Thank God I’m Not In High School Anymore
Read this, then come back. I’ll be waiting.
School Board Ponders Student’s Counter-Strike Map of His School
Finished? Okay.
I remember back in the day, both Chief Oddball and Reaper made maps of our high school in Duke Nukem 3D’s Build level editor. Back then, we thought it was cool to be able to play a game we all enjoyed in a familiar setting - it was a bit more immediate than shooting aliens on a replica of the starship Enterprise.
Now? Those two would be expelled (or maybe not, since Duke was never as big a target as Doom for self-righteous anti-game blowhards for some reason). Just like the student mentioned in the above story, even though local police investigated and found nothing criminal at all in the student’s behavior. Yet, he was still expelled. How in the world is that fair?
The timing of this story couldn’t be better - after just going through the tragedy at Virginia Tech, here’s another meaty story for the media to grab hold of in their ever-present “video games are bad and everyone who plays them is going to kill someone” mindset. In fact, that would not appear to be the situation at all, at least in this case. The student, aside from making a Counter-Strike map, has apparently not done anything else to warrant suspicion. To my knowledge, he hasn’t threatened anyone, shot anyone, or done anything illegal. Yet this situation is somehow compared to the tragedy at Columbine by District spokesperson Mary Ann Simpson:
This goes back to Columbine. Ever since that horrid incident took place schools today have to take every incident that is reported very seriously. And they have to impress upon students how serious this type of thing is. We can’t joke about things or take things lightly anymore.
Mary Ann Simpson, Fort Bend Independent School District Spokesperson
Am I missing something here? Was the police investigating the matter (and again, deciding it was not a criminal matter) not taking the incident seriously enough? Did I miss someone making jokes about this situation or any situation where people have lost their lives? Or is this an over-sensitive knee-jerk reaction on the part of the school? You already know the answer to that last question, at least.
Before I go, though, I must offer gratitude to both school board member Stan Magee and trustee Ken Bryant, who are both quoted in the story above as thinking this was a giant over-reaction on the part of the school. At least somebody’s thinking clearly here.
(Note: I do not mean to trivialize what happened at either Columbine or Virginia Tech. I just think that - in this one situation - the punishment seems to be motivated more by hysteria than any wrongdoing on the student’s part, who has apparently otherwise shown no signs of becoming aggressive or violent. If he had been making threats and acting strangely toward students or his school, then that would be a different story.)
Categorized as Games, Headlines
Oooohhh, good find. And nice writeup.
I guess I better watch out — I’m going to have two schools coming after me. After all, I made a Wolfenstein level out of my junior high in ‘94 (even used a Fake Hitler to represent the science teacher) and, as you said, that aborted Duke3D level (featuring the infamous surveillance room hidden off the cafeteria).
One of the commenters on that article had a good point:
I have a suspicion that yeah, he would be investigated for that! If we were still in school, and if somebody caught us taking pictures of the hallways to use for ganking textures, or drawing our game levels on graph paper after finishing our work in class, we’d be having a six-hour interview with the sheriff.
Of course, the only functional difference is that in this type of game, guns are involved. Never mind that the impetus behind building a map of his school was more likely because it would be fun to play his favorite game with his friends in an environment that’s familiar to all of them. The school board would never know what the kid’s intentions were, because they just called the cops and didn’t even try to talk to him.
The instant it moves from a Counterstrike map into buying guns, writing up a hit list and wearing Kevlar to class, then you have to do something. But man, before long you’re not going to be able to bat an eyelash without someone expelling you for thinking about doing something untoward.
I also think the kid’s Asian heritage was an accelerant in this situation. Cause, y’know, the VT shooter was Korean, so as far as any dumbass American knows, anybody with almond eyes and black hair is exactly the same — a ticking time bomb, ready to blow! “Look out — he’s reaching in his pocket! Tackle him! What — oh, he was just reaching for an eraser. Well, expel him anyway, then bill his parents for the cost of the police response. That’ll teach their son to carry an eraser around.”
You hit the nail on the head, though, in that the real kicker here is that even after the investigation was conducted and no hint of “greater evil” was found, the kid still can’t return to school. Because the school board “can’t reach a decision.” What is still being discussed? What is the point of contention? The kid isn’t a danger, he’s just a kid. That’s it.
