# Student charged for writing Zombie story. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 17, 2008, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-writing-zombie-story/468395 "2008-10-17T16:27:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-writing-zombie-story/468395/1 "2008-10-17T16:27:06Z")
Felony charges for “terrorist threatening” . For what could only be contrued as a work of fiction. [Link](http://www.boingboing.net/2008/10/17/high-school-student.html) > [@](#): > > William Poole, an 18-year-old Kentucky high-school student wrote a story about a high-school over-ran by a plague of zombies. Words finally elude me. Where’s **Sampiro** when we need an eloquent pitting. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-writing-zombie-story/468395/2 "2008-10-17T16:36:31Z")
Words fail me. So if Steven King were to write that it would be a best seller, but for this kid, it’s a felony? WTF? Seriously WTF? ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-writing-zombie-story/468395/3 "2008-10-17T16:37:52Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > Felony charges for “terrorist threatening” . > > For what could only be contrued as a work of fiction. > > [Link](http://www.boingboing.net/2008/10/17/high-school-student.html) > > Words finally elude me. Where’s **Sampiro** when we need an eloquent pitting. Absurd. After all, where would a zombie find brains in a place like that? ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-writing-zombie-story/468395/4 "2008-10-17T16:39:09Z")
> [@](#): > > “Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function it’s a felony in the state of Kentucky,” said Winchester Police detective Steven Caudill. Kentucky lawmakers at work. Stupid overkill legislation. Even worse is when DAs see this crap cross their desk and decide to actual prosecute it, as if the state doesn’t have better things to spend money on. Even worse, it was the kid’s grandparents who narced on him. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-writing-zombie-story/468395/5 "2008-10-17T16:43:51Z")
Simply unbelievable. What the fuck are these assholes thinking? This sort of shit makes me really angry—angry enough to come back from the dead and eat brains. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-writing-zombie-story/468395/6 "2008-10-17T16:48:06Z")
> [@](#): > > Even so, police say the nature of the story makes it a felony. “Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function it’s a felony in the state of Kentucky,” said Winchester Police detective Steven Caudill. Let me extract a little from that: > [@](#): > > Anytime you … possess matter involving a school or function it’s a felony in the state of Kentucky Apart from what Detective Caudill, or the Kentucky legislature might mean by a “function” there, does that mean that writing any story about imaginary events at a fictitious high school – e.g., a love story between high-school boyfriend and girlfriend – that’s a felony? That sounds like an extraordinarily broad brush. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-writing-zombie-story/468395/7 "2008-10-17T16:48:56Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > After all, where would a zombie find brains in a place like that? You win the thread. Wait… were you talking about the high school… or Kentucky? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-writing-zombie-story/468395/8 "2008-10-17T16:49:21Z")
The school was ran over by zombies? In what, a monster truck? ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-writing-zombie-story/468395/9 "2008-10-17T16:53:51Z")
I’d hold fire on this until I saw the story. Say, for instance, the story involved the whole school being zombified except for the writer and his buddy. Armed to the teeth with guns and home-made bombs they enter the school one morning and proceed to dispatch their former schoolmates and teachers. I’m not saying the story took this form, I am saying that a teacher could see legitimate cause for concern if it did. OTOH it may be just Kentucky acting dumb again. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-writing-zombie-story/468395/10 "2008-10-17T16:57:38Z")
Has anyone currently outraged by this three year old story actually bothered reading the comment thread on BoingBoing and followed any of the links posted? ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-writing-zombie-story/468395/11 "2008-10-17T16:58:34Z")
I believe this case is from 2005. More info on this [Zombie story](http://bowjamesbow.ca/2005/03/29/zombies-or-no-w.shtml). ETA: beaten to the punch while coding. rats ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-writing-zombie-story/468395/12 "2008-10-17T17:00:12Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Apart from what Detective Caudill, or the Kentucky legislature might mean by a “function” there, does that mean that writing any story about imaginary events at a fictitious high school – e.g., a love story between high-school boyfriend and girlfriend – that’s a felony? That sounds like an extraordinarily broad brush. Effective Jan. 12, 2009, no Kentucky high school year books may include the words “high”, “school”, “education”, or “zombies”. ETA: Damn you people who are runing this Pitting! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-writing-zombie-story/468395/13 "2008-10-17T17:06:16Z")
