Baby Crimes and Misdemeanors

Let’s see if I have this right:

An 11 year-old Colorado grade school kid suffering from Attention Deficit Disorder is counseled by his therapist to draw pictures instead of disrupting class when he becomes agitated and upset. He does exactly as he’s told, drawing stick figures of him with a gun, pointed at four other figures, with the words: "teachers must die" to purge his angry emotions.

The school, knowing about the boy’s therapy, determines there is no threat; notify his parents and send him back to class. Later that night, however, the cops show up at the boy’s home, arrest, handcuff, and haul him off to the jail, where he’s put in a cell, fingerprinted and his mug shot taken. The kid thinks he’s never going to go home again. Then he's charged with misdemeanor interfering with staff and students at an educational facility:

Officials insist they are doing what's in the best interest of this child.

But this little kid was just minding his own business; he wasn’t interfering with anyone. He simply drew some stick figures with a caption, as his therapist instructed him to do, to calm his nerves, and it seemed to be working. No one was threatened. No weapons were involved. He went back to class and then home, hours passing without further incident.

Man, it’s a good thing those same officials aren’t riding in the car with me when some moron pulls out in front almost causing an accident. I can think of a million profane ways to kill such people, love to discus all of them with myself out loud, and I don’t even have ADD; I’m just pissed off; much better to talk about it than do it in that state of mind. Maybe I’d feel better if I drew some pictures. But, if that’s a crime, then in my best interests, I deserve a life term in Leavenworth; maybe even the death penalty.

What’s a kid supposed to do when he’s pissed off? Have these officials ever heard of the First Amendment? Have they any concept at all of the right to freedom of expression? What official in his right mind would think this totally unnecessary show of force is in the best interests of a child? 

What judge in his right mind would issue an arrest warrant for an 11 year-old boy under these facts? What policeman in his right mind would put an 11 year-old kid in handcuffs, and process him at the jail, like a hardened criminal, for a petty misdemeanor like this one, even if he did commit a misdemeanor?  I don’t think he did.

It sure doesn’t sound like a crime to me -- interfering with staff and students at an educational facility – you could get charged with that for bumping into someone accidentally in the school hallway. Your kid could be arrested for raising her hand in class to ask to go to the bathroom under that statute.

Yes, the prosecutor and all those “officials” had to dig pretty deep into the statist statute books to find that monstrosity.