as stories that included rough language and graphic violent and sexual themes or as threats to his teacher and/or others in his school.

“We’ve determined there was nothing criminal there,” Hennessy said. “Because it can be interpreted in two ways, we can’t prove a crime.”
Hennessy sounds almost petulant there, as if he is upset that the creative writing assignment could actually be interpreted as creative writing.

The student was examined by psychiatrists at Miller-Dwan in Duluth. In the order-to-dismiss that was filed by Sandvik in Two Harbors after a hearing, the court said that “the medical evidence did not support the claim that the child was a danger to himself or others.”

The student was returned home and has been admitted back to school.
There was no mention of his school record being expunged or of any apology to the student or his parents for this massive bureaucratic assault.

http://www.grandmarais-mn.com/placed/index.php?sect_rank=1&story_id=193020


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## shev (Jan 18, 2005)

haha, i want to read the essay.


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## guppyart (Jan 22, 2005)

I am glad to be living in canada but the funny thing is don't you guys have the freedom of speech cause if the kid had been talking about this out of class you couldn't have anything for pete sakes people there was a movie made about it or that censored down there to but thats just my two cents


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## Lexus (Jan 19, 2005)

Thats crazy!!
He I've been to Miller-Dwan! I spent 3 days there!


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