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Student Arrested for Making Videogame Map of School
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Wed May 02, 2007 03:33 PM
from the obviously-a-terrorist dept.
from the obviously-a-terrorist dept.
tanman writes "A student at the Houston-area Clements High School was arrested, sent to an "Alternative Education Center" and banned from graduation after school officials found he created a video game map of his school. School district police arrested the teen and searched his home where they confiscated a hammer as a 'potential weapon'. ' "They decided he was a terroristic threat," said one source close to the district's investigation.' With an upcoming May 12 school board election, this issue has quickly become political, with school board members involved in the appeal accusing each other of pandering to the Chinese community in an attempt to gain votes."
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Understood... (Score:5, Insightful)
But I never went through with it, because Columbine was still fresh in everyone's memory, and I was afraid that exactly this sort of thing would happen.
It's not a fear of terrorism that drives this sort of thing, or even a fear for our children. It's a fear of our children. We're so scared of the little guys that the instant they bring school into their video game hobby, we freak out.
This kid doesn't deserve to be arrested. He doesn't deserve to be thrust into "Alternative Education". He deserves to have someone ask him why he built the school in a video game. Let a psychologist evaluate him, and then either medicate the kid or let him go back to class.
(And someone should offer him constructive criticism on his level building techniques.)
Re:Understood... (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Understood... (Score:5, Interesting)
I got extra credit from my Visual Arts teacher for being 'creative', and lemme tell you, I had a HELL of a lot more than a hammer for weapons at my house.
Parent
Unslashdotted links (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metr
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=local&i
I'd scream at the ridiculousness of it all, but, then I'd probably be arrested for practising some sort of arcane terrorist warcry.
Parent
Re:Understood... (Score:5, Funny)
What does anyone need with a hammer in their house anyway? Forget about banning him from graduation, this little mini-Osama should get sent straight to Gitmo. There is absolutely no reason to have a hammer in your home unless you intend to commit a terrorist act.
Plus, if all that weren't bad enough, this kid is ASIAN. Christ man, do you have any idea how crazy those Asians are? One of them killed a bunch of people at Virginia Tech just a short time ago. This categorically PROVES that all Asians are sociopaths just itching to shoot up a school. You can't argue with this logic, it is completely impervious.
You have no idea what we're up against here, man. This shit is SERIOUS. Don't come crying to me when your kid comes home with a big nasty bump on his head because one of these little Asian al Qaeda wannabes smacked him over the head with a mallet. You were warned.
Parent
Re:Understood... (Score:5, Interesting)
Crime no longer requires you do anything illegal, nor does it require you intend to do anything illegal; instead you just have to be a potential threat.
I wonder how long till weightlifting will be an arrest able offense? I mean, think about it, those guys are just getting strong so they can commit crimes! What other possible reason could there be?!
Parent
Re:Understood... (Score:5, Insightful)
Just why should he be evaluated or asked about what he's done?
It's not in any way strange to apply your day-to-day experiences to hobbies and fantasies.
I wrote a text adventure in my youth where large parts of the layout was based on my school and public library. A classmate won an award for the painted plywood model he built of our school. No-one sent either of us to psych eval.
What this guy needs is for people to give him a fucking break. It's his school, and his knowledge about its layout is his to do whatever the hell he wants with.
As for the police confiscating potential weapons, that's worse than any police state I've ever heard of.
I say that Condoleezza Rice has several potential weapons in her office, and she could potentially go on a murder spree in the White House. Since you can't prove otherwise, now go lock her up. Or set this kid and anyone else who's been arrested for potential (i.e. thought) crimes free, and erase their bloody records.
Parent
A bit of an overreaction (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sorry, but the idea of creating a school map for you and your friends to play is something that goes back as far as Doom. Kids create these environments because they're familiar, not because they want to go shooting up the place. Only Jack Thompson believes that unbalanced people "train" for killing on these games. The truth of the matter is that ole' Jack is full of sh*t. His claim on Fox news that a previous shooter had created maps of his school turned out to be bunk. He had created maps for Counter Strike, but nothing even vaguely related.
If this map disturbed parents (which is an understandable concern given recent events), then the school's action should have been to evaluate the individual, not immediately kick him out of school. Pretty much all of the shooters in recent history were known to be mentally unbalanced prior to the shootings. An evaluation of the individual's mental state and school records would clarify if he was a threat or not. If not (which it doesn't sound like in this case), you ask them to discontinue the behavior, delete the maps, and go about school as usual. But instead, we give these kids a real reason to hate the faculty. Way to go guys.
