Kids Drawings Are Now a Threat

Okay so I'm a bit confused. For people who know me well they may think that that is nothing new but when I explain my confusion perhaps others will also admit to being confounded by the way we seem to be going these days. I read in the news recently that a thirteen year old in Arizona was suspended from school because he was seen drawing a sketch of what appeared to be a gun. He was taken in front of school officials and suspended for 'making a threat'. Bear in mind that the picture did not contain any blood, or violence or depiction of the gun being used to harm anyone in any way. Still, despite all that, the boy was suspended for 'making a threat'.

In the wake of incidents like Columbine, the reaction is generally swift and direct, and often times, quite stupid. It seems that these days no one can do anything without someone perceiving it to be a threat. I will say that the fact that this boy was doodling an apparent gun is bad but it doesn't necessarily mean that this kid is suddenly plotting to kill his classmates. It's possible but not the only rationale reason for it. In the picture included above, we can see pictures that are perhaps a little more worrisome. This stick figure drawing was sketched by another child and depicts he and his friend apparently stabbing a third kid who is shown to be bleeding on the floor. This child was arrested and suspended and treated like a criminal. The kid was no more than ten years old.

We can weep and shake our heads and cry over the direction our society seems to be taking but all these knee-jerk reactions and overreactions on the part of many people can sometimes be extreme in and of themselves. I mean who are we looking to blame? The parents? Sure we can blame the parents and complain that they aren't doing their jobs and that they aren't setting good examples. But I also doubt that these parents are raising their kids to suddenly lash out and turn violent. I mean I really doubt that the majority of kids out there are encouraged by their parents to use guns or stab fellow kids.

Who else can be to blame then? The media and entertainment industry of course! Movies are violent, games are violent, television is violent. Blame all of them! They're the ones corrupting our youth and teaching us the violence is a reasonable course of action. Um..excuse me? Are they really teaching that? I don't think so. Even if you shut off all these outlets to kids, tell me, do you honestly think they will be insulated from violence? Even if you ban all movies, games and television, simply opening the newspaper exposes them to violence and I'm not talking about the latest scheme by Catbert against Dilbert either. With all of the violence and torture going on around the world, is it any wonder kids begin to accept this as a way of life?

We view these things as a threat when a kid draws a picture of a gun but that's probably because we as a society are grooming them to think that way. I'm not talking about the entertainment industry per se but in general. You ask the average American who we is the enemy in Iraq and the likely answer will be Muslims. Now when explaining that to a kid you will likely give the same answer. I mean after all, if most adults don't realize that there are differences between Sunnis and Shiites then how the Hell is a kid supposed to know? When asked why we're fighting them, we will tell them because they threatened us. So now a kid has in his head that Muslims are our enemies.

Who is fighting our enemies? Our military. How are they fighting them? With guns. They are our heroes for defending us. We should look up to them. See where I'm going with this? I don't mean this as a slant against the war or even against our troops. But I'm giving you a potential rationale behind why some kids begin to see guns and violence as a reasonable pursuit. Have a problem with an enemy? Violence is the key. The kid who drew the picture of a gun probably didn't mean it as a threat. He's said as much. He probably didn't think it would draw as much of a reaction as it did. But is this truly the message we want to send to kids? I mean supposing you tell a kindergartener to draw a picture of a news item, do you think they'll draw a picture of the latest presidential debate or the latest battle in Iraq? I think we all know the answer to that.