Secret Service Investigates Teen's Art Project Depicting Bush As Devil

http://www.wftv.com/news/3223988/detail.html

One drawing showed President Bush's head on a stick. Another depicted Bush as a devil launching a missile.

The drawings by a 15-year-old boy in Prosser, Washington, were enough to prompt some questions from the Secret Service.

Agents questioned the teen after being called by police. The boy's art teacher told school officials about the drawings, and they called police.

The boy was not arrested but the school district has taken disciplinary action.

The story is only 4 paragraphs. Someone needs to point this kid to DU. Sounds like he should be one of our members. Also sounds like we have a budding editorial cartoonist. And bet he has a Repug teacher.

of others. bring it on!

Without a DIAPER or PLASTIC PANTS

Perhaps the grain of truth contained in his artwork was too much for the loyalists to swallow.

And I think I might have proof -Watch this closely:



...btw, Good afternoon!:-)

Not the picture that flashes on the screen. But the look on his face in the picture posted.

this is a talented and wise young artist that we should support!

Nothing's as good for inspiring expressive, subversive art than a clampdown.

i appreciate your sentiment - but think about this kid, and all his potentially artistic peers. what do they learn from this? "be careful what you express."

occurrences like this - despite the sketchy details of the story - are what worry me most these days. "teach the little thinkers early the consequences of thinking so much."

Art students and other gifted people need to wake up and realize how their talents are being channeled to enable corporate-controlled, corporate-approved expression.

Portrayal of public figures as you perceive them = bad. Portrayal of smiling happy families for a commercial product = good. This brings it home in a way protestors on a street corner just can't.

Bureaucratic minds like those police-a-mons should probably send patrols out to the cemeteries to see if cartoonists like Thomas Nast, Herblock, and Bill Mauldin are still buried and underground.

Dubya and his fellow Cons don't know how lucky they are. Political caricaturists with the skills of a Hogarth, a Daumier, or a Cruikshank would really give them reason to wail like the damned.

The boy was not arrested but the school district has taken disciplinary action.

I wonder if the student will fight the disciplinary action.

Was this kid just doodling in class not paying attention or was the drawings the result of an assignment. If the latter... Well, if it was my kid I'd be making a big stink and talking to a lawyer.

it is on the other side of the cascade curtain, in the heart of GOP taxpayer-subsidized farming & ranching country, where your teachers turn you into the feds for subversive artwork, and are then applauded at the next grange meeting.

... they only raise chickens with right wings! Rarely have I ever seen a town so totally fundametalist neo-conservative. They all seem to be from the Joe McCarthy gene pool.

My art teacher would've cut off his arm before doing such a thing. Wouldn't want to defend your student's right to free speech or anything. What a f*ckhead.

:hippie: :evilgrin:

-

Dumb shits.

:evilfrown:

if that it was the *ART* teacher that called the police. This is
really something that makes me go hmmmmm.

Surely this *ART* teacher had heard of cartooning or satire illustration. Or maybe not. The conservative notion of art
extends no further than monuments to some war that was fought
somewhere. Or paintings of wolves and eagles or Elvis on black
velvet.

Pretty grim indeed, when the artists turn on themselves.

:wtf:

If people are going to be arrested for drawing these types of pictures of bushie, they had better start building more prisons fast, cause they are going to need a lot of room.

If I had created a piece of artwork and my teacher ripped it up I'd seriously consider punching him in the face. I've never hit a living being my entire life, but I draw the line at political censorship and sanitation of art. This story is actually quite inspiring, it makes me want to pick up my paint brushes again.

Of course, nobody will like them! But, hey!..What the Hell?!

the dogs playing cards

Scalia will call the school and the SS (I mean the Secret Service) and remind them of the Bill of Rights.

What a great country.

Scalia reminding someone of the Bill of Rights is like Hitler reminding someone that anti-Semitism is wrong.

