Secret Service questions student on drawings

[kitty]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/West/04/2....ap/index.html

Secret Service questions student on drawings

PROSSER, Washington (AP) -- Secret Service agents questioned a high school student about anti-war drawings he did for an art class, one of which depicted President Bush's head on a stick.

Another pencil-and-ink drawing portrayed Bush as a devil launching a missile, with a caption reading "End the war -- on terrorism."

The 15-year-old boy's art teacher at Prosser High School turned the drawings over to school administrators, who notified police, who called the Secret Service.

"We involve the police anytime we have a concern," Prosser Superintendent Ray Tolcacher told the Tri-City Herald newspaper.

Secret Service agents interviewed the boy last Friday. The student, who was not arrested, has not been identified.

The school district disciplined him, but district officials refused to say what the punishment was. Tolcacher said the boy was not suspended.

The artwork was apparently part of an assignment to keep a notebook of drawings, according to Kevin Cravens, a friend of the boy's family.

The drawing that drew the most notice showed a man in what appeared to be Middle Eastern-style clothing, holding a rifle. He was also holding a stick with an oversize head of the president on it.

The student said the head was enlarged because it was intended to be an effigy, Cravens said. The caption called for an end to the war in Iraq.

A message left by The Associated Press with an after-hours duty officer with the Secret Service in Washington, D.C., was not immediately returned on Monday.

"If this 15-year-old kid in Prosser is perceived as a threat to the president, then we are living in '1984'," Cravens said.

Tolcacher insisted it was not a freedom of speech issue, but a concern over the depiction of violence.

"From what I saw, [school officials] were right to be concerned," Prosser Police Chief Win Taylor said.

[TB4000]

This is ridiculous. We're basically living in a regime right now, and it's ridiculous. We may as well be every other country on earth, since we're acting just as paranoid as they normally do when it comes to free thinking.

[ism]

Well, the article already did the 1984 reference for me. You figure an art teacher could separate creative expression from a genuine threat, unless her report was motivated by fear of repurcussion from administration. Now art students are now limited in their expression by fear of being reported by their art teachers. It's a chain of fear affecting millions of children. Who's winning the war on terror?

[SunWuKong]

well, i don't know. anti-war drawings is one thing, but Bush's head on a stick? a 15-year old boy is probably no threat to the president, but the regulations for investigating things like these are set down for a reason. i think it was the right thing for the Secret Service to investigate. it's not like those kids were arrested.

[VV o n g B a]

u can't blame the secret service... its their job. seriously tho, even as a little kid, i knew it was against the law to threaten to kill the president. the art teacher may have overreacted, but with columbine in mind, it's understandable.

[kitty]

i'm thinking civil liberties here... and i realize that this is a pre-9/11 thing... threaten the president and you are subject to secret service investigation, but i really think that even that violates the freedom of speech clause.

[Kuchana]

not necessarily. any level of threat against a president, however minor it may be, should be investigated. those drawings are very questionable being the fact that they implied violence. it would have been perfectly fine for saying no war in iraq but to depict the president's head on a stick?? that's going too far.

[SunWuKong]

Originally Posted by kittygirl

i'm thinking civil liberties here... and i realize that this is a pre-9/11 thing... threaten the president and you are subject to secret service investigation, but i really think that even that violates the freedom of speech clause.

actually i think a few things override the freedom of speech - such as threatening the president, falsely yelling "fire" at a crowded public room, etc etc.

[kuilong]

Originally Posted by kittygirl

i'm thinking civil liberties here... and i realize that this is a pre-9/11 thing... threaten the president and you are subject to secret service investigation, but i really think that even that violates the freedom of speech clause.

Where does it say the Secret Service needs a good reason to talk to you? He's only entitled to one if he's arrested.

In the days after 9/11 some guy on http://www.kuro5hin.org/ was interviewed by some Secret Service agents for describing something on the site to do with chemicals.