[Ed. note-someone submitted just the headline, but without a name or story...if they will email me, I will give them credit...~CodeWarrior]

"Secret Service questions student about anti-war drawings

By The Associated Press
04.27.04
PROSSER, Wash. — 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 on April 23. 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.

“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."
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=13245

"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."

OMG get a life

LOOKS like a FREEDOM OF SPEECH issue to me!!!!!

Common sense is dead in public schools.

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

hahaha. my daughters High school drama dept did a shakespear play where someone got beheaded. ever go to a pep rally where talk of slaughter,, killing,, and beating the oposing team to bits? High school is full of violent talk and art. this was nothing more than a STUPID overreacting facilty member who had nothing better to do with his time. perhaps he should try teaching, there's a new concept

The is no freedom of speech in schools. If there was, then we wouldn't have schools forcing their students to wear uniforms or certain colors of clothing. Once your child walks in that door, all freedoms are lost. If you try to express yourself, then you're unpatriotic, racist or a general threat to the school. This results in suspension or even expulsion. It's one reason I plan to homeschool my future children. My children will know freedom.

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

CodeWarrior should make a movie called "10 Years Later", its going to be a spinoff to the book "1984" and the movie 28 Days Later.

I told people at the Kerry forums "1984" should be a required read for completing high school and entering any branch of the government.

Seems everyones a threat to good ol' GEORGE BUSH Hmmmmm I wonder why lol

But yes it does smack of free speech if you ask me lol but nobody does lol.

na bush is realy just a dictator hiding behind the mask of democracy.

I meant "20 Years Later", sorry.

"1984" WAS required reading back in '72.
So was "Slaughterhouse 5"
And Fahrenheit 451. And Catcher in the Rye.
A Clockwork Orange was banned.

Where do kids today get their warnings from?

Obviously, they don't.

They don't it's called censorship the governments wants the younger generation to be blind to whats really going on.

Since when can't you have VIOLENCE in ART?! I heard recently about an artist who cut some of her OWN FLESH off to carve/mold it into a GUN. It was also an anti-violence art piece. Doesn't the secret service have anything better to do... like make people disappear without a trace?

theyre making people's computers disappear without a trace. : )

i see rights disappearing without a trace too : (

The artteacher is an asshole! Has this little fuck ever heard of freedom of expression??!!?!? Somebody call the ACLU and sue these pricks!!

It's one thing for the kid to draw Bush as the devil launching missiles with a stop the war caption, but it is quite another to show the President's head on a stick. That could be interpreted as a desire to do violence against the President, thus the Secret Service would be quite interested.

Perhaps this 15 year old has a thing for Jodie Foster as well...

I'm not so sure this is a freedom of speech issue nor a hate Bush political thing, as much as it may be a Columbine thing. I think teachers are pretty jittery nowadays. We might ask what else was in that notebook of his that wasn't mentioned. Obviously enough to make the local police chief concerned about the boys tendencies. ~pepe~

I disagree, John.
"The student said the head was enlarged because it was intended to be an effigy." I've seen those very protests on the news for years. Didn't the Iraqies put Saddam's head on a stick?
His artwork depicted reality in that case. I think I'll check Slate for political cartoons. I'm sure that someone is depicting Bush in a negative light. And violence? This war, like every war, is violent.

Pyro- great idea!

And, this reminds me of a kid in kindergarten that extended his index finger and crooked his thumb and said bang on something like that at one of his fellow students. He was immediately suspended..another one got in trouble for drawing a picture of a crude gun..

geez...we ARE in 1984....thought crimes could get ya killed as a terrorist!

Gesh, there goes the T-Shirt I wanted to have made about Bush with the wording on the front. WERE ARE THE WMDS BUSH and on the back .. with the caption Oh! then a picture of a WMD up his butt!

What do you expect in a climate in which children are suspended for the possession of "drugs" like Tylenol and "weapons" like nail-clippers? Public schools are an example of the blind leading the blind.

It is legitimate to investigate perceived threats to the President. The problem is that these idiots can't seem to perceive what is a real threat.

"Since when can't you have VIOLENCE in ART?! I heard recently about an artist who cut some of her OWN FLESH off to carve/mold it into a GUN. It was also an anti-violence art piece."

I think you're confusing art with mental illness, sir.

Check out some of this artwork!
http://cagle.slate.msn.com/news/IraqViolence/1.asp

As compmore pointed out this is more about the violence I would imagine then the subject and anything that is percieved as a threat to the president involves the Secret Service, no matter how trivial it may appear.

In this day and age though school overreact out of necessity and a CYA attitude. They get sued and blamed for everything that happens with kids now a days so they will always err on the side of caution. Also thier is the kids history to take into account, maybe this isn't the first incident and they think its a sign of potential voilence. Ever since Columbine schools are extremely anal about things like this.

Whoever said school administrations have no common sense just made the understatement of the day for Washington State. We see these sorts of silly headlines, and hear about 10 word of mouth stories for every newspaper story of just absurd behavior by school administrators that the headline "school administrator uses common sense" would be more newsworthy than this story. In the past two months here a school district declined free tickets to the Circus because they were not also printed in spanish, suspended a 2nd grader for bringing a gun for his GI Joe toy to school with him for show and tell, handcuffed students for failing to comply with requests made by hired security and these are just the ones that made the news.

It's amazing to me that someone this young has such a passionate view about the war on terror. When I was that age, all I did was play video games and watch basketball (some things never change). I wonder if he is really that interested in politics, or if it just happens to be an outlet for his anger which is caused by something else?

Kid might have a been a good politician someday. Guess he blew the background check.

My friends and I are in our late teens and many of us were involved in at least one of the anti-war rallies in San Fransisco last year so I am not suprised that someone only 15 would be so political.

Interesting, I guess it depends on the person. I'm glad I wasn't involved in politcs at a young age, I was able to get in a few more years of bliss in ignorance before realizing how crazy the world is.

Maybe he has a relative that was killed in Iraq.

Hasn't the secret service got anything better to do?

This reminds me of the grapevine effect. You know, when someone says something to someone, then that person gets it mixed up when the pass on the info. You'd think the art instructor would understand diverse opinions. Part of this is probably due to pressure on school teachers to be alert to potential violent behavior tendencies due to past killings at high schools. The problem here is, the drawings eventually got forwarded to the police, who then thought, OMG some student wants to kill the president and that's illegal, time to get the SS involved...

thought u might all like to know i have never been in any trouble at my school besides id badge infractions and i have been caught with ciggerettes on school grounds but i think that by no means does this mean i am violent and i also think that even if i did have a violent behavior that it is still unexceptable for police officers to harass me the way they did and if you were to look at any other drawings in my note book u would find no drawings that would be considered "warning signs" like they like to call them but it wasnt the teacher who acted irisponsible it was the prosser police and me because i was drawing violent pictures at school which are against the rules of course thats not what the school was concerned with they were more worried about if i was planning on signing my draft card but anyways vote anyone but bush 2004

Sure seems to me that people should realize that the media and all the bull!!!! that they spead for all to see in artform and hear loud and clear in so many ways, is what's going on here. People of all ages school or not are influenced greatly by all the propaganda. It's no wonder that this type of artwork was drawn, with everything seen and heard these days, true and untrue???? I know and love this 15 year old kid from Prosser! He's my nephew and by no means is he any threat to himself, Bush or anyone else. He's merely expressing his thoughts to this terrible state of war we are in. Love you SRC! JK