# They drew stick figures! Take them away in chains! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 10, 2005, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-drew-stick-figures-take-them-away-in-chains/289476 "2005-02-10T23:00:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-drew-stick-figures-take-them-away-in-chains/289476/1 "2005-02-10T23:00:12Z")
More zero tolerance bullshit. Whatever happened to common sense? > [@](#): > > OCALA, Fla. — Two boys, ages 9 and 10, were charged with felonies and taken away from school in handcuffs, accused of making violent drawings of stick figures. > > The boys were arrested Monday on charges of making a written threat to kill or harm another person, a second-degree felony. > > The special education students (search) used pencil and red crayon to draw primitive stick figure scenes on scrap paper that showed a 10-year-old classmate being stabbed and hung, police said. [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2C145447%2C00.html](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2C145447%2C00.html) An op ed piece on the story… > [@](#): > > wo boys, aged 9 and 10, were charged with second-degree felonies and taken away in handcuffs by the police because they drew stick figures depicting violence against a third student. > > There was no act of violence, no weaponry. According to news reports, the arrested children had no prior history of threatening the student depicted in the drawing. The parents were not advised or consulted. The school’s immediate response was to call the police and level charges “of making a written threat to kill or harm another person.” > > The incident was not an aberration but one of three similar occurrences in the Florida school system during the same week. In another case, a 6-year-old was led away in handcuffs by police. And those three incidents are only the ones that managed to attract media attention. > > Another indication that the incident is not an aberration: The police have adamantly and repeatedly defended the slapping of cuffs and felony charges onto the 9 and 10-year-olds. [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,146798,00.html](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,146798,00.html) ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-drew-stick-figures-take-them-away-in-chains/289476/2 "2005-02-10T23:15:12Z")
Yet one more reason not to reproduce. Why bring children into a society where their drawings, no matter how disturbing, will land them in JAIL. There is no argument for this. None. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-drew-stick-figures-take-them-away-in-chains/289476/3 "2005-02-10T23:27:38Z")
What’s with kids these days? Total lack of imagination. So boring and dull. That’s not really my style; I would’ve had dinosaurs eating people or teenage mutant ninja turtles slicing 'em in half. At it would end with turtles vs. dinosaurs. Throw away the key, I say! ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-drew-stick-figures-take-them-away-in-chains/289476/4 "2005-02-10T23:30:14Z")
Funny how dear **Reeder** gets upset about this yet fails to mention this zero tolerence bullshit started during the Clinton administration. Wonder how the OP would look if it was Bush? :dubious: Anyway, my take on this shit is it’s one more way to deny boys from acting like boys in any way possible, under any banner possible, to pussify the American male. Both my BIL’s used to take their hunting rifles to school so they could hit the fields before sundown. The only req was that the guns were unloaded. And you could have as many boxes of ammo as you could carry in the locker with the gun. Now you can’t even buy a decent plastic gun to play cops and robbers. Fucking liberals. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-drew-stick-figures-take-them-away-in-chains/289476/5 "2005-02-10T23:32:23Z")
How the hell can you who is portrayed by a stick figure? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-drew-stick-figures-take-them-away-in-chains/289476/6 "2005-02-10T23:40:58Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > Funny how dear **Reeder** gets upset about this yet fails to mention this zero tolerence bullshit started during the Clinton administration. Wonder how the OP would look if it was Bush? :dubious: > Anyway, my take on this shit is it’s one more way to deny boys from acting like boys in any way possible, under any banner possible, to pussify the American male. Both my BIL’s used to take their hunting rifles to school so they could hit the fields before sundown. The only req was that the guns were unloaded. And you could have as many boxes of ammo as you could carry in the locker with the gun. > > Now you can’t even buy a decent plastic gun to play cops and robbers. Fucking liberals. The first Zero Tolerance group was organized in Britain in 1995 and it took Columbine for the US to catch on. Not one to let the facts get in the way of a liberal bashing, huh? Idiocy knows no political affiliation. