This didn't take long....


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070426essay-update,1,1939754.story?coll=chi-news-hed

By Jeff Long
Tribune staff reporter

April 26, 2007, 10:29 PM CDT

A Cary-Grove High School student charged with disorderly conduct for writing a violently descriptive class essay had received an assignment that said: "Write whatever comes to your mind. Do not judge or censor what you are writing."

Allen Lee, 18, responded with passages about "shooting everyone" and having "sex with the dead bodies," according to a disorderly conduct complaint filed Thursday by McHenry County prosecutors, Tom Carroll, the first assistant state's attorney, said.

Lee's English teacher, Nora Capron, and school officials found the senior's stream-of-consciousness writing so alarming that they turned it over to Cary police, who arrested him Tuesday morning while he was walking to school.

Carroll said the complaint against Lee quotes his essay as saying: "Blood, sex and booze. Drugs, drugs, drugs are fun. Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, s . . . t . . . a . . . b . . ., puke. So I had this dream last night where I went into a building, pulled out two P90s and started shooting everyone, then had sex with the dead bodies. Well, not really, but it would be funny if I did."

According to Carroll, another passage said, "as a teacher, don't be surprised on inspiring the first CG shooting."

Carroll said the two misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct in the amended complaint filed Thursday refer to both passages.

Lee's essay, written in class Monday, also refers to lyrics from a song by the band Green Day and violent images from a Super Mario Bros. video game, according to Jamie Emling, a close friend of Lee's who is in the same creative-writing class.

Emling is scheduled to begin Marine boot camp with Lee in October. He said he has talked to his friend several times since the arrest, Emling said.

"He wrote about the dream of killing with P90s, which is a sci-fi gun from the show 'Stargate,' " Emling said. "It's a really cool gun. Top-loaded. And it's in 'GoldenEye,' the Nintendo 64 James Bond game."

The gun used in the show is based on a real submachine gun.

Police searched Lee's room in his parents' home and confiscated his computer, Emling said.

Emling provided a reporter with a copy of the class assignment, which was titled "Free Writing." It advised students to "write non-stop for a set period of time. Do not make corrections as you write. Keep writing, even if you have to write something like, 'I don't know what to write.' "

Emling said another recent English assignment was to write a 32-page children's book. Lee's book was about Hitler as a baby taking over the playground, Emling said.

On Thursday, Lee declined to discuss the essay on the advice of the family's lawyer, Dane Loizzo of Woodstock.

Lee's parents met with Community High School District 155 Supt. Jill Hawk and Cary-Grove Principal Susan Popp on Thursday, Loizzo said.

Neither Loizzo nor the school would release a copy of the full essay or discuss its specific contents.

"It wasn't just violent or foul language," District 155 spokesman Jeff Puma said. "It went beyond that."

Loizzo said the essay's content fell within the parameters of the assignment.

"I don't think there was anything disturbing or alarming in it, but obviously there's a difference of opinion," he said.

Lee is being tutored at the school district's administration offices in Crystal Lake. His family's main priority is getting him back into class, making sure he graduates and assuring that the incident does not affect his plans to join the Marines, Loizzo said.

Lee has never been disciplined in school, Loizzo said, adding that he has a 4.2 grade-point average on a 4.0 scale because of honors and advanced-placement classes. He signed Marine enlistment papers last week.

"He's excited to serve his country," Loizzo said.

Students leaving Cary-Grove High School on Thursday said their classmates were talking about the essay, with many saying Lee was treated unfairly.

Ashley Davis, 17, said many students thought "it was overreacting" to bring in the police.

Steve Zaabel, 19, said he has known Lee since they were in 8th grade. Although Zaabel is not in Lee's English class, he said Lee should have been able to write what he wanted without police involvement.

"I don't think he would ever harm anyone," Zaabel said. "This isn't the type of person that he is."[/url]

well as long as zaabel is willing to be a good reference for this kid, i dont see what the big deal is

WTF?



The P90 is a very real gun. Made by a belgium company.


What a shit article!

That caught my eye as well. The article corrects the speaker immediately following the quote, but still, why even include that quote? Sub machine guns/ intermediate cartridges get no respect.

C'mon! How the hell this isnt from from the Onion?

It's a big story around the chicagoland area here.

giving the kid a record over that is horseshit - and more likely to incite violence than quell it.

If anything, wouldn't you punish the teacher for giving the assignment. It begged to be completed in the manner that this kid completed it.

Isn't stream of conciousness a bit old had at this point? What's the current craze in writing sytle?

Since the post-modernism period everything has become the craze.

Fictional autobiographies, from what I understand.

Pretty much... a sure sign of a lazy writer.

I asked the same question of my English Prof today and she gave the same answer as PD, except of course the official name is "Memoirs".

"Fictional memoirs" is teh literary equivalent of "Reality TV".

Thats bullshit.

What is still puzzling me is the "Super Mario Bros violence"

Leaving the issue of whether they reacted properly aside, it was pretty stupid to write that stuff in the essay.

Pretty soon, anyone who says the word kill will be imprisoned for "conspiracy to commit murder"

Buying essays from the internet.