Charges dropped for student who wrote violent essay
Prosecutors have dropped charges against a senior at Cary-Grove (Ill.) High School who was arrested after writing a violently descriptive class essay. Attorneys for Allen Lee, 18, say he will focus on re-enlisting in the Marines, which had canceled his enlistment when he was charged. Lee, who wrote the essay shortly after the massacre on the Virginia Tech campus, had been charged with two misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct.
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Earlier: The lawyer for a Cary-Grove (Ill.) High School senior who wrote a violently descriptive class essay is confident that charges of disorderly conduct against him would be dropped, even though prosecutors won't make a final decision until next week. Prosecutors stopped short of saying they would dismiss the charges, but Allan Lee returned to school two weeks ago, and the school has concluded that he is not a danger to himself or others. The misdemeanor charges put Lee in an international spotlight and jeopardized his dream of becoming a Marine.
Click here to read The Chicago Tribune article.
Allen Lee, who was arrested and removed from Cary-Grove (Ill.) High School over a essay he wrote that was filled with violent images, remains sequestered from his classmates, and his attorney says legal action may become necessary if the senior isn't back in class this week. Lee has not been suspended or disciplined but is being taught off-campus because of what school officials call safety concerns.
Click here to read The Chicago Tribune article.
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RELATED: In the wake of the Virginia Tech killings, creative writing teachers across the country have been wondering what they would have done if the gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, had been writing troubling stories in their classrooms. Perhaps no other teaching position offers as intimate a perch into the hearts and minds of students--and poses as many difficulties. These teachers ask students to write stories that reflect the wider culture or their own interior life, and the picture is not always pretty.
Click here to read The New York Times article.
Click here to read The Chicago Tribune article.
A Cary-Grove (Ill.) High School student charged with disorderly conduct for writing a violently descriptive class essay had received an assignment that said: "Write whatever comes to your mind. Do not judge or censor what you are writing." Allen Lee, 18, responded with passages about "shooting everyone" and having "sex with the dead bodies." Lee's lawyer says the essay's content fell within the parameters of the assignment.