|
What
Jello Biafra had to say after Columbine -- as relevant today.
also Eminem's My Words
are weapons |
Who's Twisted?
Update on the Twisted
story
April 28, 2001
Bullied teen on 3
new charges: Read story to class
By BRODIE FENLON -- Toronto
Sun
A Cornwall-area teen picked
on by classmates and later charged with uttering death threats
has found a new bully in Canada's justice system, his lawyer
says.
Three new death-threat charges
will be laid against "Storyboy," a young offender charged
and jailed last December after he read a violent story to his
Grade 11 drama class.
The 16-year-old will face a
total of six charges. An earlier charge was dropped.
Toronto lawyer Clayton Ruby
said he was told the new charges, which involve threats against
individual students and an entire math class, will be laid at
trial in September.
"Ei ghty
civilians have been interviewed by police to give evidence in
this very minor case. That's equivalent to what (police) do in
a major murder case," Ruby said.
'INTENT IS TO BULLY'
"If the intent is to bully
him into pleading guilty, it's not going to happen."
An OPP spokesman said additional
charges were pending but refused to discuss them.
"Storyboy" was suspended
from Tagwi secondary school in Avonmore, north of Cornwall, after
he read aloud a fictional essay, in which a bullied boy blows
up his school.
He penned the short story,
entitled Twisted, a week after he was allegedly beaten by classmates.
Six Tagwi students have since been charged with assault and another
is charged with assault with a weapon.
Those students are named with
the school board, principal and drama teacher in a $600,000 suit
filed by the boy's family.
Jailed teen author to
sue
CTV, Apr. 26, 2001
An Ontario teen who was jailed
after writing a story about blowing up his classmates, is suing
over his ordeal.
The 16-year-old from the Cornwall
area, who can't be named, is going after his school board, and
some kids charged with beating him up.
The teen was charged with four
counts of threatening death last December. He spent 31 days in
custody, including Christmas and his 16th birthday.
Wilson says the boy can't go
to school, even though no formal expulsion hearing took place.
The teen's lawyer, Jeffrey
Wilson, says his client is being denied an education. He also
says the school board has blocked the boy's attempt to attend
school elsewhere.
The case made national headlines
after freedom-of-speech advocates expressed concern that he had
been arrested because of his essay called Twisted The story written
for his drama class, was about a boy who plans to take revenge
on bullies who torment him.
Authors such as Margaret Atwood
and Michael Ondaatje took part in a January fundraising benefit
in the teen's honour.
The Crown insisted the charges
were not about the essay but stemmed from death threats he allegedly
uttered against three students at his school.
Students at his school also
suggested the teen had a hit list and bombs. When police searched
his home, they found nothing suggesting a revenge plan besides
the school paper.
© Copyright 2004 Bell
Globemedia Inc.
Calling this 16 year
old author a "young offender" should offend all writers:
we want to know his name so we can tell him how unjustly he has
been treated
As a show of solidarity
with young writers everywhere, injusticebusters publishes Words are weapons. we will also have the
sound file up for a while. Does it make you sick? Want to run
to the censorboard? Think again. Did you see Scary Movie? Natural
Born Killers? Kalifornia? If not, maybe you should. And if you
don't like it, use words, not the weapon of the state to express
your dislike. That's what we developed our cerebral cortexes
for! See also the story of Greg Parsons
who was wrongly convicted of killing his mother, based mainly
on a song he had written.
Freedom
of expression forum held for teen writer
cbc Jan 28 22:43:09 2001
OTTAWA - Some prominent Canadian
writers, including Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje, attended
a forum Sunday to show support for a teenager who ended up in
jail after writing a class essay.
The 16-year-old boy, who lives
near Cornwall, Ont., was arrested last month after writing a
story about a teen who tried to blow up his school as revenge
for bullying.
The boy faces four counts of
utter death threats including some that were allegedly
directed at other students at his school.
He was released on bail Jan.
11, after spending 34 days in detention a period that included
Christmas, New Year's and his birthday.
Sean Wilson, artistic director
of the Ottawa International Writers Festival and the organizer
of the benefit, said what the student needs is support.
"This boy has been a victim
of the system and has been on every major newscast and in all
the newspapers already," Wilson said. "What we're trying
to do is bring it back to the central issue, which is freedom
of speech and the story he wrote."
Plans for the teen to read
his work of fiction, called "Twisted," at the event
were cancelled. Organizers said the boy is under enough pressure
already.
But the two-hour fundraising
benefit went ahead as scheduled at Ottawa's National Arts Centre.
Michael Ondaatje told the audience
how the ability to write out his feelings provided a vent for
his own teenaged angst.
"I see myself as someone
who's been saved by writing," he said. God knows what I
would have been, become, or how I would have ended up without
it."
Margaret Atwood presented the
boy with a book of childhood writings by famous authors. In her
speech, she called for more understanding of the troubles of
youth.
"One reason childhood
can be hell is that as a child you can have no power, and you
can have no recourse, and you can have nobody who actually believes
you," she said.
Some students at the school,
including three who attended Sunday's forum, said the facts of
the case are being overlooked. George Bonkowsky, 16, was in the
drama class when the teen read his story last November.
"It wasn't made a big,
big deal," Bonkowsky said. "Afterwards, the alleged
threats were made. Then it was made a big deal, because people
tied the monologue in with the threats."
Author Tim Wynne-Jones was
supposed to speak on the boy's behalf, but changed his mind.
He feels all of this attention isn't a good idea.