Scalia should be tried as the traitor he is.

What a stupid, stupid person.

Teach couldn't handle the drawings, got in the way of the teach's well ordered and right winged little world.

for reporting this kid.

Teachers have no business calling the police because they do not like the political beliefs expressed by their students. I taught HS and college Computer Science and Math for 15 years and I feel strongly about the free flow of ideas. I can not imagine doing such a thing.

Teachers turning in their students for political statements scares the hell out of me.

WE really are becoming what the Soviet Union was in the 1970's.

Reminds me of the Cultural Revolution.

In Amerika you have the freedom to express your opinion ONLY if the government approves.

Keep drawing kid-o. Change the world.

I wonder if the ACLU would take an interest in
this?

What was his punishment? Shocking the kid with a cattle prod?

Where is the art, it was probably worth seeing. I wonder who ratted him out?

I was sarcastically wrong!!

We are definitely living in a facist state, people. And just think how much worse this is going to get if chimpy gets another four years.

asap
this sort of thing needs to be nipped in the bud asap

Since the kid wasn’t arrested and outside of the kid getting suspended for any period of time, I would think if the ACLU got involved at all, it should at the very least send a copy of their Briefing Paper to the school officials to kindly remind them that:

“Freedom of expression for ourselves requires freedom of expression for others. It is at the very heart of our democracy.”

And I can’t think of a better place to start than in an Art Class….


Censorship, the suppression of words, images, or ideas that are "offensive," happens whenever some people succeed in imposing their personal political or moral values on others. Censorship can be carried out by the government as well as private pressure groups. Censorship by the government is unconstitutional.


http://archive.aclu.org/library/pbp14.html

...our SS are right now probably probing the parents, getting all kinds of background data, looking at theses kids to see if their is a history of disturbed behavior, etc. If they find that the parents have been religious Christian fundamentalists who have used corporal punishment, then they probably put the kids on Ritalin and recruit them into the secret assassines corp of the CIA. If they find just one hard rock CD in their possession, they'll blame the liberal press, the Clinton administration and the liberal public schools for corrupting all kids. Is there actually a place called "Posser"? Oops, Prosser, haha, my mistake.:hi:

in the Bush Administration's upcoming Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) tour.

For more on the original Entartete Kunst tour, see
http://www.olinda.com/ArtAndIdeas/lectures/ArtWeDontLike/entarteteKunst.htm

for Prosser High School:

Prosser High School
1023 Prosser Avenue
Prosser, Washington 99350
(509) 786-1224
Fax (509) 786-4227

Art teacher: Kila Salyers-Smith, Art kila.smith@prosserschools.org
Principal: Kevin Lusk, Principal kevin.lusk@prosserschools.org

Everyone should email them and let them know in no uncertain terms that this is fascism and it is dead wrong.

And mail it to them.

They'd have probably given the kid an award if it had been Clinton.

Fek-em!
They can't do shit to the kid.
If they try, the parents should sue the school board.
Bwahaha!
BHN

And why did the SS have to be involved?

Oh wait.....I forgot I was living in Bush America.

I gather that the teacher (some repuke no doubt) called the SS. Presumably she told them it was a potential threat against *. What a crock. Just the teacher's way of keeping dissent in check. I don't see how discipline could possibly be warranted. I hope this kids parents aren't repukes also. They should sue. There was obviously no threat and school board can't discipline him for not doing anything wrong.

In fifth grade I drew a picture of Reagan getting blown up by airplanes and then eaten by dinosaurs. Haha, one would THINK hilarity would ensue, right?

Well, it didn't. I was warned by my teacher that drawings of a President being killed are illegal and could prompt a Secret Service investigation. Nothing more came of it, and I don't know if what my teacher told me was true.

But if it is illegal, I imagine Asscroft will leverage it to Guantanamo Bay that poor kid's ass.

