Teacher suspended by paranoid officials over fictional novels

I had not thought of that. Good point. That definitely makes it seem less like the school is merely taking what they see as necessary precautions and more like he is being arrested for thoughtcrime.

 

"Emergency medical evaluation" means he wasn't arrested but was put into custody for a psych eval. Typically (though this varies by state) he can't be held for more than 72 hours unless the doctors can show he is a danger to himself or others. If these doctors have any sense, he'll be released much earlier than that, and he can get himself a civil attorney to sue the crap out of the school district.

 

I really hope so. Some people are speculating that he might be being held indefinitely without charges or lawyer on some sort of "terrorism" argument. I very much hope that they're wrong, but I do wish that I found the idea more unthinkable than I do.

 

I think the terrorism charge would be stretching it, but nowadays, damn near anyone can be picked up for that.

 

Or a culture of polarization between gun-philes and gun-phobes without much middle ground for people who do not use them but who have the common sense to understand how to handle a gun safely. Of polarization between moral guardians and violent video game junkies without much middle ground for people who do not play them but have the common sense to distinguish between a violent person and a person who enjoys a good video game.

That is it, really -- a culture where common sense is replaced by dubious conclusions. Where a teacher writing science fiction does not meet a reaction of "he is using his imagination to create a product" but a reaction of "OMG WHAT IF HE IS A TERRORIST?" That kind of thing can happen when people do not receive a healthy exposure to something.

Guns: people who use guns responsibly are boring to read or hear about; therefore, someone who does not use a gun or know any responsible gun owners disproportionately hears about people who used guns in shooting sprees.

Violent video games: it is boring to read or hear about people entertaining themselves; therefore, someone who does not play video games or know any gamers who are normal people disproportionately hears about troubled people who happened both to play violent video games and to act out in violence.

Science fiction: it is boring to read about someone else's process of sparking the imagination and putting ideas into words (unless that someone is a celebrity); therefore, someone who does not write about morbid things or know any normal people who write about morbid things disproportionately hears about people who happened to write about the morbid things they did.

 

Try finding Leonard Peltier for me, would you? I write him the day I get his letter and he's moved before my letter gets to him. It's been almost three years since he's received a letter from me - I've written a dozen.

 

You're saying no one knows what jail he's in?

Wiki:

[52] is to a dead link. But Democracy Now interviewed him there in 2012.

 

In Maryland, a Soviet-Style Punishment for a Novelist
He's on leave, not fired though I don't know if that is paid leave or not.

According to the Atlantic he is still in custody (that would be the 72 hour psych eval). But the news report I linked to below said this:

And his novel is not doing too poorly on Amazon but that could be after a bump from the news event.

It's worthwhile noting it was published 3 years ago. And a sequel came out last year.

Teacher removed from Mace's Lane after investigation

This one is going to be interesting.

 

DOUBLE LIKES!

 

Re:

" and that he is no longer on the Eastern Shore."

Am I the only one who's alarmed enough to wonder if he's still in the United States?

 

Definitely.

Although there are forms of violence that are taken more seriously, like rape, child abuse, 9/11, and evidently school massacres.

 

*nods* That's what I'm saying. He gets moved more often than a sentimental soul at a Hallmark movie.

 

No, you're not. If he's not on the East Coast any longer, then he is most likely in Kansas or Colorado. That said, I wouldn't rule out the East Coast.

 

Can't attach a file - can't seem to delete this post

 

I'n not surprised at the prevalence of irrational statements such as "teachers shouldn't be allowed to own guns," but now teachers shouldn't write about troubled people using them in a sci-fi setting?

And this from you, America? Britain, Sweden, and Finland, yeah, I could see stupid shit like that happen in any of those countries, but the US?

Son, I am disappoint.

I hope they come around, give him his job back, and all this will blow over.

 

So...never write a novel ever if you plan to become a teacher? Got it.

Let's see...I'm a video gamer, a geek, and an introvert.

...Yeah, maybe I'll just write stories about a fairy in a fairy kingdom.... Because that's...fun...I guess?

Already have the title of the first book down!

 

Why was my first thought 'Didn't Stephen King write a book about a school shooting when he was a teacher?'

I understand fully the choice made, teachers are more than members of a profession, they have a social standing and responsibility to the community. The education of the young is not something you can take lightly, and thankfully it often isn't. It's a shame more professions are not treated with the same boring seriousness (like say for example economics which has ruined our economy, and politics which doesn't seem to care). But at the same time, things like this suggest to me some people cannot tell fantasy from reality, at the very least.

I guess I'm saying 'Suspended = yes, given the seriousness of his profession, and pending psychiatric evaluation. Fired = no, that would be ridiculous'.

