Boy Arrested for Drawing Inappropriate Stick Figures by Police in Colorado, Taken Away in Handcuffs

WOA! Okay, if the news accurately reported the story, the boy was arrested for, "interfereing with staff and students at an educational facility."

From a legal point of view, this case is really sticky and it would be great if the parents of this young man hired an attorney.

Contrary to what many of folks here are declaring, your first amendment rights are NOT absolute; especially in a school. School administrators are allowed to tighten the scope of speech or conduct at an educational facility provided that their means of doing so are consistent with and narrowly tailored to suit their educational mission. However, this young man was obviously NOT interrupting class, nor was he actively interfering with the school's educational mission, as no one seemed to notice the picture until the teacher retrieved it from the trash-can (or demanded it from his hand as he was throwing it away- the story is unclear at that point).
The school authorities must have lied to the police and cooked the story up to something it wasn't so as to compel the arrest of the young man for "interfering with staff and students at an educational facility." This suspicion is warranted as the news report informed us that the student was passively engaged in artwork, not disrupting class, and again, no one noticed the picture until the teacher retrieved it. This is especially concerning; like I mentioned above, a teacher has a certain jurisdiction over the scope of free-speech within a class room, such as telling students, 'if I see anyone drawing during the lecture than, so and so...(threat of punishment)...etc.' However, the teacher may have been informed of the therapist's advice (allowing him to draw so as not to disrupt class), or the teacher simply didn't care that he was drawing during class and didn't make any such restrictions on that type of expressive conduct. So I think we are all curious as to how exactly this scenario warrants the arrest of a minor on charges of "interfering with staff and students at an educational facility." Oh, the attorneys will have a field day here!!

When the young man was arrested, I am certain that the police confused him by the reading of his Miranda Rights, maneuvering him to acknowledge to the arresting officers that he understood his rights when he in fact, did not. This is worrisome for several reasons. First, everyone with a brain (or even us simple folk who really like to watch, 'COPS,' the tv show) knows that you should ALWAYS seek an attorney before questioning by the police. I'm again certain that the young-man didn't know this as he explained himself to be frightened and terrified by the police's intimidation techniques, yet obviously lacking the knowledge that he could put an end to the intimidation and terror by simply saying, "I will remain silent, I would like to see a lawyer;" as warrants my suspicion that the young man DID NOT TRULY UNDERSTANDING HIS MIRANDA RIGHTS.
Second, while police are under no obligation to escort the parents of a minor (nor is the presence of an attorney required during arrest), after arresting the minor, they MAY NOT proceed to question him if he requests his parent's presence during interrogation. According to the news-report, the young man DID request his parents, and was denied.

I see here an absolute abuse of power not only by the police, but by the educational staff at the Colorado School. I really, really hope the parents take this case to the Moon and make the biggest fools out of the lying school administrators and the arresting and interrogating officers.

by arresting this poor child they just pretty much turned anakin skywalker into darthvader
this will not help him with his anger, it will only make it worse !

reply to post by Whereweheaded

if he is drawing " teacher must die " on a piece of
paper, thats the making of a " Michael Myers ".

No. That is an outlet.

Teaching him that he must bury his internal conflicts inside of himself and not to trust anyone...that's the making of a Michael Myers. If pressure grows inside a container that does not release that pressure, it will explode. It makes little difference whether the container is bomb casing or a human.

reply to post by SamTGonzalez


I don't think it is cause for concern - as other posters have said it he was likely just mad at the time.

No different than when kid's are mad and start wishing hateful stuff on their parents... in the words of Eddie Murphy:



You be mad coz your mother hit you. You be
standing there wishing hateful s**t on your mother.

"God please kill her !"

"I hope she gets hit by a truck and die !"

"I hate her ! I hate her !
I hate her ! I hate her !"



I think it is normal - most adults struggle not to think nasty stuff from time to time when they are angry - let alone a kid, also the kid knows if he draws it someone will see it and get scared - allowing him to express this emotion to them and get the reaction he seeks.

I used to draw pictures of people blowing each other away all the time. So what. I drew flip cartoons of stick figures blowing their own brains out. It was funny. It is drawings on a piece of paper. He was probably bored in class. It is not a big deal. What is a big deal is the obvious violation of this child's rights. The school should be sued to ruin.

wow really? i remember spending one class depicting my 3rd grade teacher as the devil horns tail and bloodsucking teeth in a flaming inferno you know what happened ? i went home and the next day was just that a new day. teacher must die = teacher is boring in my best guess quick string the kid up and waterboard him for conspiracy of murder........then take him out back and execute him.....why is this an issue?

reply to post by SamTGonzalez


You have to understand that Colorado is a feminist controlled state. A school district in Colorado recently built a multi-million dollar all girl school because girl's in the district where behind boy's in math by like half a percentage point(and yet boy's are way behind girls in reading and writing, as well as graduation rates and future college enrollment).