Eaten by dinosaurs? That is too cool. Kids have such great imaginations before society stomps on it.

he probably would've won a damned blue ribbon for it :eyes:

perhaps they should hear from fellow-Americans
http://www.prosserschools.org/

cc: aclu
http://www.aclu-wa.org/
administration@aclu-wa.org.

Dr. Ray Tolcacher, Superintendent tolcacher@prosserschools.org

Cindy Simonsen, Director of Curriculum & Instruction cynthia.simonsen@prosserschools.org

Prosser School Board Members

Kay Brader, President kjbrader@bentonrea.com
Warren Barmore wbarmore@quicktel.com
Randy Hageman rhageman@oceanspray.com
Phil Miklas pmiklas@pars.ars.usda.gov
Richard Thomas dthomas@bentonrea.com

Prosser School District Administration Office
823 Park Avenue
Prosser, Washington 99350
(509) 786-3323
Fax (509) 786-2062

Current Mayor is Linda Lusk mayorlusk@bentonrea.com

current Council Members are Steven Becken, Joan Heintz, Bob Underwood, Randy Taylor, Glenda Schimdt, Sam Giordanengo and Jerry Galliher http://www.cityofprosser.com/council.html

Seems the mayor is the wife of the school principal. Or just a fluke!

I assure you that if you were to visit the City of Prosser, you would
find that Freedom of Speech is alive and well. As your concern is clearly a school related issue, I cannot speculate on any policy or proceedure, but see that you have indeed contacted Mr. Ray Tolcacher, Superintendent of Prosser School District. Ray is the appropriate person to handle your question.

Thank You,

Linda Lusk
Mayor, City of Prosser


how's that for involvement and leadership?

the email copy to Mr. Tolcacher failed to be delivered

Traded places! Al I can think of is 'amazing! fucking amazing!' I never thought this would happen, yet, I knew all along this would happen. :puke:

I hate to think of what these crazy pubs are thinking of. It's a wonder they didn't charge the kid with blasphemy!

I'd say at least ten percent of the population thinks Chimpy is the Antichrist. I suspect as much myself. Is the Secret Service going to investigate all of us?

Either something is missing in the detail given in this item per the picture - or I really don't get why the secret service was called in.

Drawing a picture with negative connotations (which in some areas, due to the nature of the picture might be incendiary to youth of some religious persuasions) - constitutes a threat? If not - the secret service is now called in for what... image control?

Something seems "off" in this story.

Where would the school get the money to pay damages?

Taxpayers.

I have. This is not surprising at all.

Some of you want to paint places like Prosser with a red brush while ignoring those who live there who lean blue.

Someone has been talking to this kid about Bush and telling him the truth, most likely parents. I applaud them.

Rather than diss the entire town, we should encourage the kid. That's what my letter to the school board will be about.

NT!

Prosser is VERY conservative even though there's a scattering of 2nd generation, gentrified "hippies" in the area.

It's not easy being a dissenting 15 year old kid in such a place. I was that same kind of kid myself.

West Richland? Go Bombers! :nuke: </sarcasm>

... at least when I wasn't working at the lab or soaking in my hot tub. :shrug:

any other country it would have been ignored, no doubt.

Calling this person a "teacher," is really straining the word and the profession. The kid is 15-yrs old and in a highschool art class....with maybe 10-15 kids. If this "teacher," is that unfamiliar with her students or the actions of teenagers where she is unable to separate fact from fiction, art from threats against the President of the US, he/she should not be in the teaching profession never mind being an art instuctor.

I'd make you a bet on that. I can't remember reading any of these stories during the Clinton years. Hell there were RW talk pundits that called him the devil and called for his death.

The shit is already happening....like this !

I'M tired of dissent being stymied. Perhaps it's in my blood from my socialist ancestors being criminals during the red scare.

