Second Grader suspended for drawing Jesus on the cross for Xmas

[Syt]

Stolen from EUOT:
http://www.tauntongazette.com/news/x1903566059/Taunton-second-grader-suspended-over-drawing-of-Jesus

Taunton second-grader suspended over drawing of Jesus


A Taunton father is outraged after his 8-year-old son was sent home from school and required to undergo a psychological evaluation after drawing a stick-figure picture of Jesus Christ on the cross.

The father said he got a call earlier this month from Maxham Elementary School informing him that his son, a second-grade student, had created a violent drawing. The image in question depicted a crucified Jesus with Xs covering his eyes to signify that he had died on the cross. The boy wrote his name above the cross.

"As far as I'm concerned, they're violating his religion," the incredulous father said.

He requested that his name and his son's name be withheld from publication to protect the boy.

The student drew the picture shortly after taking a family trip to see the Christmas display at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette, a Christian retreat site in Attleboro. He made the drawing in class after his teacher asked the children to sketch something that reminded them of Christmas, the father said.

"I think what happened is that because he put Xs in the eyes of Jesus, the teacher was alarmed and they told the parents they thought it was violent," said Toni Saunders, an educational consultant with the Associated Advocacy Center.

Saunders is working with the boy's parents after a mutual acquaintance referred them to her.

"When I got that call, I was so appalled that I had to do something," Saunders said.

"They weren't looking at the fact that this is an 8-year-old child with special needs," she added. "They made him leave school, and they recommended that a psychiatrist do an evaluation."

The school, in fact, required the evaluation before the boy could return, the father said.

Maxham School principal Rebecca Couet referred all questions on the matter to the superintendent's office.

Superintendent Julie Hackett said district policy prevents her from discussing a "confidential matter regarding a student."

"Generally speaking, we have safety protocols in place," Hackett said. "If a situation warrants it, we ask for outside safety evaluations if we have particular concerns about a child's safety. We followed all the protocols in our system."

Hackett refused to specifically discuss the student's drawing or the school's reaction to it.

The father was flabbergasted when he learned his son had to undergo an evaluation.

"When she told me he needed to be psychologically evaluated, I thought she was playing," he said.

The man said his son, who gets specialized reading and speech instruction at school, has never shown any tendency toward violence.

"He's never been suspended," he said. "He's 8 years old. They overreacted."

The boy made the drawing and was sent home from school on Dec. 2. He went for the psychological evaluation — at his parents' expense — the next day and was cleared to return to school the following Monday after the psychological evaluation found nothing to indicate that he posed a threat to himself or others.

The boy, however, was traumatized by the incident, which made going back to school very difficult, the father said. School administrators have approved the father's request to have the boy transferred to another elementary school in the district.

This is not the first time in recent years that a Taunton student has been sent home over a drawing. In June 2008, a fifth-grade student was suspended from Mulcahey Middle School for a day after creating a stick figure drawing that appeared to depict him shooting his teacher and a classmate.

The Mulcahey teacher also contacted the police to take out charges in the 2008 incident.

[Slargos]

 

Teacher is the one in need of a psych evaluation.

[DisturbedPervert]

Well, he was drawing pictures of dead Jews nailed to posts

[Caliga]

Massachusetts   

[jimmy olsen]

Kid got mixed up between Easter and Christmas, big deal.

[Slargos]

Well, he was drawing pictures of dead Jews nailed to posts

Point.

[KRonn]

At first I was amazed and annoyed over this story. However, we may find this story to have been reported wrong initially. Hearing the response from the school on local news today, so waiting to find out what really happened. May not really be any story, don't know. The town school dept said now that the teacher didn't ask for Christmas pictures -  the first story out there said otherwise. And the drawing being shown in the news is supposedly not the same one the kid drew.

[Valmy]

At first I was amazed and annoyed over this story. However, we may find this story to have been reported wrong initially. Hearing the response from the school on local news today, so waiting to find out what really happened. May not really be any story, don't know. The town school dept said now that the teacher didn't ask for Christmas pictures -  the first story out there said otherwise. And the drawing being shown in the news is supposedly not the same one the kid drew.

And that is why you should be carefuly about being outraged by news stories.  Usually they are reported in such a way as to get the reaction they want rather than the facts.

In this case there is alot of buzz you can generate by playing to the paranoia some Christians feel that the western world is out to get them.

[DontSayBanana]

So the Catholic kids get to wear their crucifixes without a problem, but a kid draws a stick figure of something he's probably seen around and he gets shipped out for psych evaluation?  I hope the parents at least threaten the school district into reimbursing them; if the district's gonna go around issuing frivolous evaluations, they should at least be footing the bill.

