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.)