'Disturbing' essay gets student arrested.

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'Disturbing' essay gets student arrested.
by Thom Jefferson Apr 27, 2007

The short story....Teacher asks students to write about their emotions. Kid does so and is arrested. (No threats were made in the essay and he turned it into the teacher rather than making it his manifest.) Read the story and comment away!

'Disturbing' essay gets student arrested
CARY | Teacher alerts principal after seeing 'violence' in teen's writing

April 26, 2007
BY ROSALIND ROSSI Education Reporter/rrossi@suntimes.com
A Cary-Grove High School senior was being tutored off-campus Wednesday following his arrest for writing what officials called an alarming essay that allegedly referred to a shooting but did not contain any specific threats.

Allen W. Lee, 18, has been charged with disorderly conduct stemming from an essay that was part of a "free writing'' assignment in a creative writing class.

The teen was charged because his teacher became alarmed by the "violence'' he described, Cary Police Chief Ron Delelio said. The essay contained no specific threats but was "disturbing and inappropriate,'' he said.

The paper allegedly made a vague reference to a fictional school shooting in McHenry County but didn't specify a school or district, a law enforcement source said.

"We think they have been too harsh,'' Lee's father, Albert Lee, said Wednesday. He declined to comment further, except to say "every story has two sides.''

The charges come less than two weeks after Virginia Tech senior Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and then himself on the Blacksburg, Va., campus. Cho had written violence-drenched plays in his creative writing class.

In Lee's case, "We filed what we thought was the appropriate charge,'' Delelio said. "We need to be very vigilant today when we're dealing with school settings.''

Disorderly conduct can be filed if someone's actions alarm or disturb another enough to "provoke a breach of the peace,'' McHenry County State's Attorney Louis Bianchi said. "So far, we're supportive'' of the charge, he said.

Lee's creative writing instructor -- a first-year teacher -- became so concerned when reading the essay Monday night that she called the Cary-Grove English Department chair, who then called the principal at home, said Community High School District 155 Supt. Jill Hawk.

Police were alerted, and Lee was arrested Tuesday morning. By Wednesday, Lee was in an "off-campus placement'' with a tutor "while we assess just how extensively we need to be concerned,'' Hawk said.

Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, said that without knowing all the details of the essay, "You have to wonder whether [the charges were] an overreaction, given the events at Virginia Tech.''

Normally, an essay done as homework would be "protected speech,'' Yohnka said.

"He turned it into a teacher. He didn't post it online,'' Yohnka said. "It's not a communication between him and the broader world. This [charge] is just very puzzling.''

A Cary-Grove student who knows Lee described him as quiet and smart. "He was quiet, he wasn't scary," the student said.

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	(2007-04-27 13:06:52) It would be hard to say if the arrest was innappropriate without reading the essay- but the article claims no threats were made in the essay. Remember we are free- until they take away your voice. Ummm.... hmmmm. uh... Oh oh!
	(2007-04-27 16:26:08) So what was he arrested for if it wasn't threatening? I can't make any decision either way without reading the essay. .....this just found on CNN.... High school senior wrote about shooting, stabbing, drugs, sex â�¢ Class was told to write whatever came to mind, without censoring their thoughts â�¢ Allen Lee says his essay exaggerated for creative effect and was "just junk" â�¢ Lee, a straight-A student, charged with disorderly conduct; could get 30 days. WHOA- What's going on folks??? Does this just reek of injustice or what? I assume the charges will be dropped.
	(2007-06-18 21:50:32) Disorderly conduct? On what grounds? Did the sentencing judge read the commentary in question? What was disorderly about it? Funny that this, so-called, "disturbing" essay can be found nowhere in the media. Hmmm. Do you think Adolf Hitler's professor cited his literary works in high school? Huh.
	(2007-07-15 08:56:31) Patrick Henry would have been arrested. Is peace so sweet, is live so dear to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Give Lee liberty or give him death.