Friday on the bus home from school a group of students stole a notebook out of my bag and inside were drawings of people being killed and some vampire poetry. They showed it to their parents who took it to the school and I got in trouble. Nothing in the notebook was illegal or against the rules. The principal won’t tell me why I was being punished, but I spent the whole day in detention and they called my mother. Then he says I was in trouble because the people were offended by what I wrote. WTF? These people stole my notebook and read it themselves, I didn’t force it upon them. They are not in any trouble although they have not only stolen but also brought false allegations against me. Maybe harassment too. Now I have to go to counceling today and tomorrow for an evaluation and if I don’t do good I have to see a shrink. Also they say if I am found with any thing like this on me again I will be suspended. Can they do this? Shouldn’t the theives be punished? Did I break a law? Do I have a case for a lawsuit? I’m not going to sue my school, but I wouldn’t mind treatening them with it to get my point across. I’m sure there is a lawyer on the SDMB, right? Thanks in advance.
Well Goose,
Obviously they can do this because they are doing it.
It really sucks that they are doing it to you.
Hopefully the consular will be more understanding and will let you express you creative art. You may want to bring in copies of Stephen King or Ann Rice books. Or better yet does your school use the short story The Lottery? That is kind of distrubing. Be prepared to show examples of material that your school uses that have similar themes. Is anybody wearing Buffy the Vampire Slayer t-shirts? Are WWF shirts allowed in school?
Remain calm when talking to the consular and explain that you did not intend to share it with the students that were ‘offended’ by it. Did you ever see 'The Sixth Sense"? I loved Cole’s line “They don’t have meetings when you draw rainbows.” Remember that.
Of course you should now write and draw about the deaths of the kids who took your notebook.
Most of all just hang in there. HS is terrible for some (me) but it gets much better in college and later.
IANAL, but my advice would be to contact your local chapter of the ACLU immediately. Schools in recent years have adopted several policies which appear to violate students’ rights, and the ACLU works hard to defend them. You can read about their Students’ Rights programs at http://www.aclu.org/issues/student/hmes.html , and find your local or state chapter at http://www.aclu.org/community/community.html .
It’s your own fault. You are not allowed to put anything you think that might be offensive to anyone in any sort of medium where they might see it. It doesn’t matter if they stole your notebook and what they saw offended them, you wrote it down, so you’re responsible. We all need to take this as a good example of why we should all walk on eggshells throughout our lives, not opening our mouths to say or infer anything at all controversial.
Sorry, I’ll end the sarcasm. Stuff like this just really pisses me off, though. I’m not sure what you should do, honestly. Zebra had some good advice, and I guess you should just be careful. In my opinion, you were not at all in the wrong, but if this is the reaction from people at your school, it might be good just to keep things like that away from them. Leave your doodle notebooks at home. I know it’s not right, but there are some battles not worth fighting. And, Zebra’s right. It’ll get better in college.
I’m certain this was a typing error. Zebra meant to say “…you should not write and draw…”
Normally, I don’t pick on single-letter errors, but this one ended up reversing the meaning. You want to avoid doing anything like this, since school officials and your counselor might take it as proof they were right to discipline you. And they weren’t.
I agree with pldennison: contact the ACLU. It could end up involving you in a major battle with your school, but it would be worth it. This is one of those cases in which you can’t just tough out the punishment, because it is wrong, and the school needs to learn right from wrong the same way they want to teach you.
That said, don’t give the counselor a lot of attitude. He or she will likely be on your side if you present yourself as a good kid with some imagination. If you give the counselor trouble, it will work against you in the end. Besides, lots of people pay money to talk to a therapist. Take advantage of the free service and it might help you in ways the school didn’t plan.
Geez! I wish you’d put [sarcasm][/sarcasm] tags around that first paragraph, so my jaw wouldn’t’ve hit the floor. :D:D
Goose, I agree with everyone that you’re getting royally screwed. I used to draw violent stick-figure war scenes (decapitations, machine-gunning, buried alive), and I never heard anything about it, even after my study-hall monitor saw them.
