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NEWS: South Carolina Student Removed over "Death Note" List


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Hotaruzuki



Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Posts: 58
Location: Virginia, USA
PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 8:11 pm Reply with quote
Ahhhhhhggggg this is the sorta stuff that makes anime look bad.....

We're all freaks arn't we? *sigh* Smile

It really pisses me off 'cause everytime some does something stupid it has to start in MY state (Virginia).
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Kirkdawg
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Joined: 07 May 2006
Posts: 742
Location: California, USA
PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 8:20 pm Reply with quote
posterior_praiser wrote:
How are they to know if you're being serious or not?

Quite easily, actually. Some very 'on the surface' investigation can reveal enough about a person to indicate whether or not the threat needs to be taken to the next level or not. Ask questions. Nothing that takes a substantial amount of time or invades his privacy; enough to understand who this kid is and whether or not he has a history of violence in his past.
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The Xenos



Joined: 29 Mar 2004
Posts: 1519
Location: Boston
PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 8:38 pm Reply with quote
First, I always find it funny how confused local and even national news outlets get confused on terminology.

Quote:
The notebook is based on a Japanese cartoon (manga) called “Death Note,” which is shown on Cartoon Network™. The show is popular among young people, and fans sometimes create their own “Death Note” books. It’s available on the Cartoon Network™ as part of the channel’s “Adult Swim” programming, according to school district officials. It’s also available on DVDs and in a new Nintendo game.


They don't show the manga on Cartoon Network. The news doesn't even mention the comic book / manga.

Plus, I don't think most fans create their own Death Note. If they do, and no offense to anyone here who does, well, that's pretty damn immature.

Speaking of immature, what's a kid in middle school doing being left alone at 10pm or 11pm when Death Note airs on Adult Swim. Why are his parents letting him watch adult programming?

As for the school, I do think they overreacted. If they only found the notebook, then it's just creative fiction. Well, more so very derivative fiction. If that's all it was, a childish wish list with no intent or cause of capability of violence, then the student should get a slap on the wrist. The pen is not a weapon. If they determine that it was just a list, then it's thankfully a false alarm. They shouldn't punish the student more. Hell, that just makes a worse situation, isolating and causing more trouble for the student maybe leading to a real situation down the road. If you paint a student as a possible gunman or suspect of violence, as a real threat, maybe they'll start believing it themselves.

And don't give me this post Columbine sh--. The world is not different after Columbine of VT. Those were, and pardon my sarcasm, only new high scores that the media hypes up. Shootings happen a lot in inner city and poorer schools. They've had metal detectors there for some time before Columbine. Yet you don't hear about them because 1) The numbers shot each time are low and 2) The kids getting shot aren't rich white kids in the burbs. Columbine was a solitary event unless you're a media hound creating your own reality like Jack Thompson.

Also, I wonder when people like Jack and other parents groups are going to branch out from video games and set sights on manga. Like video games, it seems parents don't get these Japanese 'cartoons'. And clearly these cartoons are for kids so any ones with adult themes must be wrong. Oh and lord help us all when middle America and the conservative right discovers yaoi and realizes their daughters are reading cartoons about gay sex. Ticking time bomb I tell you.

[Edit: Try to avoid stereotyping and insults. I went ahead and removed the offending comment. - Keonyn]


Last edited by The Xenos on Sun Mar 02, 2008 8:52 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Crawly



Joined: 19 Feb 2006
Posts: 204
PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 8:39 pm Reply with quote
dtm42 wrote:
That said, did they really need to remove him/her?


Yes. Yes, they did. Honestly, we have no idea what the intent of the student was or what the level of their emotional well being is. Neither do the folks running the school or the parents of the children on the list. Better he be removed than those on the list, since he's the one causing the disturbance.

