According to ICv2 News:
Courtesy Viz
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“The Gadsen (Alabama) Times is reporting that two 12-year-old students at the West End Elementary School were arrested after school authorities discovered a Death Note-inspired notebook containing the names of faculty members, school personnel and students. The two boys, who have been suspended from school, explained that the got the idea from Viz Media’s Death Note anime series, which is running on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. The anime is based on the manga series, written by Tsugumi Ohba, about a precocious teenager who discovers a shinigami’s (Japanese “death” figure’s) notebook. If a person’s name is written in the notebook, that person will die.”
While many may think this is overreacting, the problem with students doing things like this is you don’t really know if they are joking. It’s better to err on the side of caution than have something bad occur, because then people will complain nothing was done proactively when the signs presented themselves.
The moral of the story - don’t read manga!
Matt Knicl: My name is Matt Knicl. I'm a U of I alumn and one of those unemployed English majors Garrison Keillor likes to make fun of. I've been reading comics since high school and one day I would like to write them. My goal is to expose readers to what is out there in the world of comics and using my English powers, show what is worth reading or not. I can be reached at buzz.comics@gmail.com.
Comments
Matt Knicl (Matt Knicl) says:
(Posted April 7th, 2008 at 7:18 pm)
But we don’t know. That’s the tricky thing. When cops/teachers get a whiff of something like this, you go into auto-mode and there are protocol you HAVE to follow, regardless of age, gender, or emoness.
nikki (nikki) says:
(Posted April 8th, 2008 at 10:47 am)
Personally I think over-reacting can cause just as much damage as under-reacting. Unfortunately, it’s lose-lose all around.
If the school doesn’t react and something happens, students get hurt and the school gets blamed and/or sued.
If the school reacts and it’s a misunderstanding or a joke, the school gets blamed and/or sued and the kid(s) involved gets stuck with the embarassment and stigma of being singled out by the administration and/or the police, and probably having the incident on their record, deservedly or not.
There has to be some kind of medium between being negligent and being so overprotective that we traumatize children.
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the217
Buzz Magazine
Matt Knicl
My name is Matt Knicl. I'm a U of I alumn and one of those unemployed English majors Garrison Keillor likes to make fun of. I've been reading comics since high school and one day I would like to write them. My goal is to expose readers to what is out there in the world of comics and using my English powers, show what is worth reading or not. I can be reached at buzz.comics@gmail.com.
nikki (nikki) says:
(Posted April 7th, 2008 at 4:05 pm)
While I agree that that sometimes it’s hard to know if kids these days are joking or not, I think we as a society have taken “erring on the side of caution” way too far, largely because of the insane amount of attention school tragedies get in our media (even though overall youth violence has decreased).