Oh, Lord, Here We Go Again

BOULDER, Colo. (April 19) - A University of Colorado student was arrested after making comments that classmates deemed sympathetic toward the gunman blamed for killing 32 students and himself at Virginia Tech , authorities said.

During a class discussion of Monday's massacre at Virginia Tech, the student "made comments about understanding how someone could kill 32 people," university police Cmdr. Brad Wiesley said.

Several witnesses told investigators the student said he was "angry about all kinds of things from the fluorescent light bulbs to the unpainted walls, and it made him angry enough to kill people," according to a police report. Witnesses "said they were afraid of him and afraid to come to class with him," Wiesley said.

The student, identified by police as Max Karson of Denver, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of interfering with staff, faculty or students of an education institution. He had a court appearance set for Wednesday afternoon.

I was afraid of this. After Columbine, A Texas seventh-grader named Chris Beamon was given an English assignment for Halloween to "write a scary story about being in the dark and hearing noises". His response to the assignment got a grade of 100 from the teacher as well as extra credit when he read it out loud to the class.

It also got him locked up for six days.

The principal called the juvenile authorities because the story contained references to guns and the names of several classmates and the teacher. A judge immediately committed Christopher to juvenile detention. The district attorney tried and tried, but never could find anything to prosecute the kid for, other than the fact that classmates thought that he was " little weird," and the fact that the school had described him as a discipline problem. After six days of media scrutiny and threats from the American Civil Liberties Union, the judge backed down. So, even though he had committed no crime, a thirteen-year old was locked up for six days.

So just remember...if you're young and pissed off, depressed, or stressed, be very, very careful what you say. And be careful what you write.

On a related note, can we PLEASE stop calling the killer's videotaped rant a "manifesto"? Karl Marx wrote a Manifesto. That crazy motherfucker just taped himself going off the deep end.