Linky? (Score:5, Insightful)
And this is important how? (Score:5, Insightful)
In Russia, government hammers you (Score:5, Insightful)
When I was going to high school, we had war games. Not simulated, but real - in person, on campus. And it was not the idea of some demented student, it was organized by the PE coaches.
The gym was one fort, the bleachers on the eastern side of the football field were the other. Each structure had a hose nearby. The gave us a bunch of balloons, and we had water balloon wars.
To the best of my knowledge, none of my classmates has committed any mass murders in the several decades since then.
I worry that policies as mentioned in TFA may actually increase violent incidents like Va tech. We were allowed - even encouraged - to burn off frustrations in acts of simulated violence. Then we dried off, went back to class, and were rather good students.
Today, young men are being denied symbolic outlets for violence. It come as no surprise to me that Chu did what he did. I worry that there will be more.
Safely playing out a fantasy (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd absolutely love to make a mod for a racing game of my neighborhood, the Bay Area. If hundreds of people uploaded photos of their houses and nearby buildings, that would be a start for modeling the environment. Then people could speed through the streets safely, without actually endangering anyone or breaking the law.
Frightening (Score:5, Interesting)
This is so ridiculous that it hurts. There's been no scientific evidence that gamers--even gamers who enjoy violent video games--are any more likely to be violent people. And there's certainly been no evidence that game developers or game modders are any more likely to be violent people. Where do authorities get off assuming that someone with an active imagination, who enjoys the fantasy of games, is a terrorist? I hope he sues the school board, and wins.
Re:Frightening (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
They Found a Hammer? (Score:5, Insightful)
Developers do this all the time (Score:5, Insightful)
FTA: "Speakers at the FBISD Board's April 23 meeting alluded to the Clements senior's punishment, and drew a connection to the April 16 shootings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, in which a Korean student shot and killed 32 people."
In which video games *WERE NOT INVOLVED*. But that clearly doesn't matter. Something bad happened involving people under the age of 21, and as such video games must be at the heart of it.
-lw
Psychos... (Score:5, Insightful)
We need revolution and we need it now (Score:5, Interesting)
I also remember a group called the POCD made a DoomII mapset with school layouts. The maps turned out to be a hit in deathmatch, especially on "Last man standing" mode that was added in a recent Doom port, Skulltag.
Now you can be arrested for...... this? What I got.. this plaque for?
*a tear falls down his cheek*
America, what is wrong with you?
insane (Score:5, Interesting)
If any high school students are reading this... (Score:5, Insightful)
Please take heart. Not all of us adults are such utter fucking morons.
Not that you'd know it from the comments on the article, where a depressing number of people say they hope he has learned from his "mistake."
I bet he has. He's learned to keep his activities secret from the authorities if he values his freedom. He's learned a little bit about what it's like to live in an increasingly paranoid, authoritarian society, where innocuous activities that harm nobody can get one declared an enemy of the people. He's learned that politicians have no compunctions about advancing their own careers by ruining the lives of the people they supposedly serve.
His mistake wasn't making the map. If FPSes had been around when I was in high school I would have loved to play on a map of the school; unlike a bunch of adults, it seems, I understood and understand the difference between video games and reality. His mistake was not being sufficiently clandestine when he shared it with his friends. Hopefully he will take this as a valuable lesson about the value of covering his tracks thoroughly in his daily life.
People study this (Score:5, Interesting)
http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/projects/ARQuake/ww
hmm... (Score:5, Insightful)
But I have one question for the school board. Did they bother to make sure that he weighs as much as a duck before they took action against him?
Re:*sigh* (Score:5, Funny)
Don't worry, you'll respawn in Mrs. Crabapple's classroom for round 2.
Parent
Re:Oh, For Christ's F***ing Sake... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is par for the course in this part of the United States. Ignorance, fear and xenophobia run rampant, white men run everything, and opportunism prevails at every turn. Police forces are treated as a paramilitary force, and zero tolerance is the rule in schools - even though it only means that more kids every year get fewer chances at straightening up and becoming successful.
Louisiana (and other population-losing red states) wonder why it's best and brightest move away as soon as they finish college - crap like this is the reason why.
Parent
Re:Hammers? (Score:5, Funny)
Look, I found a terrorist song!
If I had a hammer I'd hammer on the freedom
I'd hammer on the infidels
All over this land
I'd hammer out patriots
I'd hammer out christians
I'd hammer out apple pie and baseball
All over this land
Parent