I haven't read all the many posts in this thread, no doubt from those under 21 who think it's terrible the school removed a student who threatened the lives of others because it involves an anime they like. I'm sure there's even some cries about the Christian right ruining our lives by trying to take away our anime (even though it has nothing to do with what's going on here). Just to clue you into reality though, this week a 16 year old girl killed her family and torched her house because her parents were trying to make her stop seeing her boyfriend. And in other news in the past few months, some young adults killed several students at their college and then killed themselves. And then, of course, there's the high school students who are killing their classmates, teachers, and strangers at the mall after making hitlists that people ignored. Welcome to the real world, where threats must be taken seriously regardless of how harmless they may turn out to be. Not to mention, these stupid kids need to be taught a lesson. There are certain things that you just DO NOT DO. Hopefully his parents will take it seriously and teach him how to be an adult who takes responsibility for his actions. Doubt it, though. They'll probably be like most of the folks here and give him all kinds of excuses for his stupidity.
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Kirkdawg
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Joined: 07 May 2006
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Location: California, USA
PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 8:45 pm Reply with quote
Crawly wrote:
I haven't read all the many posts in this thread, no doubt from those under 21 who think it's terrible the school removed a student who threatened the lives of others because it involves an anime they like.

Read the thread like the rest of us instead of making assumptions. They tend to make something out of people; you'll find that the majority of people participating in this thread lean towards your position. Idea


Last edited by Kirkdawg on Sun Mar 02, 2008 8:56 pm; edited 1 time in total
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nargun



Joined: 29 Mar 2006
Posts: 930
PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 8:50 pm Reply with quote
maichips wrote:
It doesn't matter that Light's goals are just, because anyone can apply skewed logic to them.


Light's goals aren't just. He claims they are, but the man's full of stuff. Unreliable narrator.

Same as, for a very good example [I prepped it beforehand for another forum] Lolita. We've got protagonists who engage in hideous amounts of self-deception and willful blindness so they can simultaniously do whatever screwed-up thing they want *and* maintain their feelings of self-righteousness.

Problem is, we've got an unreliable audience, too; people who pull the same mental gymnastics as the protagonists do for much the same reasons, and read the work as endorsing said actions.

Sigh.
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Crawly



Joined: 19 Feb 2006
Posts: 204
PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 8:53 pm Reply with quote
Kirkdawg wrote:
If no school officials have a personal relationship with him, then I say our public education system has failed beyond measure.


I don't see it that way. Even in small town schools, the student to teacher population makes that near impossible. At my school, they gave us an "adopted teacher" when we came in as freshemen. But if we as the student didn't want anything to do with the teacher (as I didn't) there wasn't a lot the teacher could do. Not their fault or the fault of the education system. Just plain old reality.

Besides, the kid needed to be removed while this is investigated. Do you really think one session, no matter how heart to heart, would get down to the matter of why he wants people dead? Would you have him in the general student population if it was your child (or you, for that matter) on his hit list? Should the students he threatened have to be removed rather than the one who made the hit list? Think about it a little. One day and one talk with the kid isn't going to solve the issue or make nervous parents feel better. He needs to be suspended just for being stupid, and they need to keep him out of the general student population until they're 100% certain he's not a threat to himself or anyone else (which they may already be). But they did the right thing removing him.
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Kirkdawg
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 9:03 pm Reply with quote
I bet you'd be surprised how much actually paying attention to a kid changes their attitude. I also beg to differ on your argument that one conversation is a sufficient gauge; I did not suggest that this alone should be how one measures the potential of the threat either.

By a failing education system, I am specifically referring to the elementary-middle school systems. I'm sorry I didn't clarify this in my original post. I agree-there are some high schoolers out there that have 0 interest in teachers. If an adolescent is still pulling stuff like this, then we have a psychological problem-action is probably required.
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chrisb
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Joined: 07 May 2006
Posts: 634
Location: USA
PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 9:14 pm Reply with quote
Tomibiki wrote:
Kid got caught bein' a fool, he'll learn there's a time and a place for this kinda stuff.


There is NEVER a time and place to do this type of thing, I'm surprised some people also see it as ok to do this in private, it's just flat out wrong.

I'm surprised some people see this as an overreaction, I highly doubt you'd feel the same way if you'd had someone affected by school shootings or have been on some person's list.
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bgFish



Joined: 31 Jul 2006
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 9:16 pm Reply with quote
Don't the Death Note notebooks have the 'rules' printed in them somewhere? Something like that would certainly raise alarm bells with almost any school staff.

