The article made no mention of Bush's head on a pike.

Holding up an effigy of someone's head is far from holding up that person's actual head.

As people have stated in this thread already, it's the Secret Service's job to investigate threats to the president. This kid wasn't a threat, and it's regrettable that the Secret Service was even brought into the picture.

It's also distressing that the kid was disciplined in some way by the school district. He was given an assignment and as far as we know this was his way of fulfilling the assignment. Too much paranoia on the part of the school district for calling the cops, and too much paranoia on the part of the local police for calling the Secret Service.

 

i don't understand how he wasnt a possible threat..

 

Because all he did was make some drawings that protest Bush's Iraq policy. Nothing has been reported about the drawings indicating that they urge violence against the president.

I post on this board all the time about how I disagree with Bush's Iraq policy, I talk about it with my friends at school and work. That doesn't make me a threat to the president's safety, and this kid is no more of a threat than I am.

 

You argue against the policy. This kid drew artwork depicting the killing and mutilation of a president along with terrorist sympathetic undertones. That's enough of a red flag to me that it should be investigated.

 

Well, I don't think making a gory drawing is really a threat. If he made the drawing and said, "I have a gun and I'm going to kill the president" then that would be a threat.

 

So basically this kid would actually have to be pointing a gun at someone before he is perceived as a threat?

 

Yes that's exactly what I'm saying. Wait for the first shot even.

 

good thing you're not in the secret service

 

No what I'm saying is that they should use common sense. Do they really believe that the kid has the capability and intention to do harm to the President? Maybe they know something we don't, like the kid has a history of violence and access to weapons. I didn't read that part in the article so I'm guessing no.

*edit: by "they" i mean the school administrators

 

I think anybody has the capability for violence. It's whether or not they choose to act that way. Usually people who disagree with one another don't draw pictures of the other one dead. If someone drew a picture of my head on a pike, I'd get a restraining order against them.