 

@Lemex - He did, and one of the Colombine shooters said he was inspired by the book. King immediately regretted ever writing it and had it taken off print. In this light, I can perfectly understand the reaction. Given the tragic shootings that had happened recently, no one wants a repeat. So when this guy writes about a fictional massacre, you can imagine they won't take it lightly. To be honest, if I were a parent and my child were in his class, I would really hope that he was aware of the difference between reality and fiction, and really hope that the sickos out there don't read his book and take inspiration. So to me, it's a eye-opener. Because anything you write, someone who is incapable of distinguishing between reality and fiction might say, 'yeah, that's a good idea! Let me actually act that out in real life!'

 

There's something most people struggle with and that's accepting that other people think differently than you. I watch Dr. Phil and he often has to explain to the parents of children who have been sexually assaulted by other family members on why they can't comprehend what happened. He simply explains to them that they're not child molesters so they can't fathom doing that to a child. To the molester, they actually believe they're not hurting the children.

Things like this arise when people look at a situation through their own perspectives. "I would never do something like that. That person must be dangerous!" There's a lot of examples of this in the pro-pot, pro-choice, man-made-global-warming, illegal immigration positions. The differences are actually very minor but the hostility towards the other viewpoint keeps each side from collaborating and solving the problem.

While this seems to be off topic, I think it's the same thing that caused this teacher to be taken into custody. I do worry that our imaginations will be used against us by the less creative powers at be. Take a look in the "Bothered by your own thoughts" thread and I think others might have the same fear.

 

@Link the Writer - I've heard King actually recalled that book too, which is a shame, I don't have a passionate interest in reading it but I would still like to get my hands on a copy eventually. Gun control seems a very thorny issue, and for a self-confessed liberal like King I do not blame his decision at all I have to admit. Or at least order a preface indicating the contents is in no way to be emulated or glorified.

Fiction vs Reality is a very uncertain area of the debate too, because some people seem to genuinely find problems differentiating the two. I guess that is why I find having him evaluated psychologically to be a very sensible decision. The school is in a very tricky situation now too. The students will be very interested in the book now, and there is no telling what sort of people they really are.

 

Regarding the 'Freedom of Speech' thing. It goes two ways. He gets to write his thing, and the school gets to question whether that was a really good idea or not. To be honest, there's a part of me that questions his decision as well. Out of all the things he could've written, all the things he could've had happened in that book, he decides to write about something that's still a sore spot on our hearts, regardless of the fact that it takes place in the 2900s. Not that I'm saying firing him outright is a sensible thing to do, but they do get to question his decision, and I have to agree with them. I mean, seriously dude. (A) That sort of subject is still...um...a sore spot and (B) you are a teacher!

 

This is the problem with the distinction between fantasy and reality. On a simplistic level fantasy is easily distinguishable from reality for all, aside to some weirdo who thinks he's a hobbit or whatever. On a more complex level (and where more people seem to fall down) is that they don't understand that fantasy does not necessarily reflect and inform reality.

Take something like A Game of Thrones, and the Song of Fire and Ice series, that could easily be described as misogynistic for it's easy-going treatment of women. It certainly is not a reflection on medieval society, or the War of the Roses like is often said, because by the time of the War of the Roses the archer was the key member of the army. Not the sword-welding knight or nobleman.Take the famous example of the battle of Agencourt. Despite what might be in Shakespeare about bands of brothers coming through hard fights to win the day, and spending old age reminiscing, that battle was won because of mud and English longbows, which had greater range over the French crossbow.

The society found in A Song of Fire and Ice seems to be completely different to this, it's much more turbulent and even rather tribal. By the medieval period of the War of the Roses there was already a primitive form of nationalism developing that doesn't really seem evident in A Song of Fire and Ice. I know technically all the lords are under one nation, but really, it's more like the fractured world we find in Viking culture. There isn't a big deal made about religion either, which again differs from mid-medieval societies, and is more like Viking culture where such a thing was just what you did.

So the free-for-all sexuality of A Song of Fire and Ice is not a comment on the medieval period, because the finer details do not match up, and it's hardly a comment on contemporary society, because that sort of thing is vilified. It seems instead to be just a fantasy, something totally detached from ours. I don't see the ultimate point of it in any case.

This reminds me of that Freud quote: 'Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar'.

 

This is a hot potato here in the promised land of education and pedagogy. Teachers are encouraged to keep their teacher self and home self separate because those two merging together has led to way too many burn-outs and meltdowns. We have lots of teachers who look like metalheads, or who have oh-so-suspect hobbies like martial arts and taxidermy (just in the recent Teacher -magazine they wrote an article about a teacher-boxer who's sometimes gone to school with a black eye). It's not okay to break the law or be a bully or tell the kids life is not worth living and everyone should be killed, but there's no obligation to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders, or be some die-hard builder of the community who spends their freetime arranging tea-and-biscuit parties and pétanque tournaments for the elderly.

If there's evidence of psychiatric problems (from the sound of it, this novel doesn't seem so deranged it'd warrant this bullshit, but I could be wrong... like, it'd have to top American Psycho in order to make me suspicious), suspension makes sense. From what I've now learned about this, suspension seems like an overreaction.