only an adbusive police state goverment jails kids for stupid stuff like this
Arizona Republic
Thursday, November 4, 1999
Student locked up for 5 days over story
Friends, teacher killed in, tale
By Josh Romonek
Associated Prom
PONDER, Texas Thirteenyear-old Christopher Beaman's scary Halloween story earned him extra credit - and five days in jail.
The seventh-grader was arrested last week for writing a story about shooting two classmates and a teacher. He was released from a juvenile detention center Tuesday.
"It seems like a year ago, a big ol' long year," Christopher said. "I was supposed to write a horror story. I don't think I did anything wrong."
He said teacher Amanda Henry assigned his class to write a horror story about being home alone and hearing noises. The teacher gave Christopher extra credit for volunteering to read his essay in class last Wednesday.
The boy was picked up at school by sheriffs deputies the next day after a call from Ponder High officials. Parents had complained about the essay, which was written in the first person with several misspellings and included a passage in which the writer "acssedently shot Mrs. Henry."
Juvenile Court Judge Darlene Whitten reviewed Christopher's school disciplinary records and ordered him held for 10 days, school officials said. He was released early after the family's lawyers demanded his freedom and Denton County prosecutors dropped the case.
Prosecutors did not return calls for comment on what charges they had considered bringing, and the boy's disciplinary records were not disclosed. But District Attorney Bruce Isaackg told the Dallas Morning News that Christopher has been "a persistent discipline, problem for this, school, and the administrators theft were Aly concerned."
Ponder is a farm town of 500 people, 40 miles northwest of Dallas.
The essay mentions a shotgun, a handgun, various types of drug paraphernalia and the shooting of two students and his teacher.
lie wrote that he "thought it was a crook so I busted, out with a 12 guage and Ismael busted out with 9 mm and we step off the porch and this bloody body droped, down in front of us and scared us half to death."
While reviewing the papers, the teacher became concerned and turned Christopher's over to the assistant principal, school officials said. Principal Chance Allen called authorities.
Allen disputed broadcast reports that Christopher received an A for the paper. He said the essays were not graded.
Christopher's mother, Jan Beamon, said she met with the assistant principal last Thursday morning and had no idea her son would be treated like a criminal.
"And then I got a phone call that he was in juvenile detention," Beamon said Wednesday on NBC's Today show.
Superintendent Byron Welch told NBC that the outcome would have been different if Christopher had used made-up names.
"The fact that we're dealing with real people, named specifically in the classroom, that is a real problem," he said.
here is the text of what the kid wrote
OFFENDING HALLOWEEN TALE
Associated Press
(the webmaster notes: most of the misspellings are how the kid actually wrote his story. not the result of my ocr machine screwing it up)
Text of Halloween story that led to arrest of seventh-grader Christopher Beaman in Ponder, Texas:
My flashlight went out and I heard someone right behind me and I turned in a very slowly scared way and boom the lights came on and the door bell rang. I walked very slowly and creepy and turned the knob ding dong the door bell went again. I said just a minute and I will be right there and I looked through the little hole in the door and Robin said Boo. I told him to come in and have a seat and we both wated and wated
for Ismael because he was supposed to bring the ounce so we could get high but half an hour later still no Ismael so I got the idea of freeon and we grabbed a bag and a knife and ran out back to the airconditionar. We througth the bag over the nostle and covered it tightly and used the knife to press the volv We started to hear something after we got high so we ditched everything we quickly run to the door to see who it was and there wasn't anybody there then we head someone at the back door to see who it was I thought it was a crook so I busted
out with a 12 guage and Ismael busted out with 9 nun and we step off the porch and this bloody body droped down in front of us and scared us half to death and about 20 kids started cracking up and (vulgarity) me off so I shot Matt, Jake, and Ben started laughing so hard that I acssedently shot Mrs. Mrs. Henry. Ismael saw somebody steeling antifreeze so Ismael shot over ther near the airconditonar and hit somebody (indecipherable word) also scattered out and went home and my mom drove up and everything was back to normal but they didn't have any heads.