"I bear nothing against
this kid. . . but he's not a hero," he said. "And I
was very afraid of seeing him become a martyr."
Authors rally behind
teen
Canadian Press, Globe and
Mail, Sunday, January 28
Ottawa - A teenager charged
with uttering death threats after writing a high-school essay
sat wide-eyed Sunday as a parade of Canada's literati sang his
praises and defended the right of free speech.
But a classmate from Cornwall,
Ont., who was present when the youth read his essay about a bullied
student who blows up his school sounded a note of caution, saying
the case has been sensationalized.
"The whole case has been
blown out of proportion," said George Bonkowsky, 16, who
attended the forum as part of a three-member group calling themselves
Voice of Reason.
"Everybody's concentrating
on the monologue. It should be about the alleged threats he made.
They have been misinformed."
But the facts of the case weren't
discussed by more than a dozen writers who took the stage at
the National Arts Centre to impart their opinions and writings
to about 250 supporters.
Acclaimed novelist Margaret
Atwood, who presented the boy with a book of childhood writings
by famous authors, said she was attending to bear witness.
"One thing writers do
feel they know how to do is ... they know how to read and they
know how to read between the lines," she said. "And
reading between the lines of this story is quite another story.
"I think that is why we
are here."
The teen, who cannot be identified
under the Young Offenders Act, faces four charges of uttering
death threats. Three relate to statements he allegedly made to
other students more than two weeks after he read his drama essay,
entitled Twisted.
Those charges were not laid
until he had spent more than a month - including Christmas, New
Year's and his 16th birthday - in detention on a single charge,
which some claim is related to the essay itself.
The boy did not read his work
or appear on stage with the authors as scheduled Sunday after
lawyers were consulted and others expressed concerns over whether
he was being exploited for a cause he may not even understand.
However, the softspoken youth
and his parents held a news conference before Sunday's event,
at which they expressed thanks to the sponsors, the Ottawa International
Writers Festival.
His father said he stood by
his son, who has apparently been mentally and physically bullied
for years. "What he wrote was a good story, a story that
was taken out of context," he said, adding he hopes talks
with the school and prosecutors can resolve the situation.
He said he understands the
concern expressed about the story, in which the protagonist plants
explosives in the school cafeteria after he'd been "harassed
and tortured all his life until he was at the brink of insanity."
"I felt that it's very
possible that they could have dealt with those concerns differently.
I think the steps that they did take to deal with it just gave
rise to more problems than they solved."
Student arrested after
drama monologue Teen writer charged with death threats gets bail
WebPosted cbc Fri Jan 12
08:43:22 2001
CORNWALL, ONT. - After spending
more than a month in custody, a teenager accused of threatening
to kill students and staff at his Ontario high school has been
granted bail.
The youth was arrested after
writing a story about a tormented teen who plans to blow up his
school to avenge abuse from bullies.
Crown prosecutors say the charges
of uttering death threats arose not only from the fictional story,
but also from alleged comments directed at three other students.
Writers' groups say the case
raises serious questions about freedom of expression.
On Thursday, Justice of the
Peace Basile Marchand ordered the boy released into the custody
of his parents on a $10,000 bond.
He said that the Crown had
not convinced him that the boy represented a substantial risk
to anyone in the area.
But Marchand did impose bail
conditions, including an order that the teen stay away from school
and not try to contact certain classmates.
The justice of the peace also
turned down a prosecutor's request giving police the right to
enter the family's home at any time to check up on the boy, saying
those powers would be too intrusive.
The boy's 14-year-old brother
remains in police custody, accused of threatening to blow up
two schools. He was arrested just before Christmas, after some
students claimed that he made verbal threats when they teased
him about the older teen's case.
cbc Dec 12 2000
Original story
CORNWALL, ONT. - A high school
at Avonmore, Ont., near Cornwall, has beefed up security after
police say a student threatened classmates.
Last week police and a dog
swept the Tagwi Secondary School looking for a bomb.
This was after a student gave
a monologue, in his drama class, about a harassed student blowing
up a school.
Police say he later threatened
students.
On Friday, police arrested
the 16 year old and charged him with uttering death threats.
Mary Mayer, the school's principal,
says most doors now are kept locked all day and security cameras
are running all night. Staff have also been asked to be extra
vigilant.
The student from North Stormont
cannot be identified because of terms of the Young Offenders
Act. He made a brief appearance in bail court Monday and his
case was adjourned for a bail hearing on Dec. 19.
See the 1999
Dallas, Texas story on a similar case |
Ont. school suspends
boy over Mohawk-style haircut
CanWest News Service, January
13, 2005
WINDSOR, Ont. -- An 11-year-old
boy was suspended from school Wednesday for his teacher's order
to flatten his Mohawk-styled hair because it was a distraction
in class.
"He's missing his education
for his hair," said Katherine Muzzin, whose son Jordan was
accused of disrupting his Grade 6 class at F.W. Begley public
school in Windsor, Ont., with his new hairdo that copies a style
worn by his idol, soccer star David Beckham.
"They made a big issue
out of a little thing," Muzzin said. "It's not hurting
anybody."
The vice-principal issued the
suspension Tuesday under the Education Act for "persisting
in opposition to authority."
Jordan said he refused to comply
with the vice-principal's request to wash out his hair.
"I think I should be able
to wear my hair the way I want to."
The meting of a harsh suspension
only serves to reinforce Jordan's bad attitude about school,
Muzzin added. She said she has taught her son to stand up for
himself, but "don't disrespect (teachers) and he didn't
disrespect anyone."
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
