Another Idiot Teacher Alert: Vampire Drawing Gets Kid Called ‘Gang Member’

October 31, 2008 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Education, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston |

-By Warner Todd Huston

But Why Does The AP Report Ignore Key Part of Story?

Remember when you were a young school kid and you drew a vampire during the week of Halloween? Remember how the blood was always dripping down from his menacing, pearly white teeth? Remember how it was all in good Halloween fun? Well, you can just forget THAT mister, at least if you are a 5th-Grader in the Savannah-Chatham school system in Georgia. In Georgia, if you draw a vampire you get called a gang member — even when you were assigned to make the drawing — and then you get sent to “psychological evaluation” as if you are some mentally disturbed monster. Then they kick you out of school… for a Halloween drawing. Really.

The Savannah Morning News gives us the gruesome story of another touchy-feelie teacher gone stupid and another poor little kid lost in “zero-tolerance” hell this Halloween week.

When Jordan Hood was assigned the task of drawing a “scary Halloween mask,” he innocently drew a scary vampire. His art teacher even helped him out with a few of the details. But then came home-room teacher Melissa Pevey (amusingly, even her name sounds pent up) who decided that, far from Halloween fun, little 5th-grader Jordan was obviously a violence prone, mentally disturbed, gang member. So in a harrowing Halloween experience that had no fun in it at all, Pevey had him paraded down to the principal’s office where he was confronted by the police and assigned “psychological evaluation” as a punishment for his artistry.

Naturally, the school explained it all away and backed up this fool of a teacher. They said she was primed to “watch for gang signs” and that teacher Pevey thought that the blood drops looked like the sort of gang signs that the L.A. gang The Bloods use to denote their presence.

Needless to say, Jordan’s Mother was not amused.

Jordan’s mother, LaKisha Hood, was shocked to find that her son’s art lesson had evolved into a gang investigation.

“They told me the droplets could actually be a gang symbol for the number of people he killed,” she said.

OK, let’s not underestimate the infiltration of gangs into our kid’s lives. But, come on. When are these people going to use a little common sense? A nail file or set of clippers are NOT “deadly weapons.” A kid having an aspirin is not the same as having “illegal drugs.” A drawing of a gun is NOT evidence of a “mass murderer.” And a crude drawing of a Halloween vampire is NOT proof of “gang activity!”

Now, this story is bad enough without the Associated Press misreporting it and making it almost sound plausible that this overwrought teacher was right to be worried.

The most important aspect of this story, the part that pretty much proves that the kid is the innocent victim of an overweening feminism in our schools, is the part where the vampire drawing was actually assigned to poor Jordan Hood by his art teacher. Yet, for some reason, the AP decided to exclude that salient point of the story.

Instead, the AP gives full hearing to the school system’s absurd act of invoking gang worries in this case, it fully fleshes out the teacher’s fears, yet never once mentions that this 5th-grader was assigned to draw the picture by another teacher.

Perhaps teacher Pevey might have legitimately had something to worry about if this kid was drawing these blood “tears” unbidden. But he wasn’t. It was a class room assignment, one that his art teacher helped him with.

So, why did the AP exclude the one aspect of the story that tends to prove that the school acted stupidly here? Your guess is as good as mine. It looks to me like an editorial decision to side with the school’s untenable position and not the kid’s logical grievance.

Sadly, this situation could have been easily solved without involving police, without punishing the kid with the stigma of “psychological evaluation” and then being kicked out of school. All these foolish, emasculated school administrators had to do was ask the art teacher what was going on. That teacher would have had a ready explanation and there you have it. No police, mental exams, or expulsion was needed.

If this isn’t further evidence that we need more men in our schools (and not of the Birkenstock wearing, ponytailed, softhanded, bike riding kind either), what is? Having nothing but females running our schools is turning them into thoroughly feminized institutions where everyone has gelatinized spines and all turn to a fear wracked lump of quivering flesh at the slightest evidence of anything rambunctious, gross, tough, loud, or … well… MALE.

In the words of Sgt. Hulka, “lighten up, Francis.”

… Oh, and Happy Halloween.

____________
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston