I'm not so sure that any arrest was needed, but with stuff like "he drew stick figures of himself with a gun, pointed at four other stick figures with the words “teacher must die.”", I do have to say that this kid and his family do need to be looked at. This is just "not right" to me. I can only hope this kid (and his family) gets the much needed help ASAP.
I disagree. It's probably the teacher who needs some attention. Some teachers are jerks! So long as kids sit in their places with nice shiny faces, they avoid a teacher's wrath. ADD kids have great difficulty doing that, and if the teacher is slamming down on him simply because his brain is wired a bit differently, who's fault is that? The teacher is the adult, here. Kids, even ADD/ADHD kids, don't vent anger towards others unless there's a certain other who's getting on their case unfairly.
I know. My son is ADD/ADHD. I've had to rule him with a firm hand, but I don't do so unfairly, and I make dang sure he knows, through real and tangible means, that I and his mother love him dearly and want the best for him. The only time I've seen him hold anger towards an adult is when that adult treats him unfairly, like the time he was suspended in school for pushing back at a kid who shoved him out of line. The teacher in charge saw both shoves. The other kid was the principal's son and received no punishment at all. My son was out of school for three days!
My son was angry at the teacher who gave him a suspension for a month!
And rightfully so.
Now, if he's started drawing "teacher must die" diagrams, he and I would have a few talks, including the fact that yes, it was not fair for him to be suspended while the other kid wasn't, but that sometimes life isn't fair. We'd work through some creative ways to get over life's unfairness, including what we did work on: Acing the spelling bee, as the other kid was favored to win (small class), yet my son overcame the disappointment and beat him on another front.
When I was in six grade, I was picked on a lot simply because I'd been taught (wrongly, I believe) that any sort of reaction was wrong and/or inappropriate. One day, while playing softball during P.E., I let a bat fly at the pitcher who was taunting me in a very unsportsmanlike manner. Needless to say, it raised eyebrows, but not too many, as it was "school policy" (also wrong, in my opinion) to never intervene when kids were taunting, picking on, or bullying one another, that it was better to let them work things out.
Well, when adults refuse to get involved, things will usually escalate until some kid is pushed too far and throws a bat! Or draws a picture. Or some such.
The solution by the coach who witnessed me throw the bat was start doing more aggressive, one-on-one sports, such as wrestling. Turns out he knew what he was doing, as well as the fact I was strong and capable, as I out-wrestled every boy in my class.
After that, the taunts and bullying stopped.
These days, there doesn't seem to be teachers and coaches who actually think any more, who attempt to pull back the covers and find out what's really going on. These days I've have been suspended from school, and none of the bullies would have been given a second glance. The bullying would have only become worse.
Note to teachers and school administrators: You have GOT to look deeper, to find out what's really going on. Stopping at a diagnosis of ADD/ADHD isn't the answer, either, as these kids don't explode until someone else lights the fuse and fans it into flame. It almost always has to do with someone else getting on their case unfairly or otherwise overreacting to them.
And I was only doing it to rib you a little.
