(WCSC) – A 16-year-old Summerville High School student says he was arrested Tuesday morning and suspended after writing about killing a dinosaur using a gun.
Alex Stone said he and his classmates were told in class to write a few sentences about themselves, and a “status” as if it was a Facebook page.
Stone said in his “status” he wrote a fictional story that involved the words “gun” and “take care of business.”
“I killed my neighbor’s pet dinosaur, and, then, in the next status I said I bought the gun to take care of the business,” Stone said.
Stone says his statements were taken completely out of context.
“I could understand if they made him re-write it because he did have “gun” in it. But a pet dinosaur?” said Alex’s mother Karen Gray.”I mean first of all, we don’t have dinosaurs anymore. Second of all, he’s not even old enough to buy a gun.”
Investigators say the teacher contacted school officials after seeing the message containing the words “gun” and “take care of business,” and police were then notified on Tuesday.
Summerville police officials say Stone’s bookbag and locker were searched on Tuesday, and a gun was not found.
According to Gray, Stone was suspended for the rest of the week. Gray says she is furious that the school did not contact her before her son was arrested.
She says her son followed directions and completed an assignment.
“If the school would have called me and told me about the paper and asked me to come down and discussed everything and, at least, get his point-of-view on the way he meant it. I never heard from the school, never. They never called me,” said Gray.
Stone and his mother say they understand the sensitive nature of what he wrote, but they say it was a rash reaction to an innocent situation.
“I regret it because they put it on my record, but I don’t see the harm in it,” Stone said.”I think there might have been a better way of putting it, but I think me writing like that, it shouldn’t matter unless I put it out towards a person.”
Learn More: NBC 12
5 Comments
Wumbowarrior
He caused a disruption? I would too if I was being arrested for no reason!
AMC
What needs to happen is the entire student body needs to write about guns and taking care of business. See if they will suspend the entire student body. Morons.
RS Foltz
Am I mistaken or isn’t this a violation of constitutional rights? Freedom of speech. No gun involved. No legitimate threat expressed. Hell, if I saw a dinosaur, I’d handle business and shoot it too.Or excuse me. I’d get a gun too, to take care of the business. I’d probably stand a better chance wrestling a saber-toothed tiger or lassoing a wooly mammoth then I would going up against a dinosaur. Damn right I’d get a gun, and shoot it too. Really?? Idiotic fucking ignorant morons. WTF?
Michael
Seriously, this zero tolerance crap is getting out of hand. That teacher needs to be fired, outed publicly and shunned. The level of stupid in our educational system is mind boggling. No wonder our nation has so many issues now.
jane fish
I agree! The world has gone mad! Kids suspended for chewing a pop tart in the shape of a gun, suspended for saying bless you, now this? When is the lunacy going to end? People need to wake up and see that this is getting way out of hand. Time to change things!