Colorado as a state hates males. Why any male lives in Colorado is beyond me. It is like a person the Nazi deemed "undesirable" staying it out in Nazi Germany(Or White Zimbabweans trying to stick it out in Zimbabwe). It doesn't make much sense.

Well speaking from experience, as a child and family psychotherapist and a trained art therapist who actually has ADHD and works in Colorado with kids...this story is just outright ridiculous.

Free expression is a freedom adults have, unfortunately for children they are not allowed this. This is just a fact. As to those who keep bringing up 'Michael Meyers' ... just because kids draw something violent does not mean they are sociopaths. This kid was using what Freud called sublimation.

He is taking a socially inappropriate thought and sublimating it in a piece of artwork that was never intended for others to see. The therapist was right in suggesting the kid draw instead of disrupt the class. At the same time the reality of public schools is much different than it once was. Its either no response or overkill. Where was the voice of reason during this debacle? I have personally been involved in scenarios like this. It does not mean the kid is the next Michael Meyers, it just means they need some help. Expelling a kid for this especially in grade school is a joke.

Arresting this young boy just makes these fools look more ignorant. As others have said hormones, coupled with social dynamics and peer pressure mean that adolescence is about as tough as it gets developmentally. But hey why try to help the kid when we can just arrest him. Now if the kid had pulled a knife on someone, different story. But seriously arresting a child because of a drawing is a completely outlandish misuse of resources.

I sure am glad no one ever was overly observant of what i drew in class, if stick figures can get you in this kind of trouble... I would have been SCREWED. Hopefully that school learned a lesson, hopefully their foolishness can show many what not ot do in this situation.

This is outrageously idiotic on so many levels. Whenever i hear about these kind of stories it baffles me how sensitive the public education system has become regarding TOY guns, and now you cant draw doodles?
The funny thing is that this will POSSIBLY have negative outcomes in the future. Just my two cents.

Interesting news story
but I'm confused sort of.

The story is just breaking "Tuesday, February 22, 2011 8:55"
and in the video the lady says last October?

and it is hitting the news now?

something doesn't seem right with this story
why wait four months to talk about it?

if all he got was a a little jail time for what he did
I would have life for the things I drew and wrote about
when I was that age, and younger.

reply to post by KaliPrime


Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Montessori trained teacher here. This is an outrage to the child and a further condemnation of our public school system. The damage this one event has done to this child will be years in the healing.

Tragedy, just for having feelings. And frankly the 11 year old mind does not know it is not the teachers fault he is subjugate to a horrific education system. Surely that is why they must die. And I am guessing private school is not in the cards for the family's budget. They are already paying for therapy.

And now, add to that..an epic fail in society as a whole, because an 11 year old can be handcuffed and hauled off to jail for doing what Mom and Dad and trusted Dr. says is OK to do. Apologies all around to this child from parents, doctors, teachers, administrators, police officers....

Time to sue everyone, even if it is fruitless it will demonstrate to the child that parents and doctor will not let this injustice against him go unpunished.

Okay, please excuse my linear, analytical brain for a moment here...

1. Kid draws picture.
2. Teacher sees/demands picture, sends kid to office.
3. Administration deems it nothing, notifies parents, kid sent back to class.
4. Police show up at kid's home and arrest him.
5. Police notify school, who at first weren't going to press charges but then change their minds.

Um, who called the police? The teacher? The school? I'm supposing one of these, as the police called the school after the kid's arrest, possible to ensure them 'the threat had been contained'?

reply to post by Whereweheaded


1st off if i ever have kids, they will be homeschooled so as to not be exposed to paranoid teachers [obviously somebody was telling tales out of school here]. school is we you go to learn to submit the bullies are never punished but if you punched out the school bully, you are in big trouble

2nd this kid already has problems, now he's been publicly humiliated and terrorized, don't complain if this escalates TCOTBIP know what they are doing here.

3rd aresting somebody for drawing pictures is thought-crime period. if he'd drawn his homeschool teacher nekkid does that mean he's a potential rapist? no.

and yet we had a politician recently painting bullseyes on political adversaries, and calls to assassinate Assange, oh and his O-ness can order anybody killed, on his says so and not have to explain or justifies anything or answer to anybody [or so he believes].