Of course, this was 22 years ago, before students started “going postal” at school. It was probably because of the Littleton, CO, incident that people are freaked by “Goth” stylings (or what they think is Goth). Funny thing, people didn’t get so freaked about kids that go game hunting after the Arkansas boys had their little spree.
I think if you can get the ACLU involved, that’d be great. Make a stink! Fight the Stepford Student process!
LOL. Sorry. I thought about putting the sarcasm tags around it, but decided it would lose some effect. I hadn’t thought about the ACLU, but they’re probably a good group to get involved.
I would definatly contact the ACLU. Also if you want to be an asshole you can press charges against the other students for stealing your notebook and charges against the school for recieving stolen property 
How does your Mom feel about this? Most of what happens from now will depend on what your parents do. They are still responsible for you.
IANAL, so call the ACLU or a lawyer before tomorrow, but I think that it would be a good idea to not cooperate with the therapist. It’s possible that the interview should be treated as the unfriendly discussion that it is, and you should have a lawyer present to protect your first amendment rights. A couple of pictures does not make you a psychopath, and there is no reason why your parents should pay for counseling if it will have no benefit for you, and your mental health will not be helped by the two evaluation sessions.
It’s obvious that the school is not acting with your best interests on this one issue; they’re trying to limit their liability.
It’s really in your parents’ court, but I would talk to a lawyer before tomorrow’s session. Call the ACLU, or get a referral.
Oh yeah, for comparison, check out Compare your case to this incident from earlier this year.
All I can say is, I’m glad that I went to high school 20 years ago. This kind of stuff makes me sick.
When I was a kid I used to draw war scenes, aircraft strafing houses, etc. Young boys do this. Stomping on this type of expression is not only a violation of your rights, it’s also a very bad idea.
Goose: Stand up for your rights! Ask to see the school policy that says you may not draw artwork like that. Ask to have a policy in writing that states you may not write poetry about vampires. Demand action against the students who stole your notebook.
To all: THIS is why we need first amendment protection. I’ve read a lot lately from people who think that it’s perfectly fine for the government to muscle Hollywood into making politically correct movies, thinking that it will go no further. Well, all we have to do is look at our schools today to see a microcosm of what could happen to society without constitutional rights. The zero tolerance policies and speech rules that are going on in various schools are an affront to everything we stand for.
In Grade 8 I wrote a story called “8A in L.A.” about how my entire class (homeform 8A, hence the name) won a lottery and all moved to L.A. to get into the movie business, but shortly afterwards they started turning up dead, upon which I and another guy in my class investigated the hideous crimes only to discover my teacher was murdering all his students because:
Me: “But Mr. Julian, why did you kill all your students?”
Mr. Julian: “Hated 'em.”
The story was rife with gratuitous violence of the most unnecessary and disgusting sort. People were shot, incinerated with flame throwers, blown to peices, stabbed, and in one scene my buddy and I leapt from a sixty-story window and landed on two German tourists, killing them instantly. Dozens of my classmates were brutally slain, all mentioned by name. It was all told in a humourous context, not a vampire-style story, but I’d estimate the final body count at 150, maybe more.
The student teacher loved it. My classmates loved it. Mr. Julian loved it. I got an A.
This was in 1984.
How something like this could change so dramatically in sixteen years I don’t know. I think it’s a lot more than the Littleton mess, though.
I don’t suppose anyone has a line on how this happened? What social forces have caused us to become so incredibly hyper about this sort of thing? This relates directly to the comments in another thread about how kids don’t even play outside anymore and in some places it’s illegal to leave them outside alone.
If you were my kid there would be a world of hell to pay - not for you but the school AND the kids who did this to you. I’m getting heartburn just writing this - do exactly as the others say and contact the ACLU. Don’t give up your rights!