[KRonn]

So the Catholic kids get to wear their crucifixes without a problem, but a kid draws a stick figure of something he's probably seen around and he gets shipped out for psych evaluation?  I hope the parents at least threaten the school district into reimbursing them; if the district's gonna go around issuing frivolous evaluations, they should at least be footing the bill.

I'd say wait to see what the story really is, and why the kid got the evaluation. This seems to have been very poor reporting so far.

[Neil]

This seems to have been very poor reporting so far.

All reporting is poor reporting.  The ineptitude of journalists is matched only by their dishonesty.

[Faeelin]

God, I hate the zero tolerance policies.

[Caliga]

Taunton officials dispute reports on Jesus sketch
Say boy not suspended, no evaluation ordered
By David Abel
Globe Staff / December 16, 2009

TAUNTON - City officials sharply disputed yesterday widely distributed reports that a local elementary school suspended a second-grader and required the boy to undergo a psychological evaluation for drawing a picture of Jesus on the cross.

The story, initially reported by the local newspaper, raised questions of religious bias days before Christmas and was broadcast by local television stations and other news media. Making the story more compelling, the boy's father held court for much of the day at his girlfriend's apartment, granting interviews to reporters from Providence to Boston, demanding that the school district compensate him for his family's pain and suffering.

"It hurts me that they did this to my kid,'' Chester Johnson, the boy's father, said in an interview with the Globe. "They can't mess with our religion. They owe us a small lump sum for this.''

But school officials say that the account in yesterday's Taunton Daily Gazette was rife with errors and that the father's description of what happened is untrue.

"The report is totally inaccurate,'' Julie Hackett, superintendent of the Taunton public schools, said in an interview in her office yesterday. "The inaccuracies in the original media story have resulted in a great deal of criticism and scrutiny of the system that is unwarranted.''

Dino F. Ciliberti, editor of the Gazette, did not return calls yesterday.

Hackett said the student, age 9, was never suspended and that neither he nor other students at the Maxham Elementary School were asked by the teacher to sketch something that reminded them of Christmas or any religious holiday, as the Gazette and other media reported and the father suggested, although his story changed as he explained it.

She said it was unclear whether the boy, who put his name above a stick figure portrait of Christ on the cross, had drawn the picture in school, which his teacher discovered Dec. 2.

"Religion had nothing to do with this at all, 100 percent nothing to do with it,'' Hackett said, adding that Taunton is known as "The Christmas City.''

She said the drawing was seen as a potential cry for help when the student identified himself, rather than Jesus, on the cross, which prompted the teacher to alert the school's principal and staff psychologist. As a result, the boy underwent a psychological evaluation.

She declined to comment on the results of the evaluation or whether the teacher had reason to believe that the student was crying out for help. The boy's father showed reporters a report indicating his son was not a threat to himself or others and could return to school.

"In this case, as in any other case involving the well-being of a student, the administration acted in accordance with the School Department's well-established protocol,'' she said in a statement. "This protocol is centered upon the student's care, well-being, and educational success. The protocol includes a review of the student's records.''

After reading the account in the local paper, Mayor Charles Crowley of Taunton asked Hackett to apologize to the boy's parents. But in a telephone interview late yesterday, he said he stands by the superintendent.

"Dr. Hackett has far more of the facts than I do, and now I understand that the report was not accurate,'' he said. "Based on her account, I stand behind my superintendent. She is in possession of the facts.''

Officials from the state Department of Children and Families declined to comment on the case because there was no allegation of abuse.

Johnson said his son was suffering as a result of the commotion. He said his grades have declined in recent days and that he wanted him to be transferred to the Elizabeth Pole School, the most recently built in Taunton.

"He said he was uncomfortable,'' he said. "I also think they should give him a fully paid scholarship to the school of his choice. We should be compensated for our pain and suffering.''

Johnson acknowledged that his son identified himself on the cross, but he said it was only after he told school officials that his picture represented Jesus.

"He was scared, so he changed his story,'' Johnson said.

School officials said the newspaper had an ax to grind, citing an opinion piece Ciliberti posted yesterday on the Gazette's website, in which he called the school's actions "a shame'' and argued that the district "turned this into a major story.''

Hackett said the Gazette published its story without giving the district time to investigate the allegations.

"The approach that is often taken is that an editorial or article in the local newspaper is completely inaccurate, but it gets published before anyone checks the facts,'' she said.

Globe correspondent Abbie Ruzicka contributed to this report. David Abel can be reached at [email protected].

[KRonn]

So now it looks more like a case of a grandstanding parent, seeking his moment of fame, and trying to get some cool cash out of it all. Lol... What a murooon!!

[Valmy]

"The report is totally inaccurate,'' Julie Hackett, superintendent of the Taunton public schools, said in an interview in her office yesterday. "The inaccuracies in the original media story have resulted in a great deal of criticism and scrutiny of the system that is unwarranted.''

Hehe generally is a story sounds too outrageous to be true...it is.