High School Student Allegedly Arrested For ‘Killing Dinosaur’
A high school student says he was arrested for “killing a dinosaur” for a school project. It seems only Steven Spielberg can get away with it, and he has a picture to “prove” it.
Alex Stone and his classmates were told to write a few sentences about themselves as though they were Facebook status updates. It seems that Stone took a little extra liberty and described something completely impossible, and he claims law enforcement came after him for the use of potentially violent words.
Stone, 16, explained what he wrote:
“I killed my neighbor’s pet dinosaur, and, then, in the next status I said I bought the gun to take care of the business.”
Stone wasn’t even told to rewrite his assignment after the fictional entry was taken out of context. The teacher had seen the word “gun” and the phrase about “taking care of business,” and decided to notify the authorities about a potential threat to the school. Police searched his bookbag and locker on Tuesday and did not find a gun.
STRANGE BUT TRUE: High School student says he was ARRESTED for killing dinosaur: http://t.co/C8bIAuaP9A pic.twitter.com/2kSsy6Flt6
— WLBT 3 On Your Side (@WLBT) August 20, 2014
As the Summerville High School student discovered, sometimes it’s best to keep your imagination to yourself. Some people are just too sensitive about certain things and young Stone struck the wrong nerve.
Alex Stone’s mother Karen Gray told the local news that she doesn’t understand the actions taken:
“I could understand if they made him re-write it because he did have ‘gun’ in it. But a pet dinosaur? I mean first of all, we don’t have dinosaurs anymore. Second of all, he’s not even old enough to buy a gun.”
Karen Gray said her son had done as he was told, and his school assignment had gotten him suspended without even informing her of the “incident.”
Alex Stone added:
“I regret it because they put it on my record, but I don’t see the harm in it. I think there might have been a better way of putting it, but I think me writing like that, it shouldn’t matter unless I put it out towards a person.”
High school student Alex Stone said he wrote about killing a dinosaur as a joke, and the words were taken too far. It only shows that you have to be careful what you write in any situation. Someone could get offended and take actions you don’t expect.
Stone was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct over his assignment, and suspended from school for a week.
Was the Summerville High School teacher simply being too cautious?
[image via Oceans of Kansas]