I can’t even believe that the school board is saying “disciplinary steps are called for,” even if the police found that no criminal charges were warranted. Regarding Simpson’s comment of “and they have to impress upon students how serious this type of thing is” — okay, how about sitting down with the student to explain your side of the situation and recommend that he avoid such activity? I mean, can you try treating the student like a functional human being before simply putting the cuffs on? Do you think that might work? Gee, the reason why kids don’t respect authority today can’t possibly have anything to do with the fact that authority always assumes they’re criminals, can it?
Christ. The state of education in this country is one of our greatest domestic failures of all time.
Good thing our high school supplied floor plans in our planners, eh?
But seriously, you’re right - if we had drawn plans (or taken pictures) or what not during school, red flags would definitely be raised…at least if we were to do that nowadays. But that doesn’t mean a damn thing by itself. As you said, if a kid’s suspicious behavior begins to accelerate, then do something (and yes, I realize that sometimes situations accelerate so quickly nothing can be done).
I agree that things probably escalated a bit because the kid’s Asian, but that shouldn’t be the case. But that won’t matter to many people and their knee-jerk reactions. Bah.
All in all, it’s a mess, I agree - both this situation and the school system in general. Your points about how kids are already looked down upon is a good one, and probably why you and I took great pains not to stand out in any way - better not to draw attention to yourself, lest you be expelled for some insane reason.
Can you imagine what would have happened if we were in high school now and mocked something like the INEPT up? Or the Photoshopped Rutles video cover pasting teachers’ heads onto the Rutles’ bodies? We’d have been expelled sophomore year.
Yeah, “The Falcons” VHS box art mock-up probably would have landed our butts in the slammer for defamation of character. And I can only imagine what their reaction to the INEPT would have been. (Probably to punish us, then borrow some ideas from it.) Of course, kids have been doing things like that for years and years, just with less technological prowess in the old days.
You’re right that sometimes weird behavior goes unnoticed, or escalates so rapidly, that you’d need a miracle in order to stop disaster from striking. Like in cases where those otherwise “quiet, friendly folk” just snap and go ballistic. You think anybody could have seen stuff like that coming? Sometimes people are loners because they’re outcast by society. Nobody knows what they’re thinking, and that’s exactly the problem.
Now, in Cho’s case, it sounds like he was pathological…even when people opened up to him, he rejected them. I’ve also heard it said he was autistic, so there may be a physiological connection in his case, also. And while I am a proponent of gun ownership, I think there’s something not quite right about people with documented histories of mental illness being allowed to buy firearms.
But this is a whole separate issue we’re talking about here, this was a kid playing computer games. We’ve got a real problem if that, in and of itself, is purportedly an indicator of one’s propensity to go postal. We’re all a crazy lot, in that event!
Oh and yeah, in no way, shape or form should his race be any factor in this at all — that’s just ridiculous. I won’t even say “it’s just a coincidence,” because that would only need to be said if the kid in question actually did something horrible, but he didn’t. So there’s no parallel of events to even refer to as a coincidence.
On a lighter note, when I first saw the headline of this entry, I thought you were going to post something about the Alumni Newsletter.
What’s funny is that I actually showed the “Falcons” box art to one of the teachers, and he thought it was hilarious (even though he was one of the teachers depicted on the box - you’ll probably be able to guess who that was). In retrospect, we probably could have been expelled then if said teacher wasn’t so accepting of the whole thing.
Like you said, kids have always done stuff like that. Only now the consequences are far, far greater than they used to be (cripes, I’m not even 30 yet and I’m already spouting “In my day…!” arguments).
I’ve seen plenty of stuff about the VT guy to suggest that there were plenty of warning signs. Plus that whole deal about selling a gun to a mentally unstable person? Not cool. I read that the reason the stay in the mental hospital didn’t show up on his background check was because he was never actually committed (nice loophole there).
And I don’t think I’d ever write something about the alumni newsletter here - it might bring them here. I mean, one mention of “that” chat room and suddenly that’s showing up on your search logs! I shudder to think what would happen if I started opening discussing Divine Chekov (not to mention that such tripe might only be enjoyed by two or three other people at most, and maybe not even then).