Yes, there is a good possibility that it was all a joke to the student. But really, in today's school enviroment, you'd expect the staff to respond in such a way.
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Aresef



Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 914
Location: MD
PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 9:17 pm Reply with quote
This should end well.


*waits for our Jack Thompson*
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Randompeon



Joined: 24 Jan 2008
Posts: 18
Location: Scotland
PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 9:25 pm Reply with quote
From reading the article and about 75% of these posts, most of it is pure speculation.

Maybe the list was for a party or maybe it was a "hitlist", the other problem most haven't noticed is this: were they being bullied? and if so, then removing them would only make them feel worse and could quite easily put them over the edge.

The only real way to find out is to ask the kid what the list was in the first place, ok they may lie but if they sees that someone is on thier side they may actually tell the truth


(Edited since no gender was mentioned in either article)


Last edited by Randompeon on Sun Mar 02, 2008 9:34 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Avatar of Justice



Joined: 20 Oct 2006
Posts: 36
PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 9:32 pm Reply with quote
Am I the only person annoyed that this kid probably wrote down the names of kids that he didn't like or who had picked on him, as opposed to people whose deaths he thought would make the world better for all of humanity Wink

He could've at least tried to emulate Light correctly...
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grgspunk



Joined: 03 Mar 2007
Posts: 136
PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 10:31 pm Reply with quote
Personally, I'd say they were reacting the wrong way, not because they removed a child for having anime paraphanalia, but because they decided to immediately remove the student, out of fear, without bothering to make visible efforts to solve whatever problem that was going on within the student.

I would have recommended the school to investigate whether this kid has any problems with himself, his peers as well as his family. If they find out that the kid was just playing around and it was done out of a joke, then I wouldn't mind the school giving something like a suspension for being a complete idiot.

However, I would not immediately remove him from the school system because if he did have problems per se, then an expulsion can only makes things worse. Social alienation and an inability to interact with people can be major contributors to the mental/emotional state of would-be school shooters. If they kick out a child having personal problems, then any and all opportunities of having a healthy social life will be cut off: After all, most kids/teens develop social lives by interacting with other students at school, how is the problem kid going to get any better if you deprive him of the means to interact with other people? Not only that, but if you simply "kick out" the problem child, then he/she might simply go to another school and potentially threaten people there. If the school does find out that he intended to threaten people out of anger/angst/etc, I'd like it if they provided counseling for the child, his parents and any kids that he may be having problems with. It would also be good if the school recommend some psychiatric services for him and create a plan to help any conditions he may be suffering from.

I know incidents like these can provoke a lot of fear, but we can't simply say that a quick fix like getting rid of a problem child will solve anything just because you're scared shitless of what he might do: Peoples' fear of someone can lead to that person suffering from social alienation, which in turn can lead to violence done by the one who is alienated. This is what Klebold and Harris had to put up with prior to the Columbine massacre: If the kid is indeed having problems, then an expulsion/suspension isn't really going to stop them from walking to their school and start a shooting if he really wanted to do so. An expulsion doesn't put a force field around the school, you know. If the kid is having problems, then the school should have every motivation to help the kid solve those problems so he won't be a danger to society later on. If the kid is having problems, then it's rehabilitation, not punishment, that needs to be administered.

Anything resembling social exile on a child having personal problems is out of selfish fear and short-sightedness; it doesn't do any good in the long run. If the school isn't willing to be a part of his solution, then they'll effectively become a part of his problem. If the kid needs help, then a quick fix like expulsion is not going to do any good; it'll only make things worse. It's essentially tossing the problem aside as if though it wasn't there. If the school wants to prevent any acts of violence, then they have to take an active stance in helping any problems the kid may be dealing with.

Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote:
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.


Last edited by grgspunk on Mon Mar 03, 2008 3:09 am; edited 3 times in total
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tygerchickchibi



Joined: 29 Sep 2006
Posts: 1473
PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 10:36 pm Reply with quote
You said it a lot better than I ever could.

I was thinking this partly myself, in a way.

Next to that, news media does speculate a lot, especially around this sort of thing, considering that the public are afraid of what the next best thing is in pop culture that will influence a child to do something *wrong* when possibly either the kid is a lot smarter than that, or they just don't know the concept at all....
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