You know, I'm not sure which of the paragraphs from this news story is stranger.

First, there's this:

"OCALA, Fla. -- Two boys, ages 9 and 10, were charged with felonies and taken away from school in handcuffs, accused of making violent drawings of stick figures."

And then comes this:

"The special education students used pencil and red crayon to draw primitive stick figure scenes on scrap paper that showed a 10-year-old classmate being stabbed and hung, police said. "

Okay, so let me get this straight, two kids were charged with FELONIES for making drawings that half of the kids in the world have previously made after getting upset at another kid in school. I understand that bullies have to stopped, I really do, but c'mon! Isn't there a line of reason that seems to have not only been crossed, but leapt over? I agree, if these kids did this just to scare another kid in question, they should be punished. But felonies? Aren't we pushing the line just a tad bit far?

I doodled in school. I even made doodles of gunfire and machine guns shooting other people, particularly Johnnie Richards--may that particular bully rot in hell--but I had no idea I was engaging in the commission of a felony.

Maybe if the kids had drawn stick cat and mice, they could have called it a cartoon and no one would have thought twice.

But then again, hell, maybe we should just arrest them all. Maybe we parents have failed so miserably to teach our children that violence is wrong, that we should--instead of taking responsibility--just arrest all the damned kids. I mean they're anti-social little brats anyway, right? Particularly when they hit junior high. All that name calling and tongue-sticking-outing and finger-flipping and Halo playing . . .hell, they're not even fit to exist in normal society.

Let's just hang 'em all.

Yeah, that's it.

Full news story HERE.

Joseph Haines, signing off from The Edge of The Abyss.