Arvada boy, 11, arrested over violent stick figure drawing

[DarkSeraphim02]

And people wonder why I'm a cynical misanthrope.

If you tell the kid to do something cathartic to unwind, which in this case was drawing a picture, don't punish him for following your suggestion, unless of course he actually tries to do what he drew, and if the picture was really worth that much concern, sit down with the kid and actually talk to him about it, if it turns out he has no desire to do what he drew and was just venting because he was mad then let it go.

 

[Astoria]

Ok so he got punished for doing what he was asked to? That's pretty stupid. It's hardly a death threat.

 

[SkyeNeko]

my teacher in high school made me stop drawing violent pictures... then again i did carry around the large pairs of all metal scissors around often.

 

[similar.squirrel]

Eg.. I used to draw pictures of stick-figures getting killed in inventive ways. It's a pretty lame thing to do, but not worthy of an arrest. The kid will most likely learn that what he did is neither cool nor cathartic [not that catharsis ever really works, anyway].

 

[KaiRai]

I had pictures like that all the time. I made a flickbook of it after watching an ep of Art Attack. Why the hell are people so quick to assume something's up? He acted out his frustration in the manner an 11 year should - by drawing a picture. Jesus people, calm down a little.

 

[Goldeneye1989]

Stan Lee Needs to be arrested now, he is clearly a menace to society

 

[headshotcatcher]

Drawing a picture of you killing your teacher is basically a death threat, so yeah they had grounds to arrest him. The fact that the therapist told him to kinda excuses him though, but maybe the police didn't know?

No, it is not a death threat. You know what a death threat is? "I'm going to kill you." THAT is a fucking death threat. Not violent little pictures. Art cannot be a death threat, no matter how stick figurey.

Did you read the article? He wrote 'Teacher must die!' next to the pictures of HIM killing the teacher.

That's a death threat...

His psychiatrist TOLD HIM TO DO THAT!

Does drawing out frustrations mean you should draw yourself killing people with threats next to it? And even if so, what makes the psychiatrist a definite authority?