A third grader at a Hamilton, Ohio private school was expelled because of a "hit list" that was found in his desk. The list contained the names of a teacher and several students that he said he wanted to kill.
Michael Mayo, the principal of the Immanuel Lutheran School, said that he did not believe the boy was actually going to harm anyone, but he felt that he had to take action anyway. (Maybe he could go to that Texas school where they had cage fighting. OK, that's a bad idea.)
This quote bothered me a little bit: "But this sort of thing in this day and age, you just can’t do that. It will never be acceptable." Does that mean it used to be acceptable? I know that's not what it means, but I hate it when things are blamed on "the times we live in."
Without knowing the circumstances it's hard to comment. The report says that the child had "received counselling in the past" which implies that this may not have been an isolated incident. On the other hand, it is possible to overreacted to this sort of thing when it's done by a kid this young.
When I was in 8th grade, I was rehearsing a production of "Bye-Bye Birdie" at my local Y. On the back of my script, I wrote a parody of the song "Kids" in which I made obnoxious comments about the director, an older woman with whom I frequently disagreed about certain artistic matters. OK, I'll admit -- I was an obnoxious 12-year-old. I left my script at rehearsal one day (because I couldn't be bothered to take it home and learn my lines), and the following week I was called into the administrator's office and asked if I intended to do harm to the director. I was told that she had been carrying a pair of scissors in her purse for protection since finding my little ditty. I told them that no, I had no intention of doing anything other than act like a jerk. I continued to do so and never made it to the performance (I wasn't kicked out, I just stopped going to rehearsals).
While I can't remember my song (although I'm certain it contained Mel Brooks-level hilarity) I do know that I didn't make any physical threats in it. Again, I was just being a jerky kid.
I'm not saying that this kid doesn't need counselling, but I guess I'm more inclined to be sympathetic to him than the school was. If he needs help, let's hope he gets it. If not, well, maybe he'll find a school to go to that doesn't make him want to kill everyone.
Source: Ohio Share via ParentDish
Image: sxc
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