Teen expelled for writing violent fiction

by Rob Peters | February 4, 2008 at 01:19 pm
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I thought this story was interesting because it demonstrates how nervous school officials are in the wake of Columbine and the many high school tragedies since. 

Did they overreact?

TORONTO -- A 17-year-old student has been expelled from his Brampton, Ont., high school for a fictional essay he submitted in a creative writing class about a disgruntled student who murders one of her teachers.

Brendan Jones, a Grade 12 student at Heart Lake Secondary School northwest of Toronto, was expelled last week, leaving him facing an uncertain future. Brendan is just three credits shy of graduating from high school and was hoping to study criminology at university next fall. But it is not at all clear whether he will be able to transfer to another high school in the province.

Brendan was informed last week that he was no longer welcome at the school. He was also told that if he went into the school, he would be arrested.
 
The five-page, handwritten essay, entitled "School's Out," is narrated by an unnamed Grade 10 student who stresses that she likes all of her teachers with the notable exception of Mr. Adams, who teaches science and has an "intoxicating odor." The controversial part of the story happens near the end when the student manages to trap the teacher in the basement of her house, picks up a bat and gives him "some final words." It ends ominously with: "Sorry, Mr. Adams, but schools [sic] out!"




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