Today's civics lesson:

[Piglet 0]

http://progressive.org/mag_mc100405

Wal-Mart Turns in Student’s Anti-Bush Photo, Secret Service Investigates Him

Matthew Rothschild

October 4, 2005

Selina Jarvis is the chair of the social studies department at Currituck County High School in North Carolina, and she is not used to having the Secret Service question her or one of her students.

But that’s what happened on September 20.

Jarvis had assigned her senior civics and economics class “to take photographs to illustrate their rights in the Bill of Rights,” she says. One student “had taken a photo of George Bush out of a magazine and tacked the picture to a wall with a red thumb tack through his head. Then he made a thumb’s down sign with his own hand next to the President’s picture, and he had a photo taken of that, and he pasted it on a poster.”

According to Jarvis, the student, who remains anonymous, was just doing his assignment, illustrating the right to dissent.

But over at the Kitty Hawk Wal-Mart, where the student took his film to be developed, this right is evidently suspect.

An employee in that Wal-Mart photo department called the Kitty Hawk police on the student. And the Kitty Hawk police turned the matter over to the Secret Service.

On Tuesday, September 20, the Secret Service came to Currituck High.“At 1:35, the student came to me and told me that the Secret Service had taken his poster,” Jarvis says. “I didn’t believe him at first. But they had come into my room when I wasn’t there and had taken his poster, which was in a stack with all the others.”

She says the student was upset.

“He was nervous, he was scared, and his parents were out of town on business,” says Jarvis.

She, too, had to talk to the Secret Service.

“Halfway through my afternoon class, the assistant principal got me out of class and took me to the office conference room,” she says. “Two men from the Secret Service were there. They asked me what I knew about the student. I told them he was a great kid, that he was in the homecoming court, and that he’d never been in any trouble.”

Then they got down to his poster.

“They asked me, didn’t I think that it was suspicious,” she recalls. “I said no, it was a Bill of Rights project!”

At the end of the meeting, they told her the incident “would be interpreted by the U.S. attorney, who would decide whether the student could be indicted,” she says.

The student was not indicted, and the Secret Service did not pursue the case further.

“I blame Wal-Mart more than anybody,” she says. “I was really disgusted with them. But everyone was using poor judgment, from Wal-Mart up to the Secret Service.”

A person in the photo department at the Wal-Mart in Kitty Hawk said, “You have to call either the home office or the authorities to get any information about that.”

Jacquie Young, a spokesperson for Wal-Mart at company headquarters, did not provide comment within a 24-hour period.

Sharon Davenport of the Kitty Hawk Police Department said, “We just handed it over” to the Secret Service. “No investigative report was filed.”

Jonathan Scherry, spokesman for the Secret Service in Washington, D.C., said, “We ertainly respect artistic freedom, but we also have the responsibility to look into incidents when necessary. In this case, it was brought to our attention from a private citizen, a photo lab employee.”

Jarvis uses one word to describe the whole incident: “ridiculous.”

[Jenny AU-92 0]

What, Constitutional Right, exactly, was violated here? The photo was developed at a public lab, so no right to privacy. The student was neither arrested nor imprisoned, so no violation of due process. His poster was not censored - maybe confiscated as part of the investigation, but he was not enjoined from re-printing it or plastering it all over the school once the investigtion proved no threat to GWB. So no free speech violation.

Just because the Secret Service did their job and followed up on a complaint does not mean this kid's rights were violated in ANY way. If they had not bothered to follow up, and this kid had been a homicidal maniac, then what? I do believe that the Secret Service follows up on ALL complaints relative to the safety of the Most Powerful Man in the World, especially when someone provides tangible "proof" of something or someone that may or may not be considered a threat. The Secret Service investigated, dismissed the threat as unfounded, and left. End of story.

What if this kid had been a loner, who spent weekends torturing small animals, who wore black and camoflauge and played with weapons? Would anyone have been upset by a simple investigation then? Probably not. I personally take comfort in the fact that the Secret Service is very dilligent and thorough in their job. Would you want it any other way?

Along those same lines, I also wonder if this program had anything to do with the fact that they checked out a high school student?

Safe School Initiative

In 2002, the U.S. Secret Service completed the Safe School Initiative, a study of school shootings and other school-based attacks that was conducted in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education. The study examined school shootings in the United States as far back as 1974, through the end of the school year in 2000, analyzing a total of 37 incidents involving 41 student attackers. The study involved extensive review of police records, school records, court documents, and other source materials, and included interviews with 10 school shooters. The focus of the study was on developing information about the school shooters's pre-attack behaviors and communications. The goal was to identify information about a school shooting that may be identifiable or noticeable before the shooting occurs, to help inform efforts to prevent school-based attacks.

The study found that school shootings are rarely impulsive acts. Rather, they are typically thought out and planned out in advance. In addition, prior to most shootings other kids knew the shooting was to occur - but did not alert an adult. Very few of the attackers, however, ever directed threats to their targets before the attack. The study findings also revealed that there is no "profile" of a school shooter; instead, the students who carried out the attacks differed from one another in numerous ways. However, almost every attacker had engaged in behavior before the shooting that seriously concerned at least one adult - and for many had concerned three or more different adults.

The findings from the study suggest that some school attacks may be preventable, and that students can play an important role in prevention efforts. Using the study findings, the Secret Service and Department of Education have modified the Secret Service threat assessment approach for use in schools - to give school and law enforcement professionals tools for investigating threats in school, managing situations of concern, and creating safe school climates.

At the completion of the Safe School Initiative, the Secret Service and Department of Education published two reports that detail the study findings and lay out a process for threat assessment in schools.

[WarTim 3,457]

Kudos to the Secret Service for doing the job as it is supposed to be done. VERIFY each and every possible threat.

Note to libs: They would have done the same if slickus maximus or his wife were still in office.

[Tiger in Spain 0]

They would have done the same if slickus maximus or his wife were still in office.

186570[/snapback]

And they would have been tasked with scaring ol' Slick Willy up a new piece of tail while they were at it!

[Tigermike 3,053]

They would have done the same if slickus maximus or his wife were still in office.

186570[/snapback]

And they would have been tasked with scaring ol' Slick Willy up a new piece of tail while they were at it!

186584[/snapback]

So whenever Bill told Hillary he was on detail, he really was.

[WarTim 3,457]