> [@Kal](#): > > Has anyone currently outraged by this three year old story actually bothered reading the comment thread on BoingBoing and followed any of the links posted? No. I don’t generally read the comments on websites like that, because for the most part they’re composed by drooling monkeys. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-writing-zombie-story/468395/14 "2008-10-17T17:07:14Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > After all, where would a zombie find brains in a place like that? Ha. 😃 I wonder if zombies would be half as popular if brains wasn’t such an intrinsically funny word? You people trying to introduce all facts and shit are going to be first to be eaten, by the way. By contrast we gigglers with our tiny brains will go unnoticed for months. ---
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-writing-zombie-story/468395/15 "2008-10-17T17:08:10Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Absurd. > > After all, where would a zombie find brains in a place like that? Well, don’t you know that the next total solar eclipse in the U.S. will brighten the dim bulbs who are in the shadow of the umbra, which becomes a magnet for all zombies to converge at the place where the solar maximum occurs? Did you know that the solar maximum will occur on August 21, 2017 in the fields of Christian County, Kentucky? Two minutes and 40 seconds of shear terror will reign down on those unfortunately stupid enough to a point of making overbearing laws which in turn will make them the Einsteins that they are for those 2 minutes and 40 seconds…the zombies will feast that day…aye for sure. I wouldn’t want to be a teenager in any Kentucky high school that day, nor a state legislator. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-writing-zombie-story/468395/16 "2008-10-17T17:09:56Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > No. > > I don’t generally read the comments on websites like that, because for the most part they’re composed by drooling monkeys. As opposed to the comments posted here? What’s the difference, quantity of drool? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Understander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3da27b/32.png) [@The\_Understander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Understander)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-writing-zombie-story/468395/17 "2008-10-17T17:12:43Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > As opposed to the comments posted here? What’s the difference, quantity of drool? 😃 No, _quality_ of drool. Hmph. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-writing-zombie-story/468395/18 "2008-10-17T17:20:28Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > I’d hold fire on this until I saw the story. > > Say, for instance, the story involved the whole school being zombified except for the writer and his buddy. Armed to the teeth with guns and home-made bombs they enter the school one morning and proceed to dispatch their former schoolmates and teachers. > > I’m not saying the story took this form, I am saying that a teacher could see legitimate cause for concern if it did. > > OTOH it may be just Kentucky acting dumb again. 🙂 I’m sorry. I don’t care if that is the exact synopsis of the story, it is no where near grounds to slap a felony on this kid. Fucking imagination is illegal now? Where’s George Orwell when you need him? ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-writing-zombie-story/468395/19 "2008-10-17T17:22:39Z")
> [@Kal](#): > > Has anyone currently outraged by this three year old story actually bothered reading the comment thread on BoingBoing and followed any of the links posted? Of course not. It’s far too much fun to pile-on. A pile-on MAY have been justified three years ago- although there were a variety of factors involved, including apparently that the young man had a history of mental health problems, whatever that means, and that the “zombie” element may not even have been in the stories. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-writing-zombie-story/468395/20 "2008-10-17T17:31:06Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > I’m sorry. I don’t care if that is the exact synopsis of the story, it is no where near grounds to slap a felony on this kid. Fucking imagination is illegal now? Where’s George Orwell when you need him? Right. Suppose a best selling author – Dan Brown, for example – wrote a story involving the US President being assassinated by terrorists, and on the way the terrorists spending some time at a high school in Kentucky, with or without zombies, but with realistic threats to teachers at the school; and suppose that after that was published, Dan Brown visited Winchester, Kentucky, promoting his latest book: would Detective Caudill arrest him? And would the local court hold him until he had paid a $5,000 bond? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-writing-zombie-story/468395.md?page=2)