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-drew-stick-figures-take-them-away-in-chains/289476/7 "2005-02-10T23:52:03Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > Funny how dear **Reeder** gets upset about this yet fails to mention this zero tolerence bullshit started during the Clinton administration. Wonder how the OP would look if it was Bush? :dubious: Wow, **duffer** , you’ve out done yourself this time. You’ve already gone for the “Clinton did it first!” defense, and no one in this thread has so much as hinted at blaming any of this on Bush, Republicans, or social conservatives in general! I know how much you treasure your partisan whore skills, but how about you save them for threads where they’re actually relevant to the discussion in some miniscule way? ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-drew-stick-figures-take-them-away-in-chains/289476/8 "2005-02-11T00:09:26Z")
I´m still trying to figure out the necessity of handcuffing a 6 year old child. _Does not compute_ ---
**Author:** ![Priam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/77aa72/32.png) [@Priam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Priam)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-drew-stick-figures-take-them-away-in-chains/289476/9 "2005-02-11T00:18:37Z")
> [@Ale](#): > > I´m still trying to figure out the necessity of handcuffing a 6 year old child. > > _Does not compute_ Well you can’t leave a dangerous drawing arm like that free… They might draw stick cartoons of the COPS!!!11!11 ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-drew-stick-figures-take-them-away-in-chains/289476/10 "2005-02-11T00:40:43Z")
You know, at this point, someone needs to crack the fucking whip on the Police and State’s Attorney office to start working on REAL crimes, you know ones not committed via crayon or butter knife. Wasting their time and the taxpayer’s money on arresting little children. :mad: They have too many people on staff if they have that much excess time, maybe they should fire a few cops and lawyers, so they can refocus their efforts on shit that matters. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-drew-stick-figures-take-them-away-in-chains/289476/11 "2005-02-11T00:40:59Z")
Well, you can scratch them off of any future police academy lists… What has happened to our society? Is the handcuffing supposed to scare these kids straight? How fucked up is this? And what has Bush got to do with it? Or Clinton, for that matter? This isn’t political, although I can see it quickly becoming so. ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-drew-stick-figures-take-them-away-in-chains/289476/12 "2005-02-11T00:43:03Z")
> [@duffer at 5:21 in the Gannon thread](#): > > Side note: I notice that in 4 years of Bush bashing, you liberals bring up Clinton more often than in 8 years of Clinton bashing by conservatives. Why the self-hatred? > [@duffer at 5:30](#): > > Funny how dear Reeder gets upset about this yet fails to mention this zero tolerence bullshit started during the Clinton administration. Wonder how the OP would look if it was Bush? I’m not the kind of person who’d normally go posting somebody’s comments from other threads to prove a point, and if I hadn’t just read these two threads back to back I probably wouldn’t even have noticed, but you are a silly one, aren’t you? ---
**Author:** ![Phnord\_Prephect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/df705f/32.png) [@Phnord\_Prephect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phnord_Prephect)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-drew-stick-figures-take-them-away-in-chains/289476/13 "2005-02-11T00:43:36Z")
Look out! He’s got a crayon! Take him down! _Blam blam blam_ ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-drew-stick-figures-take-them-away-in-chains/289476/14 "2005-02-11T00:50:59Z")
> [@iamthewalrus(:3=](#): > > How the hell can you who is portrayed by a stick figure? Ordinarily you can’t, but it turns out that the kid being threatened was _really thin_. Actually, it seems that the artists thoughtfully labeled their subject in the pictures, along with misspelled profanities–clearly a sad commentary on the Florida public education system. Granted that the kids in question are only in elementary school, and are apparently attending special education classes, but most of the more common swear words only have four letters at most. One can only hope that this unpleasantness doesn’t permanently deter the kids from continuing to produce art that combine infantile themes of violence and profanity, there being such demand for this material in the novelty T-shirt and puffy hat industry. This is the South we’re talking about, after all. The handcuffs might seem a bit over the top, but bear in mind that 9-year olds are alarmingly fast and wiry. Floridians take this threat seriously; over the years, a large number of 9-year olds have escaped into the wild, and are starting to occupy the ecological niche previously held by coyotes and panthers. Fortunately, the large native alligator population keeps the environmental impact of feral 9-year olds minimized, at least for now. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-drew-stick-figures-take-them-away-in-chains/289476/15 "2005-02-11T00:57:02Z")
