UGH! grade 12 student expelled for essay topic!

[DramaQueen]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080204.wessay04/BNStory/National/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080204.wessay04


WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE CITY OF TORONTO!?!?

Okay, so this student, Brendan Jones, was expelled from his high school (which is not the HS I attended, but it's close to me house) for writing an essay about a grade 10 female student killing a teacher.

This BOGGLES MY MIND.
The boy was THREE credits short of graduating, had applied to universities, and now, even if he's accepted to university he can't attend, because he won't have graduated high school!

This was a CREATIVE WRITING assignment.
I know in my grade 12 creative writing class we had some very serious and contraversial subject matter, and our creativity was NEVER stifled.
We could write about whatever subjects we wanted. Some students wrote stories about drugs, alcohol, sex, bullying, among other topics.
I even wrote a story about a serial killer in a high school (the serial killer was a metaphor for gossip, mind you--but it was pretty graphic)

It just SICKENS me that someones creative expression could be stifled like that.
The teacher and faculty completely over-reacted, the have deprived this guy of going to university and graduating with his friends, because of a piece of writing that came from his IMAGINATION.



Now, I actually met this guy last night (he came into my work--i didn't recognize him, but he told me who he was) and I got to talk with him for a few minutes about it.
He seems to have taken the whole thing really well and is really understanding. He admitted to me that maybe that wasn't such a great topic to write about, but when you've only got a limited amount of time to write something, and nothings coming to mind, you've just gotta write about the first thing you can think of.



Anyways...I know this post has probably become very long winded.
But I just had to rant over this. It is INSANE.
How do they expect to educate when the are expelling students for WRITING AN ESSAY.
Stephen King writes FAR worse things (as do many, if not most) fictional authors....and they haven't gone on a killing spree or re-enacted any of their stories (as far as I know....except for in secret window eheh....but again, THAT was fiction as well)

Alright, so I'm looking for opinions here, do you think the school is in the write or in the wrong? SO you think this student did something wrong?
DO you completely disagree withe verything I've just said and think that everyone who writes about intense subject matter will become a serial killer?
Discuss

 

[bookworm93]

That's crap that he was expelled. You should be able to write whatever you want.

 

[Hollywoodhaha]

Freedom of speech and write being killed.

 

[Saintzgurl]

thats ridiculous. I wrote a storyabout a boy commiting suicide because there was no one there to stop him, and my aunt took me to a hospital to be "psychologicallly tested for suicidal tendencies"

 

[Axel]

That happened to my friend last month! Except for the expelled part, of course. She wrote a story about two lesbian girls who killed themselves because people kept being extremely mean to them and her teacher sent her to guidance for a psychological evaluation! It's insane what some people automatically assume from a piece of writing.

 

[CrazyChik]

My nan wanted to check me into rehab because i mentioned drugs in one of my writing pieces for school, which was actually about living on the streets of London. There would be a lot of drugs no?

 

[Babyjustrun]

That's crazy.
My friend has written a fictional short story about someone we know running over someone else know with a horse and leaving her to die.
But come on.
It's fiction.
She probably won't get expelled, but if she were...
I'd be picketing. Especially because the people who the characters are based on already know and don't care.

 

[Tora Millypoops]

That's stupid.

 

[BabyPiglet]

Wow. They're definitely in the wrong. Have these people never read one book in their lifetime? I guess all those fiction writers out there are deranged as well.

I was actually in a class (we were discussing crime at the time) and we were to write a mystery type story from the minds of a killer. Some of those stories were very very detailed, as you can imagine.

 

[CastawayJ]

we were reading Their eyes were watching god

and the main charictor kills her husband
are we all suposed to be insane for reading it?

(going along with the this is messed up tanjent)

 

[tinkerbellblondie19]

That's stupid. I wrote a story a few months ago for a creative writing piece (Do people come together or fall apart in the worst of times, write an essay and use a story to support it) in which a VA Tech sort of thing happened. A kid who seemed stable locked his class in a trailer far from the school after the teacher had left, commited suicide, and the rest of the students killed themselves or each other. I cut out the gory stuff and just used what was important, but I wasn't expelled. That's ridiculous and overly PC.

And I think PC is for stupid people, but that's another topic.

 

[OneTreeHill]

If it is creative writing then he should have been able to write whatever he wanted. That is ridiculous that he was expelled. I seriously can't believe that.

What is the world coming to?

 

[AngelInDisguise]

He probably couldn't write that because even though he was in 12th grade it is still a school. Our school would be the same way.

 

[Sparx]

I would like to read the essay.

 

[Pirate Me]

He probably couldn't write that because even though he was in 12th grade it is still a school. Our school would be the same way.

It wasn't that he was in 12th grade that was a problem, it was the topic of the essay he chose to write about which deemed inappropriate.

 

[Disney Dork]

Even if the topic was 'inappropriate' for school, should the kid that wrote a simple FICTIONAL paper be treated the same as one that...lets say...beat someone to a pulp in the hall way? Brought a gun or knife to school? Or made a bomb threat?

Several FAMOUS authors have written books over topics like this, mainly due to the fact that things like murder and suicide happen in the world we're all stuck in.

I sware, people like those who work up at that school are becoming more and more idiotic by the second.

 

[taz]

heh, thats pathetic

 

[JessBell**]

Thats ********!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Princess_Dot]

Thas so stupid! I can totally relate. We have writing journals at school, which we are heavily graded on.

The rules are "we can write about anything we want." Except at least 7 people in my class alone (I think we have 12 people in this class) have been sent to guidance to talk about their "innapropriate" or "dangerous" writings.

Why does EVERYTHING one writes have to be taken literal, or as the truth?! Youd think teachers could read between the lines, or even realize that fiction can be fiction!

 

[STOPxmickeytime]

THAT'S SO RIDICULOUS!
That gets me so angry.