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by D. Parvaz and
Kathy George
Wednesday, April 28,
2004
SEATTLE
POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERS
A few political
sketches took a 15-year-old Prosser boy from his art class to questioning
by the Secret Service -- and thrust him into a debate over free speech.
On Friday, the boy was
questioned by the Secret Service after his art teacher turned in sketches
by the boy featuring President Bush. In one, Bush's head was on a stake.
In another, he was dressed as the devil, firing off rockets. The caption
on one sketch read, "End the War -- on errorism."
There were more
sketches, including one of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution in
flames. A family friend says the sketchbook has not been returned to the
boy. His mother, who refused to comment yesterday, was given photocopies.
"Ridiculous and kind
of embarrassing," is how Tom Smith describes the situation at Prosser High
School, where he attends school with the 15-year-old.
"That was a
constitutionally protected opinion, and I realize that schools do have to
turn in kids that may be a threat, but he's not a threat," says Smith, 17,
a junior at the Central Washington school. "He's friendly. I think he's
like me; I try to be nice to everyone who's nice to me."
But Prosser police
Chief Win Taylor says the boy and his sketches were seen as "a threat
against the president of the United States. And we notified the Secret
Service because that's their bailiwick."
He sees the situation
as a clear-cut case.
"First of all, the
disturbing part was the extreme violence depicted in the pictures," said
Taylor, who has seen the drawings. "We assume that he deliberately took an
action of his own free will, which he reasonably should have known was
against the code of conduct."
When pressed as to
whether he really thought the 15-year-old student had a plan to harm the
president, Taylor said that as a child of the '60s, he understands dissent
and protest. But times have changed.
"We've been in a
different ballgame because police were attacked after what happened in
Columbine," Taylor said. "Since then, we've all been under the gun with
all these mandated policies for school security plans. ... Now for
whatever reason, it's 'Oh, we want you to use discretion again.' We can't
win."
Smith said he's spoken
with the boy after he was questioned by the Secret Service and said he
"didn't seem too freaked out, but (felt) like they're blowing this way out
of proportion."
Are violent sketches
enough to get students in trouble?
"Simply expressing
controversial viewpoints in writing or in art shouldn't be enough for the
student to face disciplinary action," said Doug Honig, spokesman for the
American Civil Liberties Union of Washington. "Unless there's actual
disruption in the educational process."
Prosser High School
Principal Kevin Lusk and Superintendent Ray Tolcacher did not return calls
for comment. The extent of the disciplinary action faced by the student
hasn't been announced, although Smith said the boy had to attend Saturday
school.
In the
precedent-setting Supreme Court decision in the case of Tinker vs. Des
Moines (School District) in 1969, the court decided that school
administrators must be able to show "the existence of facts which might
reasonably lead school officials to forecast substantial disruption"
before taking disciplinary action against what a student expresses on
school grounds. In that case, three students were suspended for wearing
black armbands in protest against the U.S. government's actions in
Vietnam.
Honig points to recent
cases in which school administrators and students have had very different
ideas about what should be protected under the First Amendment.
In February 2003,
school officials at a Dearborn, Mich., high school ordered a 16-year-old
student to either take off the shirt he was wearing (featuring the face of
President Bush and the words "International Terrorist") or go home. The
student, Bretton Barber, said the shirt expressed his objections to the
war against Iraq and went home. The ACLU filed suit on his behalf and won.
And in 1998, James La
Vine, a student in Blaine, found himself in trouble after Blaine High
School administrators found the imagery in one of his poems too violent.
Taken in conjunction with minor infractions on his record, La Vine was
expelled, but was later allowed to return to school.
Simply being
questioned by the Secret Service doesn't mean the student's legal rights
were violated, Honig stresses. He couldn't confirm whether the boy's
parents had contacted the ACLU, but said the organization is looking into
the matter.
Wallace Shields,
special agent in charge of the Secret Service field office in Seattle,
said yesterday he couldn't comment specifically on the Prosser
investigation. But Shields said the agency responds to all reports of
perceived threats to the president.
"We investigate them
all," he said, and may refer cases to federal prosecutors, local police or
mental health authorities.
The agency also plays
a role in preventing school violence -- advising school, police and other
local officials on how to prevent attacks on students or staff members.
In 2002, after
shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado and other schools, the
Secret Service studied 37 incidents involving 41 students and found that
the boys involved in the attacks usually told someone of their plans in
advance. Also, they almost always had done something before the attack
that worried an adult.
The 2002 study
concluded that targeted school violence is preventable, and recommended
how to recognize and react to possible threats.
Yesterday, Shields
couldn't say whether the Prosser investigation stemmed from the agency's
school protection mission or its primary mission of protecting the
president.
U.S. Rep. Doc
Hastings, the Republican who represents Prosser, declined to comment on
the propriety of the Secret Service questioning a high school student
about his art work. "He's not in a position to make a judgment on this,"
said his spokeswoman, Jessica Gleason.
Kirsten Anderson,
owner of the Belltown art gallery Roq la Rue, is all too familiar with
controversial art in this post-9/11 climate. Two years ago, Anderson's
gallery featured a work by local artist Kurt Geissel. The piece featured a
Bamiyan Buddha, like the ones destroyed by the Taliban in Afghanistan,
carved into a Koran. It took weeks for the dust to settle from that piece.
Regarding the Prosser
situation, Anderson says, "I think that's completely bogus and fascist. I
think that everyone is ultra, ultra paranoid these days, and there may be
good reasons for that, but there's so many more tangible threats to the
president and the government.
"If they have the
right to question a 15-year-old kid for a couple of drawings, then they
can do anything. This whole thing is goofy and scary."
P-I reporter D. Parvaz
can be reached at 206-448-8095 or dparvaz@seattlepi.com
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