I too am glad I’m out of school. What a crap place it has to be now. I think the suggestions above a a good idea and you should do some/all of them. That said when I was a senior in college I wrote a paper called Prectus Eructus about one of my teachers. I really busted on him because I thought I was gonna fail and not graduate. I ended up getting an A and he thought it was pretty funny. it wasn’t violent, but I did have a picture of him looking like a monkey! 
Thanks for all your support and for the links to the ACLU. I sent an e-mail letter to my local chapter. Also I don’t know why I wrote Friday in my opening post, the theft happened on Tuesday afternoon. And that quote from the Sixth Sense is wonderful, that’s exactly what I was thinking. So far the councelors think I’m disturbed, but I’ve been nothing but nice to them and I hope it pays off.
Well, off to get my suit for Homecoming…
There are 3 things that you’ve gotta always remember (after contacting the ACLU):
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No matter what crazy things people say or do, don’t ever accept the brainwashing that they’re right and you’re wrong.
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Don’t ever stop expressing your own thoughts and feelings, no matter who disapproves.
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No matter how many people might be against you, always remember that lot of people are on your side.
Good luck.
Ahh screw I’m still in school and I am SO scared of drawing those types of things and writing about killing people and stuff cause I KNOW they’ll jump all over me for it. I used to keep a book that I took to school that I’d write in when I got pissed. I ended up ripping the pages out and flushing them down the toilet cause I KNEW if they found it I would never hear the end of it. It makes me feel like crap.
I, being young and inexperienced, have no idea what to tell you, but just PLEASE don’t let them win. Your case won’t affect me or a lot of other people but I really hate to see this happen to anybody, especially if they never did anything wrong and all they were doing was showing what they feel.
Great, now I’m all pissed. I know!! I’ll go draw some rainbows…
Maybe this is quite a rude intrusion here - please excuse me.
Can’t address the OP 'cos I’m not from the US, so I don’t know, but the advice given re. the Civil Liberties people sounds pretty good. Best of luck with it all.
I’m butting in really because I am so struck by the irony of RickJay’s example of a society that was LESS strictly policed and regimented being in 1984, of all years. Wonderful!
Also, please would someone tell me what IANAL stands for? I’m beginning to realise that these damned acronyms can’t be avoided for ever, but until I get a phrasebook… Please?
IANAL=I am not a lawyer
Thanks, Saltire, and Good luck, Goose.
well, sumthing like this sorta happened to me. wut happened wuz i went on a trip and there was a rifle range there. i tried it a couple times and picked up a few shells so i could make a nifty chain out of it when i got home. i put one in my pocket and went home. then next wed. i wore those same pants and they had the shell in it. i thot nothing of it and was bored in class so i started playing with it like a top. the class started to get intersting so i fergot about the shell and left it sumwhere around my desk and left for my next class. a couple hours later, a couple of my friends got pulled out of class for sum reason by the princ. and were asked questions. i little later that day my parents were notified and i was pulled out of class. my locker was searched, the whole nine yards but found nothing(i believe they didnt read ne of the papers in my locker, they would have found stuff printed off of http://www.TwistedinterneT.com showingme how to scam soda machines and get free cable, hehe). i explained the whole situation to them but they didnt want to believe it. they were somehow convinced that i was about to go colombine on the skool. finally my parents had to come in a say that there was nothing at my house that i could kill people with besides my h-bomb(kidding).ne wayz, they ended up making me write sum paper about how i would never do that again. wut i ended up doing was be a real smart-alec and jest blow the whole thing off by being sacrcastic(even tho a used bullet cartridge cannot injure anyone in the least unless jabbed into someone’s eye…). but that was because the skool i happened to be going to didnt have a zero tolerance policy. if i had gone to a skool with one, i could have been expelled for a yr and not been allowed to go to a skool in the same state. moral of the story: life sux so jest be sarcastic about everything