Va. Boy's Defiant Words Draw Police Response
Investigators Visit Home After Student Allegedly Wishes Harm on Americans
By Rosalind S. Helderman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 15, 2004; Page B01
When the two plainclothes Loudoun County sheriff's investigators showed up on her Leesburg doorstep, Pamela Albaugh got nervous. But when they told her why they were there, she got angry: A complaint had been filed alleging that her 11-year old son had made "anti-American and violent" statements in school.
She was aware of an incident at Belmont Ridge Middle School in which her son, Yishai Asido, was assigned to write a letter to U.S. Marines and responded, according to his teacher, by saying, "I wish all Americans were dead and that American soldiers should die." Yishai and Albaugh deny that the boy wished his countrymen dead.
Ok..so a boy makes what some perceive as an offensive comment, big deal. But then, get this, the police go to the family's house and question the family for hours...
More below the fold...
The boy's mother said
"It was intimidating...I told them it's like a George Orwell novel, that it felt like they were the thought police. If someone would have asked me five years ago if this was something my government would do, I would have said never."
This is ridiculous. The school also made the boy serve a day of in-school suspension. That school district must be full of honky rednecks who mandate flagwaving 24/7. Here is the link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64726-2004Dec14.html