Good Lord, a couple of you need a pill or two. If I don’t get my dig in on **Reeder** responding to one of his Op’s he’ll think I no longer care. I don’t do it, like some, because I don’t like him. He knows where it’s coming from. Did you happen to notice the second part (gist) of my reply? Care to comment onthat or is my username causing a knee-jerk? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-drew-stick-figures-take-them-away-in-chains/289476/16 "2005-02-11T01:05:52Z")
Stories like this just prove that We The People have lost our damn minds. I didn’t know stick figure cartoons constituted a felony. I didn’t know there was any reason at all for putting the cuffs on a 6 year old. What was he gonna do? Was he going to charge and trample the cops? Or grab one and tear him in half with the death roll? If I were the partents, I would be on the police, the school, and everyone else without mercy. I would turn it into a media circus. I would file suit for assault, false charges, unlawful detainment, unreasonable search and seizure, false arrest, any charge that could be imagined. Other than that, the teacher or principal who started the ball rolling would “never work in this town again”. I’d do anything possible to ruin the SOB. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-drew-stick-figures-take-them-away-in-chains/289476/17 "2005-02-11T01:48:11Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > Good Lord, a couple of you need a pill or two. If I don’t get my dig in on **Reeder** responding to one of his Op’s he’ll think I no longer care. > > I don’t do it, like some, because I don’t like him. He knows where it’s coming from. And everyone else is supposed to know this…how? You came off as your knee jerking so hard that you hit your chin. > [@](#): > > _Did you happen to notice the second part (gist) of my reply? Care to comment onthat or is my username causing a knee-jerk? :rolleyes:_ Idiocy knows no party affiliation. Next question. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-drew-stick-figures-take-them-away-in-chains/289476/18 "2005-02-11T01:54:11Z")
Ok, I’ll adress the second part of your port. [QUOTE=duffer] Anyway, my take on this shit is it’s one more way to deny boys from acting like boys in any way possible, under any banner possible, to pussify the American male.QUOTE] Bullshit. Now…I agree this is an example of exteme stupidity. Arresting them??? Taking them away in handcuffs? Treating them like they were violent felonys when they are children and haven’t done anything violent? Idiocy. But that said…seems to me they meant the drawing as as specific intimidation to another boy. A specific threat of future viloence. Are we supposed to accept that as so much “boys will be boys”? I don’t think they dealt with it in a good way…is your suggestion we don’t neeed to deal with it at all 'cause boy’s intimidating other’s with threats of violence is ok? And that said…I’m ust thrilled with your use of “pussify”. Can’t really demean a man better than by comparing him to a woman. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-drew-stick-figures-take-them-away-in-chains/289476/19 "2005-02-11T02:21:46Z")
In turn, bullshit. No 9 or 6 year old yet has the brain power to have “meant the drawing as as specific intimidation to another boy. A specific threat of future viloence”. A little kid, if anything, will punch you in the nose and run. Boys will be boys. They can be real assholes, just like the grownup ones. They use other “intimidations of violence” that use physical violence. Also, we’re talking about throwing children in irons. That is a bit more serious and hurtful than your indignance over the word “pussify”. You suffered no damage or harm. They did. Put your “righteous indignation” where it should be applied. Maybe we should just de-nut them. That will make them less agressive. :rolleyes: Think on this for a bit. Do we let them blow off steam with a few stupid drawings, or do we force them to bottle it up inside and grow up to be either 1) mindless PC robots or 2) truly deranged freaks who snapped due to grossly excessive control? ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-drew-stick-figures-take-them-away-in-chains/289476/20 "2005-02-11T02:25:37Z")
He can’t help if all he knows how to do is shoot off at the lip. That’s what Bushies do. At least he ain’t Brutus. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-drew-stick-figures-take-them-away-in-chains/289476.md?page=2)