4th maybe you are a better parent than you think you are and your kids aren't frustrated in anyway.

5th i don't remember all the words [this was as a kid in the early 70's]

[sung to the music of the Battle Hymn of the Republic]

"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the schools
we have [?] all the teachers
and we've [?] all the rooms
we're marching down the hall now just to hang the principal
our troops keep marching on"

good thing he didn't sing that or instead of cuffs he would have been hooded and sent to Gitmo [were the terrorists of the future are being programed] by now.

[i don't have a thyroid condition but i do have a bit of dyslexia so no spelling Nazi for me pal]

Originally posted by harrytuttle
Why couldn't the school have simply expelled the child from school?

Probably because then the parents would have sewed the school.

They would need a big sewing machine for that!

reply to post by Whereweheaded


Your children are normal and do not have diagnoses.

This child has a diagnosis of ADHD and it would seem has an IEP and is in a classroom with other children, normal and possibly others with an IEP.

Nobody said this child was normal in the sense that you are proposing. However, he is not abnormal in the sense that you are proposing either.

I have starred a couple of your points as they were spot on however, my ability to do so lead me to believe you may be conflicted.

Because of your comments I do not think you are not an educator and have never worked with students with diagnoses, IEP's, shadows and the therapeutic/ psychiatric community or CPS. If I am wrong, forgive me. But I am going forward on this basis regardless, because if you are, your experience must be minimal.

That I could star you was surprising to me, but you are capable of great insight, but also cruelty. I thought you should know that. Should your boys stumble and fall, think of this thread....I know they are good boys, I can tell by your posts. Go easy, it would seem you could have been treated more gently and defended more heartily back in the day yourself.

This is true for many of us.

reply to post by DrumsRfun


when i was a kid there was a program called "scared straight' look it up there was a documentary about it

they'd take all the problem kids over to meet real hardened criminals who would disabuse these kids of any romantic notions re a life of crime [just verbally of course]. wonder what happened to that program any how i didn't get to go meet the murderers and rapists.

however so the rest of the kids didn't feel left out our friendly neighborhood police officers would give us a tour of the precinct and then scare the # out of us by taking our group to where the cells were [these were small groups they'd divide the class into] let us inside, and then slam the cell door shut and go away for a minute or 2.

Originally posted by Whereweheaded
Though I dont condone arresting a child, but this kid has some serious issues! Regardless of ADD or not, if he is drawing " teacher must die " on a piece of paper, thats the making of a " Michael Myers ".

I find that a little silly. You never drew violent or angry pictures? I remember quite a few from my younger years. I've never ended up hurting anybody, or have a desire to do so.

This story is just stupid. Thought police on patrol.

The kid is fine just nomal teenage drawings we live in a POLICE STATE.

As a parent of 3 rambunctious boys, I find the actions taken by the school and police are ridiculous. I graduated High School pre-Columbine, and in our Senior video, the hosts talk about blowing up the school in jest. Now, it's just something that shouldn't be said. I'm always afraid my boys will sneak a lego gun to school, or a g.i. joe weapon, because thats what they do!! They are boys!

In grade school, we used to sing this song loud and proud around every adult we knew!
"Glory, Glory, Hallelujah...Teacher hit me with a ruler, so I met her at the bank, with a U.S. Army tank, teacher don't teach no moooooreee"

Poor kid....and I'm sure there are a thousand more like him.

I knee-jerk joined ATS to respond to this thread. I was that kid. My pic was of a girl named Kathleen that I drew as a beetle and named. Unfortunately I left it in my desk at school. Don't recall exact age, but was before 4th grade. Teacher called folks, I was summarily ushered to conference where I was essentially grilled as to why I had depicted my classmate as a bug. I HATED this girl. She was horrible. I vented on a piece of paper. TPTB scarred me for life. Leave that child alone. Crush his spirit and you have destroyed another great one. Mensa invited me. Too late. The system had already shown me the results of letting them see ANYTHING of me. You are villifying the next prodigy...Artistic savant shows up early for party, gets committed...news at 11. (This is where I swear at you all.) IMO, this childs mind is already outreaching the wanderings of those out of high school and beyond. Hold him back some more, drug him up to slow him down, whatever. His Dad should have slapped some faces. I know that kid has more ability than 90%, unless he tests better. Aggrandise this guy, not for what he drew, for the fact that his understanding of things is advanced. As we all know, he is a product of society. He learned it from us. Too bad for him that he let on too soon. better to wait until he was in banking or politics. GHAA