Criminalizing Kids For Cartoons

by Chris Bodenner

This local story is absurd:

A Taunton father is outraged after his 8-year-old son was sent home from school and required to undergo a psychological evaluation after drawing a stick-figure picture of Jesus Christ on the cross. The father said he got a call earlier this month from Maxham Elementary School informing him that his son, a second-grade student, had created a violent drawing. The image in question depicted a crucified Jesus with Xs covering his eyes to signify that he had died on the cross.

Conservative blogs are interpreting this is an affront to Christianity, and understandably so, but I tend to think it's more a symptom of the post-Columbine lunacy in many suburban school "safety" policies. From that same article:

This is not the first time in recent years that a Taunton student has been sent home over a drawing. In June 2008, a fifth-grade student was suspended from Mulcahey Middle School for a day after creating a stick figure drawing that appeared to depict him shooting his teacher and a classmate. The Mulcahey teacher also contacted the police to take out charges in the 2008 incident.

By the way, here is the demented drawing that required a psychological evaluation: