Two Florida boys charged with a felony for violent stick figure drawings

AP ^ | 1/25/5

[SmithL]

OCALA -- Two boys were arrested for making pencil-and-crayon stick figure drawings depicting a 10-year-old classmate being stabbed and hung, police said. The children, charged with a felony, were taken from school in handcuffs.

The 9- and 10-year-old boys were arrested Monday and charged with making a written threat to kill or harm another person. They were also suspended from school.

One drawing showed the two boys standing on either side of the other boy and "holding knives pointed through" his body, according to a police report. The figures were identified by written names or initials.

Another drawing showed a stick figure hanging, tears falling from his eyes, with two other stick figures standing below him.

[SmithL]

Zero tolerance can't make up for zero intelligence.

[Brian328i]

Hmm, wonder what kind of trouble I would have gotten in when I use to draw stick fiqure war scenes when I was really bored in class. =/

[Gunslingr3]

Hmm, wonder what kind of trouble I would have gotten in when I use to draw stick fiqure war scenes when I was really bored in class

You wouldn't be alone.

[MaxMax]

You are sooo lucky there's a statue of limitations.

[doug from upland]

Oh no. They better never find my stick figure drawings of Bill, Hillary, Terry Mac, Carvile, Kerry, the Chappaquiddick Lifeguard, Pelosi, etc.

[SmithL]

Oh, you played hangman, too?

[mikegi]

We used to draw movies of stick Army men on the edge of the pages in books. You'd fan the pages to see the "flick". Guess I'd have been locked up for good these days.

[Khurkris]

Damn right about that. War scenes as gory as only a 7 yr old can make...lol.

[stainlessbanner]

ping

[My Favorite Headache]

Florida is just filling FR up with the winner stories today.

[Junior_G]

With the laws we have now, I probably would have been executed for the things I wrote in school.

[WorkingClassFilth]

Well, hell's bells! Jeb-boy best git on the stick and slap some sense into these pointy head school marm types. Damn shame if'n this comes back to bite him in the @ss down the road when when he's lookin' to wear a bigger hat.

[joesnuffy]

Wonder what would they get for drawing pictures of aborted babies
or a picture of the Supreme Court pulling the plug on Terri Schiavo?

[Rainmist]

Certainly these drawings show a problem, but why did they draw them ? Have these two boys shown previous bad or violent behavior ? Come from abusive homes ? Or have they been bullied by the child they have depicted in the picture ? As far as children go, I believe that if they act out there is always a reason why.

[Nataku X]

Playing devil's advocate here... the article does say that the figures had names of actual people attached to them. A classmate depicted as being full of knives shouldn't be taken lightly, although definitely not felony-level.

[Finalapproach29er]

My tagline.........

[Henchster]

StickDeath?!

StickDeath "Hopper"

StickDeath "Stickini"

[fso301]

Good grief. All I ever did was draw war scenes. I think I would have spent my entire youth in juvenile detention.

[TheDon]

Separation of school and state BUMP!

[WildTurkey]

Zero tolerance can't make up for zero intelligence.

They misunderstood. The boys were engaging in an ancient voodoo religious ritual. Next week (after the court order) they will have a special day dedicated where all students will dress up "in-costume" and draw stick figures of torture.

[1FASTGLOCK45]

I used to write my own stories (fictional of course) when i was younger. I deleted all of them because i figured i would get in trouble if someone found them and didn't know what they were. Now i'm glad i didn't leave that kind of "imaginative/fictional" stuff laying around, i'd be locked up. hehe

[freepatriot32]

I also use to draw stick figure war scenes in school when I was bored and I probably would have gotten executed in the electric chair if they would have seen how many pages of HANGMAN I played with some of my friends when i was done with my school work the teachers and the police that cuffed these children need to be arrested for armed kidnapping and child abuse

[Dr. Marten]

Awww shoot! You beat me too it!

[Wiggins]

Teacher

[demkicker]

This could've been a story from The Onion. There goes Floriduh again making asses out of themselves.

[durasell]

There's something else going on there. My guess is that the boys were "off" and seen by the school as potentially violent. The parents refused offers by social workers or the school shrink. School authorities, fearing for safety of other students, trumped up this charge.

Whether you think that chain of events is better or worse, I can't say.

[hershey]

Does that mean Hangman is verboten?

[freepatriot32]

Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.

[Godebert]

bump for later.

[freepatriot32]

one for for your ping lists

[dennisw]

Up their RITALIN dosgaes........ through the roof!!! Can't have any boys acting like boys.

[LibertarianInExile]

Where? Is it smaller than the one of Lady Liberty in New York?

[pageonetoo]

Certainly these drawings show a problem, but why did they draw them ? Have these two boys shown previous bad or violent behavior ? Come from abusive homes ? Or have they been bullied by the child they have depicted in the picture ? As far as children go, I believe that if they act out there is always a reason why.

thank you, Dr...

I do not understand how you see a "problem" with the boys, just because they draw stick figures...

Maybe they are just... boys...

[ARepublicanForAllReasons]

Does that mean Hangman is verboten?

We used to play hangman in 4th grade, on rainy days when we couldn't go outside for recess. The teacher showed us how. Guess our entire class would be in jail on felony charges in these times.

[Diverdogz]

Stickini takes the prize....thats a good one.

[varon]

Hmm, wonder what kind of trouble I would have gotten in when I use to draw stick fiqure war scenes when I was really bored in class. =/

If done today, you'd probably be in an adjoining cell to Slobodan Milosevic ;-)

[Born Conservative]

[sweetliberty]

But a felony???? For drawing pictures? Of course, a similar picture where the "victim" was the president would have been fine. The kid probably would have gotten an award for that kind of "threat."

People, there IS NO freedom of speech. What we have is one self-selected group of people determining what is and isn't okay for anybody else to say. Not only is this nonsense, it is evil. We have become what we've always fought against.

[sweetliberty]

Why stick people are extinct.

[beezdotcom]

You are sooo lucky there's a statue of limitations.

Only until they make it a capital crime. Then, RUN!

[Rainmist]

Obviously you are childless.

[jimt]

Certainly these drawings show a problem...

You were obviously never a little boy.

[PilloryHillary]

Would this pic make a kid seem suicidal or homicidal?

[pageonetoo]

Obviously you are childless....

Obviously you are clueless. I have 5! Oldest son is cop, #2 son is band teacher, three and four daughters are "at home" mommy's, and the fifth daughter is 15 and an artist!

[FreedomCalls]

There's a whole genre of computer animated stick fights out there. Entire web sites are devoted to the art. Check it out:

http://directory.google.com/Top/Recreation/Humor/Bizarre/Stick_Figure_Deaths?tc=1/

I'm sure most computer-savvy boys are aware of this. I wonder if the school administrators are?

[freepatriot32]

possible story for your florida ping list

[KC_for_Freedom]

Two boys were arrested for making pencil-and-crayon stick figure drawings depicting a 10-year-old classmate being stabbed and hung

My friend and I did this in an ongoing cartoon (similar to Spy vs Spy in Mad Magazine). I was older then, high school, so I guess they would have given us the chair.

[uglybiker]

Stick figures are a bad influence must be defeated!

[HungarianGypsy]

In high school my husband once wrote a letter to a girl in class stating that read, regarding two teachers they were complaining about, "They aren't even worth two bullets between them." This was in the bottom of the garbage in one of the teacher's classrooms. The teacher dug through her garbage found this statement and said she felt threatened by her student (before this she was already mad that he was able to pass her tests without doing the homework. something she said was impossible) He ended up moved out of her class. If it were now-a-days he would have a felony criminal record.

[OXENinFLA]

WTF!!