Teen horror writer arrested as terrorist

[Nightmare Doom]

Kentucky’s Lex 18 news site reports that an 18-year-old high-school student is facing terrorist threat charges because of a zombie story he wrote for his English class. William Poole, an 18-year-old student at George Rogers Clark High School, was arrested after his grandparents found the tale, in which the undead attack a high school, in his journal and turned it over to police. "I’ve been working on one of my short stories, [and] the short story they found was about zombies," Poole told Lex 18. "Yes, it did say a high school. It was about a high school overrun by zombies." Despite the obviously fantastical nature of his writing, and the fact that neither his own school nor any real people, school officials or police were mentioned in the story, Poole was taken into custody on a second-degree felony terrorist threatening charge. "Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function, it’s a felony in the state of Kentucky," Winchester Police detective Steven Caudill told Lex 18. A judge even raised Poole’s bond from $1,000 to $5,000 at the prosecutors’ request, due to the "seriousness" of the charges. Poole is currently being held at the Clark County Detention Center. (Thanks to Dyson O’Connor) —Michael Gingold

http://www.lex18.com/Global/story.asp?S=2989614

[wildweasel]

Geez, remind me (a writer) to never live in Kentucky! Let me guess, Tom Clancy novels are banned there too?

[Snarboo]

Bye-bye first amendment! Land of the Free my ass.

[Scabbed Angel]

This has to be fake. . .

[Sharessa]

I read this a week ago. I don't think it's fake cause it's been on multiple news outlets. Still, it's pretty damn fucked up.

[sargebaldy]

It's really pretty amazing some parts of the country have public support for these kind of actions. People still think of idea of thought police as fiction, but the United States has actively persecuted thoughts threatening to the wealthy institutions ever since the nation was established.

[Quast]

oh, ffs. A STORY about zombies in a school is terrorism? I had to literaly threaten death on school faculty/administration to get arrested and expelled.

[Lizardcommando]

Well, isn;t that the biggest load of crap. So much for writing a comic about man-eating cyborg lizards taking over my school... :/ :P

You might as well arrest the writers for The Faculty because it has aliens replacing the teachers and te teachers killing the students or brainwashing them.

Oh whatever it was that happened... It was a long time since I've seen the movie...

[sargebaldy]

Freshman year I wrote a story for my school's literary magazine about one of my teachers killing students at the school and hiding them in the floorboards above his room, and was awarded $50 for best short story. The sequel I wrote the next year was better but it fell on the heels of the Columbine shootings, so they decided not to publish it. Probably nowadays if you wrote a story like that they'd send you immediately to a psychologist or a juvenile detention center.

[Infinite Ammunition]

god that's bullshit, and what's terrorist about it anyway?

[Captain Red]

Lizardcommando said:
You might as well arrest the writers for The Faculty because it has aliens replacing the teachers and te teachers killing the students or brainwashing them.

Or Joss Whedon for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Seriously, This can't be real, While Paranoid Amarcains are world renound for their retarededness, I think even the most backward Fox News watching safty mum would take the time from home schooling her kids in her bomb shelter, to take off her gas mask and say "You people are fucking lunatics!"

[gatewatcher]

His grandparents are douchebags.

[insertwackynamehere]

And yet, Kentucky and many other southern states don't care about real terrorist organizations like the KKK. It's ok to lynch black people, "go huntin'" right? It's all right to burn crosses and threaten death to entire races, right? White power is fine, but Zombie Power, well that's just gotta go right? Go fuck yourselves, south.

[Murdoch]

Oh... wow. Looks like the Constitution is on it's way to becoming about as useful and meaningful as toilet paper. Once again I give thanks to whatever higher power may be listening that I live in New Zealand.

[Liam]

clark county is next door. i would've expected something like this would've happened further to the east or south, but i guess it's all wilderness outside of lexington and louisville.

what gets me is how he got busted. its not like he fudged and turned in a high-school holocaust story for a creative writing class, his fucking grandparents found it. and they gave it to the police. jesus.

[Ralphis]

Great. One less terrorist!

[destx]

GOD BLESS AMERICA

JoelMurdoch said:

I live in New Zealand.

Me too! Let's be friends! ^_______________^

[Gokuma]

http://fuckthesouth.com/

[Lord FlatHead]

TERRIST!

[Bucket]

These are sad times. I yearn for the days when I could submit "One day I'm going to come back here and burn this place to the ground" as a quote for my school yearbook. Which I did, and nobody called the authorities.

[Sephiroth]

Infinite Ammunition said:

god that's bullshit, and what's terrorist about it anyway?

its the new witch hunt. commies are out, they are so 1950's. and terrorist are all the rage now.

my friends and I had a "roadkill club" growing up. it was called roadkill because that was the name of the lead star in a comic we made. the comic was loaded with itchy and scratchy type stuff. as well as a gallon of stuff that was just plain wierd. the people in the comic even used marijuana, in a number of later strips they had to hid their stash.

these were rarly looked into, except by one kids mother. teachers didn't care, or notice. however had i done these today, or even a few years later, i am sure i would have met a similar fate.

