May 27, 1999

The Essay In Virginia Beach...

Recently, a student was expelled from a Virginia Beach High School for writing a "creative" essay on his standards of learning exam that talked about bringing a nuclear bomb to school. While he and his lawyers sustain that it was written as a "dark tale", the school board suspended the student saying that it was a clear threat. Upon reading the "transcript" (which I have provided at the bottom of this opinion), I have to agree with the school board. I then went to the Virginian Pilot Online TalkNet postings where I read a bunch of bleeding heart liberalism about this "atrocity". Below are my comments and where I stand on this whole issue:

 

Warnie Pritchett - 02:17pm May 28, 1999 Eastern (#38 of 40)

Oh come on. Bleeding heart syndrome at it's worst. Rules are rules are rules. As with the case of the kitchen knife, it was a rule, and it was enforced. The essay was no more fictional than the daily news, which I must say, has more fiction than that essay. From the transcript it was clearly defined that this was how he felt, and although he may have sense enough to not carry through with it, it deserves suspension and looking into.

Let me tell you a little something: In my senior year in High School, 1995, way before this mass hysteria about shootings and bombings and school violence, I once told one of my teachers how I felt about some of the students, and told them that it would have made me very happy to see them be inflicted with the same mental pain as they had given me -- not intending to act on it, merely making a statement about the pain and suffering they had put me through. And I was duly reported to the office and put on psychiatric suspension. Rightfully so... anyone who writes about presenting a school with a nuclear device, even with no intention of bringing a nuclear device to said school, needs to have their head checked. This wasn't a plea for help, it was a genuine feeling about his schooling. And besides, most people who are going to go in an inflict damage to a school certainly wouldn't write it in an essay. I once knew some people who brought sawed off shotguns to school -- they certainly didn't write about that in an essay.

Hystaria this may be, but the fact remains: a rule is a rule is a rule. You cannot commend someone for talking about blowing up school and innocent people just because of how they feel, and in all rights, he should be EXPELLED, not suspended. But rather than complaining about it, why don't all you PARENTS who have children in the public school system push for reform of the "Rights and Responsibilities" handbooks? It's all detailed there. And let me remind you: the rights and responisibilities of children in school are not governed by the Consititution of the United States, but the Rights And Responsibilities Handbook. A lot less than probable cause is needed to have someone suspended, and that is the way it should be.

Right: Children have the right to an education free from distraction and violence. Responsibility: Children also have the responsibility to provide this atmosphere, and anything hindering that atmosphere will be dealt with punishment.

Mr. Bullock disturbed this atmosphere, and it needs to be checked out. He is not a hero - he is not a victim of "thought police". Rules are rules are rules. So before you sign that dotted line each year on the rights and responsibilities handbook for your son or daughter, TAKE the time to read it. If you sign it, you have no room to complain, and if you don't sign it, you need to take your complaints to the school board, not the VA Pilot TalkNet posting.

One final note:

Take it from someone who has only been out of the school system for about 4 years now... and take it from someone who always pushed the boundries of "free speech" in school: from the plays I tried to support in drama to the songs I tried to support in choir to my general way of talking in school... ...and on many occasions I got to hear the following phrase: "We can't do that because it violates the rights and responsibilities handbook. You don't have freedom of speech, you have the right to an education and your freedoms are restricted to preserve that right." I even got a lecture from the Principal on that fact.

The first thing you need to understand is that the CONSITITUTION of the UNITED STATES does not enter into the public school system. Freedom of Speech is NOT guaranteed to students. The only rights children have are in the Rights and Responsibilities Handbook. And if they violate something they have affixed their signature to at the beginning of the year, then they get in trouble. I don't care if you're a teacher or just your average Joe from the street. That's the way it works: 4 years ago, and today.

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(Taken from the Virginian Pilot, May 27, 1999.)

What follows is a transcript of the essay written by Chris Bullock, a 16-year-old student at Tallwood High School. It was released Thursday by the school division. Bullock wrote the essay in March as part of a Standards of Learning test. Test readers in Richmond alerted Virginia Beach school officials about the essay. Bullock was arrested May 14 and charged with threatening to bomb. He was immediately released. On Thursday, he faced a disciplinary hearing at the school division. He had been recommended for expulsion but was suspended for the rest of the year.

Good morning fellow students, faculty, and class officers. We are all gathered here today to discuss the matter of who's gift should be chosen to be given to the school. Well, let's dwell on the school for a minute. School is filled with a lot of good and bad things. Let me ask you something. Is this school really worth giving a gift to? Has the school ever given anything to you? These are some of the questions you should ask yourself when thinking on whose gift you should choose and why. I think my gift is perfect for the school.

Many of you are probably accumulating your thoughts right now on what my gift is, but hold on. I'll get to that later. Right now I want to (word missing in transcript) . . . what is a gift? The dictionary defines it as something given freely; the act of giving freely; the power or right of giving, and a natural ability. All the terms I've just said to you are worldwide definition for gift.

Now, in my opinion a gift is giving something unto someone and the gift you give them symbolizes your true feelings. If you think about it, a gift should come from the heart. You should pick or make a gift that symbolizes how you feel. You should have a gift that symbolizes how that person, place, or thing has made you feel. When you do that the gift means more.

I know you people are starting to get tired of hearing me talk, so now I'm going to describe my gift. My gift has a radioactive metallic element produced artificially from uranium. This element is called plutonium and it's highly radioactive, but that's not my gift. The plutonium is covering a nitroglycerin and plastic chemical mixture. The mixture mixes when I press the button on the microphone. Once the elements mix you'll have a big and laughing gift.

Now, the moment you've all been waiting for; the conclusion to my speech. My gift to the school is a nuclear time bomb strapped to my chest. The bomb is triggered by a detonator, which is the microphone. I have chosen this gift because school has given me nothing but stress, heartache, and pain. I must say thank you for the knowledge and education you have given me. Without it I (word missing here in transcript) never been able to make this bomb. I would really like to thank my chemistry teacher for helping me with it. So now I'm ending my speech and triggering the detonator. I hope you all enjoy the light show for what little time you have left. Thank you.