I almost certain that this has far less to do with politics (just how many "staunch Republican" school teachers do you know?) and much to do with the paranoid "zero tolerance" mindset of public school bureaucrats. Any portrayal of violence or weapons is considered by these mindless chicken littles as a possible indication of a psyhcopathic killer. Games like "Cowboys and Indians", dodgeball, snowball fights and in some cases even "tag" that many of us took part in during recess are now strictly verboten as "too violent".

The Secret Service recieved a tip, and they followed up on it... the agents were probably bitching the whole way home about how their time was wasted, but they were just doing their job. It's the Assistant Principal who called them that needs to be bitch-slapped out of a job.

It's a sad sate of the union when free speech and free expression is placed in such a spot as this. For the government to waste it's time questioning a teen about a cartoon...

Yeah they must not allow newspapers in the schools because of their political cartoons showing violence.

~RJ

Lets see here, a person draws a picture depicting the president's severed head on a stake, thats free speech.

Now, someone shows a picture of their classmates severed head on a stake, apparently according to the first choice, this is also free speech. However, this person would probably be suspended as possibly expelled.

The problem, as HP stated, is zero tolerance policies. Because of recent events, schools cannot afford to give any slack or they risk being sued for negligence, so instead they have to severely punish everything. They are not allowed to make a distinction.

Its the same reason you see kids gets suspended from school for bringing aspirin for their headaches. While we can all agree their is no danger in that, this violates most school's zero tolerance drug policies.

Basically, its a result of incompetent teachers and administration who cannot use logic in their decisions (and this is why they became high school teachers in the first place), so instead school boards have to adopt these extremely stupid measures to make sure they cannot be held liable for anything.

Do you still think they let the kids play "Smear the Queer"?

I know what it is that causes this to happen. It just sucks.

No it's smear the metrosexual.

I don't remember teachers ever hearing about what kinds of games we used to play. Btu we had a huge field and our teachers didn't give a shit about us until the bell rang for us to come in :D

They need to implement a good samaritan law for teachers so they CAN use their common sense and not be sued for it by asshat parents. The zero tolerance policies just end up having the schools sued anyway.

Lose-lose situation. Ah well. Glad I'm out of school and don't have to deal with the idiocy.

Yeah, it seems overboard, but it's just the SOP of the Secret Service.

Per Congressional Authorization [link] in 1917, threats against the president are illegal (the actual text of the law can be found here [link] ). This was upheld by the Supreme Court in Watts vs. United States in 1969, a case dealing with a man who said the first thing he would do with the rifle he was forced to carry to the Vietnam war would be to shoot LBJ with it. In that case, the man was not convicted because it wasn't seen as a credible/legitimate threat to the president, but the law was upheld. [link] It was also ruled that the security of the president is vital to national security, and therefore threats against him should be investigated.

Investigative responsibility was further established in 18 U.S.C. C 1751(i), which more clearly stated that the Secret Service has the right to investigate threats against the president, while the FBI has jurisdiction over any actual murder/assault cases.

Even Eminem was investigated by the Secret Service for a song in which he said he'd like to "see the president dead". [link]

The thing that doesn't make this Orwellian by any means is that the kid was never charged with a crime, detained, or abused. Just questioned, and upon questioning it was obviously determined that he didn't pose a viable threat. I would assume that a file and record of the investigation that took place would be kept, but I don't think they'd spend too many resources tracking the kid for the rest of his life. He's obviously not much of a threat.

It seems overboard, and probably is, but that's just a standard procedure. Probably the one that went the most overboard would be the school, who reported it in the first place (assuming it wasn't a fellow student).

give them news dont brainwash kids.

I'm currently in high school fuck the zero tolerance policy, fuck the way school is, what is homework fuck that, i'd rather drop out before i turn in another fucking piece of homework we "have" to do or we FAIL fuck that shit you cant tell people they fail simply because they didnt turn their shit in. It's pointless anyway don't let politicians and stupid ass parents choose how kids go to school, I am technically a "kid" in the governments and everyone else's eyes, but to me all that matters is that I am free and don't listen to the government. Do you want to know why I do that because that's what true freedom is not having governments tell you what to do the beginning years of your life or at all in your life. Fuck the Dept. of Education I'm choosing how my schooling goes, and I'm not listening to the government and I don't give a shit what all you parents think. I got some advice for you, listen to your kids when they say school sucks, talk to the school about it, or just have your kid(s) start a union, not student president. How can the government force me to go to school until I'm at least 16, and if i miss to many days the school will report me to the court which in turn will give anyone a minimum of 6 months probation simply for missing 3 or more days of school. 3 days of fucking school for 6 months probation fuck the government ill do what I want, oh ya FUCK THE NEW WORLD ORDER, FUCK THE IDEA OF CENTRALIZED GOVERNMENT, listen to my ideas you would be amazed how this world would turn out, hardly any governments, people not relying on corporations, and most of all no racism no wars and PEACE.