I'll tell you what, "Keep your Head Down. Don't make Waves. Don't look Rich People in the Eye. Remember, it's 'Hi! Welcome to WalMart!'. Always try to 'upsell', ask if they'd like fries with that. Dissent is Un-Patriotic. People are DIEING in Iraq for YOUR Freedoms, so watch what you say and watch what you draw...."

Bet the kid caught hell from his parents for "embarrassing them" along with his suspension from school.

Is this a fucking SICK country or WHAT?



The Schutzstaffel, Hitler's Elite Guard, headed by Heinrich Himmler, who also headed the Geheim Statz Polizei,(Secret State Police) or Gestapo...

Now the SS is called the "Secret Service" (guess that rolls up the duties of the Gestapo, too) and it's headed by John Ashcroft, a man equally as evil as Himmler....

Fuck Bush, fuck him in the ass with a big pointed stick

... then might I suggest a nice budget cut.

Did anyone else notice that it put this story under "News of The Strange" and right above the body of the story is a headline in bold which says "Weird Photos"?

because it's true.

That is an outrage. And a teacher of ART turned this child in, no less? I guess the secret service is all finished hunting down all of the terrorists who are running loose in the United States, then?

You have quite a future in the new-wave holy movie industry. You just have to pump up the gore a little, get in closer . . .

"I don't see what this young lady did to be inappropriate," Superintendent Ray Tolcacher said. "I think it's good discussion that can only be better by surfacing those issues. We just want to fix (the dress code) so it's clear. I don't want any kid to go through any anguish." The district revises school policies regularly, and this summer the dress code may be revised, Tolcacher said. "We don't want kids in a gray area where we're leaving them open to get into problems. We have kids that bring things to our attention all the time. When those things happen, there's good reason for the discussion," Tolcacher said."

Link: http://www.ncln.ca/uwsfl/newsletter18.htm

His e-mail address: ray.tolcacher@prosserschools.org

It was in the news before the Afghanistan war happened, I believe. Many read it in shock then, could NOT believe it. This is the first thing in google I could find to help refresh your memories on this ugly event from the first part of _Bush's reign of terror:

Durham student activist gets visit from the Secret Service
Threat or dissent? A.J. Brown and her anti-Bush poster
By JONEL LISTON
WHAT WILL THEY DO TO US FOR MAKING HIM THE CLOWN?

A.J. Brown, a 19-year-old freshman at Durham Tech, was thanking God it was Friday. It was 5 p.m., the school week was over, and in an hour she'd be meeting her boyfriend to unwind.

Then: Knock, knock ... unexpected guests at Brown's Duke Manor apartment. Opening the door, she found a casually dressed man, and a man and woman in what appeared to be business attire. Her first thought, she says, was, "Are these people going to sell me something?"

But then the man in the suit introduced himself and the woman as agents from the Raleigh office of the U.S. Secret Service. The other man was an investigator from the Durham Police Department.

"Ma'am, we've gotten a report that you have anti-American material," the male agent said, according to Brown. Could they come in to have a look around?
(snip/...)

http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=44253&Disp=Refresh&

Somebody needs to get the name of this Nazi and publicize it. Then the ACLU needs to sue this bastard for every cent he/she's got. Then they can empty the pockets of the school board for violating the student's civil rights. Then.... well this deserves as much retribution as can be mustered.

i've seen several bush devil creations right here on du. this is fucking ridiculous.

 The Secret Service questioned a 15-year-old boy last week and confiscated drawings he made depicting President Bush as the devil, and with his head on a stick.

The Prosser, Wash. boy's high school art teacher alerted school officials about the drawings. The student was nor arrested but was subjected to disciplinary action by the school, but the nature of that action — as well as the boy's name — were not disclosed.

According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper, the student drew sketches of the president's head on a stake, and another in which Mr. Bush is dressed as the devil and fires missiles. Other drawings depicted the Bill of Rights and Constitution burning.

A friend of the family tells the Post-Intelligencer that agents have not returned the student's original drawings to him.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/28/national/main614193.shtml