furie
05-02-2002, 12:07 PM
This is a bit of an over reaction on the schools part I think
MOUNT LEBANON, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A Pennsylvania school suspended an 11-year-old girl for drawing two teachers with arrows through their heads, saying the stick figures were more death threat than doodle.
Becca Johnson, an honor-roll sixth-grader at Mellon Middle School, drew the picture on the back of a vocabulary test on which she had gotten a D.
"That's my way of saying I'm angry," Becca said, adding she meant no harm to the teachers.
The stick figures, on a crudely drawn gallows with arrows in their heads, had the names of Becca's teacher and a substitute teacher written underneath. Another teacher spotted the doodle in the girl's binder Tuesday and reported it, prompting the three-day suspension.
Becca's parents, Philip and Barbara Johnson, denied the school's contention the drawings were "terrorist threats."
"She had done poorly on a test that was handed back to her. We've always told her that you can't take your feelings out on your teacher, so write about it or draw it, as a catharsis," Barbara Johnson said.
She accused the school of applying a zero-tolerance policy that "does away with due process and inflicts a penalty without a hearing or investigation."
The district said its zero-tolerance policy applies only to gun or drug possession, and denied that no investigation was done.
"All I can say is that when we have taken action related to the activities of students in the schools, we have done so after a thorough investigation," Mount Lebanon School District Superintendent Glenn Smartschan said.
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press
<img src="http://tseery.homestead.com/files/surfer.jpg" width=300 height=100 >
Thanks Fallon!
<a href="aim:goim?screenname=furie1335&message=You_are_Number_6">IM:Furie1335 </a>
This message was edited by furie on 5-2-02 @ 4:13 PM
MOUNT LEBANON, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A Pennsylvania school suspended an 11-year-old girl for drawing two teachers with arrows through their heads, saying the stick figures were more death threat than doodle.
Becca Johnson, an honor-roll sixth-grader at Mellon Middle School, drew the picture on the back of a vocabulary test on which she had gotten a D.
"That's my way of saying I'm angry," Becca said, adding she meant no harm to the teachers.
The stick figures, on a crudely drawn gallows with arrows in their heads, had the names of Becca's teacher and a substitute teacher written underneath. Another teacher spotted the doodle in the girl's binder Tuesday and reported it, prompting the three-day suspension.
Becca's parents, Philip and Barbara Johnson, denied the school's contention the drawings were "terrorist threats."
"She had done poorly on a test that was handed back to her. We've always told her that you can't take your feelings out on your teacher, so write about it or draw it, as a catharsis," Barbara Johnson said.
She accused the school of applying a zero-tolerance policy that "does away with due process and inflicts a penalty without a hearing or investigation."
The district said its zero-tolerance policy applies only to gun or drug possession, and denied that no investigation was done.
"All I can say is that when we have taken action related to the activities of students in the schools, we have done so after a thorough investigation," Mount Lebanon School District Superintendent Glenn Smartschan said.
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press
<img src="http://tseery.homestead.com/files/surfer.jpg" width=300 height=100 >
Thanks Fallon!
<a href="aim:goim?screenname=furie1335&message=You_are_Number_6">IM:Furie1335 </a>
This message was edited by furie on 5-2-02 @ 4:13 PM