[deathbringer]

*Slides this under the rug*

Thats the second time i've had to post that link tonight, that means something...

-Third edit, maybe i wont fuck the code up this time!

-Fourth edit: Code AND url right!

[Janderson]

What dicks his grandparents are. FFS...I mean their stupity!

I have met a Russian (or a Pole, I can't actually remember, but anyways) who had to write his poetry in code, any blatant use of your true feelings towards the government got you arrested. i thought it was very sad to be unable to express your self.

But here is not a case of expression, just a silly little story probably to make a bit of money, to laugh about with his friends or to tell on Halloween. And its not even an oppresive Government AFAIK (I don't live there, I don't know your shit). How bleak.

Bah! Who are they to say what you can or can't write!

[insertwackynamehere]

Janderson said:

I have met a Russian (or a Pole, I can't actually remember, but anyways)

Heh if you ever see him again, make sure you don't call him the wrong thing. AFAIK the two are not on good terms, and you can be offensive if you mix them up :P I'm just throwing that out there :P

[myk]

deathbringer said:
Thats the second time i've had to post that link tonight, that means something...

Awesome. Best 404 ever.

[zombieribcage]

courtesy of allthingszombie.com

http://www.winchestersun.com/articles/2005/02/24/local_news/news01.txt

apparently the zombie story was only the tip of the iceberg.

[Janderson]

Damn, I guess this changes everything.
Unless of course he named the Zombie summoner after himself and the police are over analysing.

[Job]

I absolutely love how they keep conjuring up and persecuting "terrorists" while the real ones are still running around, equipped with C4, AKs, RPGs and mass transit ignition keys.


Are we safer? You bet your ass we're not.

[NiGHTMARE]

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=1491:

If indeed the fuss is over a piece of fiction about zombies then these police have to be the dumbest gomers in Kentucky. It’s a humiliation. Oh, and if the zombie story sticks then credit the Winchester Sun for some dreadful reporting too. The lady on the spot will be Managing Editor Jennifer Ginn who, despite the fact that it was a short item written by Tim Weldon, insisted on a “contributed to this story” credit at the end.

BTW I find it interesting that the school's website has a sidebar link to the website of the newpaper in question.

Oh, and am I the only one who noticed that the high school's name is only two letters away from "George Romero"? :)

[MORBIDTWATT]

i am not surprised same fucking thing happened to me in highschool after columbime when zero tolerance was tweaked up several hundred notches...i got sent to a holding facility then to 2 other facilities then with a good lawyer i got to go to a pschiatric hospital where i prooved im more sane then the assholes in there.. i then turnd 18 and they droped all charges but only because i had a great lawyer and i mean great lawyer all thanks to my folks. all this was because i was working on a tc for doom called "daylight haha" witch btw is alot like counterstrike.. it was just ideas on paper and maps drawn on paper and some maps on my computer made.hmm sounds like everyother project already correct? they took these things and used them agaisnt me... they said it was a plot to kill people and then they say because i listend to industrial and played doom and wore black smoked pot had dirty urine that im a time bomb waiting to explode but im none of those fuckn things..im not eric harris im not one that didnt get along with others.. infact i was very popular in highschool i had many friends and chicks that wanted to fuck me...this shit pissed me off to this day i havent been the same cause i cant sue them i cant get this case to be reopend sense it happened when i was a teen im an adult now at the age of 23 and we cant afford that great lawyer..i feel for this poor kid i feel real bad for him thats awful and woupldnt wish an enemy to go through what hel go through its hell and very scary..i was gonna be sentencd till i was 21 and i was 17 or 16 when it happened it was my second charge my first charge was drug related so that should give u an idea how goo0d my lawyer was..its shit like this in school and countys that have played god for years that really makes me go ape shit...the only reason why i got found out about my doom project was because before columbime they already knew about what i was working on it was cute and very creative to make maps for games and talk to ur geometry teacher about it or anyone about it no one would say ur a terrorist for making maps or writting fancy sci fi storys it was a diferent time so it was ok back then to talk to even a school counsler about ur hobbies or interest in game making BUT THEN those assholes at columbime ruind my life as well as so many others who got locked up for similar but not the same shit but similar shit like flinging a fuckn rubber band at a school kid and thats considerd assult with a deadly weapon or throwing a fuckn water ballon at ur friend in school then serving time in a holding facility or worse a fuckn bootcamp...its a fucked up world we live in where pshycology and a pope dicides what is norm "look eric harris is fucking his dog so lets take away the dog from everyone and anyone caught with a dog will be made into a guy fucking a dog example" this is bullshit pshycology and reasons like this is why i hate america now more than ever fuck this country