High school senior writes essay, arrested by police

[Cant_Be_Faded]

one step further along the road to banning negative emotions and outward negativity in general

[John Patrick]

having sex with the dead bodies?

well she did say whatever he wanted...

[FromWayDowntown]

I don't get the point of arresting the kid. Send him to counseling and condition his return to school upon his completion of that counseling. Something far less draconian than arrest and criminal charges.

The thing is that writing like this actually has some utility, at least inasmuch as it allows teachers and administrators to determine if a student might be disturbed or need counseling. While there are plenty of problems that counseling can't solve, there are many, many problems that can be resolved by talking to an objective listener and getting feedback.

If you start arresting kids for the things that they write, they're not going to offer their emotions in their writing or other work. That might make things comfortable for teachers, but it won't help (in any respect) in identifying those who might be on the verge of going off. After all, both the Columbine duo and the VT killer gave some written hints to teachers that there was something very wrong from an emotional standpoint. I'd much rather that teachers have access to that sort of writing and have training to help them identify simmering emotional issues that might be betrayed by written work than have everyone feel safer because students are deterred from expressing themselves. Maybe kids will stop writing truthfully if they're going to be sent to counseling; but I'm certain that kids will stop writing truthfully if they're going to be arrested for writing things that might be disturbing.