Fifth-grader Jordan Hood thought the bloody vampire he drew in art class was scary, but he had no idea it would elicit a horrifying response from one of his teachers.
Tuesday morning, Jordan was assigned to draw a scary Halloween mask in art class.
By the end of the day, Jordan was being told he could not return to Pooler Elementary School until he passed a psychological evaluation.
[…]
The picture was not destined for the cover of Fangoria magazine, but it fulfilled the requirement for fifth-grade Halloween art.However, when Jordan’s homeroom teacher, Melissa Pevey, saw the drawing, she found it disturbing. Pevey was concerned enough to contact assistant principal Valerie Johnson and Campus Police.
But it wasn’t blood and gore that bothered Pevey. She believed the blood looked a lot like gang-related teardrop tattoos, and she thought the words “I Kill For Blood” could be tied to an infamous Los Angeles street gang known as The Bloods.
[…His mother said,] “They told me the droplets could actually be a gang symbol for the number of people he killed,” she said.
Don’t do the assignment, get in trouble. Do the assignment, get in worse trouble that may affect the rest of your life. Kid can’t win against idiots.
 A public school where uniforms are mandatory |
Teachers like this need a 2×4 upside the head
affect
[Right. Thanks. –UD]
These adults should be held responsible and punished. It reminds me of a case a few years ago when some brain surgeon of a Principal threw a 6 year old out of school for sexual harassment because he smacked a female classmate on the ass. It is abusive to publicly humiliate children like this, and causes lasting pain and fear in the child.
Oh for gods sake. This is insane, I hate stupid and paranoid teachers.
I wonder what her response would be if she met a real mini-psychopath, with real blood thirst. But then again… would she know the difference?
She did ask for a “scary mask” didn’t she?
Hello! I get called in to school for a hell of a lot less. Stop and think that the teacher MIGHT just have the kid’s best interest in mind. If the teacher’s just being paranoid, they’ll figure it out, and she’ll learn something in the process. It’s a two-way street, this education thing, and we do live in the real world.
Sorry if I sound pissy, but I have kids, I deal with this sort of stuff, and I know parents that get all up in arms anytime a teacher DARES to suggest their kid is less than perfect… and it eats me up. God forbid a teacher should give a damn about her students.
I know my kid’s teachers, and they know me, they know the family situation we’re in. Being well informed of the kid’s background does wonders to prevent stuff like this. Instead of being combative towards the teachers, try talking to them. Most of them REALLY like it when the parent is involved in the child’s education.
Furthermore, vampires have fangs.
“Pevey was concerned enough to contact assistant principal Valerie Johnson and Campus Police.”
Ahhh… campus police? Does elementary schools have their own police force now? I think I see where the problem is ….
#7: Unfortunately, campus police are a feature of many school districts, though usually they just check parking passes and direct traffic at the end of a school day. In Albuquerque at least, they don’t have arrest powers, or firearms. If something really bad happens the real police are called.
However, the reaction of the teacher to the bloody vampire pic was bizarre. Of course vampires are blood suckers, by definiton…
#2;
Actually, I think “effect” is right…
i think the teacher was right. This kid needs help. There were many other ways to draw a mask. This was not the right one.
Let’s see:
Art teacher Lloyd Harold helped the boy shade the sketched eyes to give the drawing an even creepier look.
[…]
Jordan’s homeroom teacher, Melissa Pevey, saw the drawing, she found it disturbing. Pevey was concerned enough to contact assistant principal Valerie Johnson and Campus Police.
[…]
“(Campus Police Capt. Joan) Sasser wasn’t sure that it meant anything.“
So two out of three officials saw no problem, only one saw a problem. So naturally the kid needs to undergo psychological testing. Sheesh!
I think the teacher needs psychiatric counseling if she’s seeing hidden meaning in a vampire image.
I know I’ve said this before, but its still true. Some of the biggest morons in the world are teachers and school administrators.
No fangs. Not a vampire. Vampires have fangs. That’s how they, like, bite you. Hell, even werewolves have fangs. Ain’t a werewolf either. Looks more like… a serial killer to me. Serial killers don’t generally have fangs. Vampire was no doubt tacked on after the fact as a lame excuse. Seems it didn’t work. Kid got eval’ed. Probably talked to a psychologist for a half an hour, oh that’ll sure scar him for life.
Who’d be the first to blame the teachers if the kid shot up the school, or carved up another student? The parents, that’s who. Then the press. “Why didn’t the teacher see the WARNING SIGNS?”
It’s generally better to make a small mistake than a large one. Erring on the side of caution isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
I hate to have to extrapolate that far. This was probably nothing more than a halloween mask, but what if it wasn’t.
I’d be willing to bet the parent treated the school admins with much the same contempt that I’ve seen in a few of the above posts.
Teachers have a tough and important job. I think they deserve a little more respect. I’m not saying that there’s no lunkheads in the system, but I don’t see why this incident shouldn’t be looked into, and it was.
..and again… notice the LACK OF FANGS on that there “vampire”.
let me guess, emo kid?
nah, you can see both eyes… prolly goth.
#14: He’s maybe 10? So not only do his artistic abilities indicate the fine arts probably are not a good career path for him, he apparently isn’t steeped in the horror film genre like you obviously are to know the finer details of how to draw a vampire. Get real. He’s a kid.
Sorry Uncle, I belabored my secondary point, just smelled a fish there. Triangles are pretty easy to draw, even for the artistically challenged. Perhaps vampires aren’t as popular as they were when I was a kid. I’ll check with my 6 year old tomorrow on that.
I do stand firm on my main point. I could relate a couple of relevant stories, but they’re rather too personal. A concerned teacher trumps an unconcerned teacher any day, by my standards anyway.
Teachers are supposed to report anything they think may be gang related. They don’t have a clue if it is or isn’t at least in most cases.
They should have called a cop and let him look it over before they did anything else. If you don’t know what you are dealing with get a second opinion.
#14,
Teachers have a tough and important job. I think they deserve a little more respect.
Respect is earned, not deserved. Incidents like this help to diminish what little respect that teacher might have had.
#18,
A concerned teacher trumps an unconcerned teacher any day, by my standards anyway.
Too easy an answer. The concern needs to be evaluated over the whole, not just one incident.
In this case the teacher and principal were aware that this was an art class project. That is misdirected concern.
In reading the comments from the original article, it seems the teacher is held in high regard by people who know her. She did what she was supposed to do, passing her concerns along to her higher-ups. She was not interviewed by the press, but the parents were of course. I completely understand why this was blown up, it’s halloween, he was asked to draw something scary, I get it. If this was handled quietly, as it should have been, the chances that the child would have been adversely affected would be much slimmer. Parents tend to over-react when their child is “accused” of something, it’s a natural protective tendency and quite strong, I’ve had to fight that tendency myself.
I was dosed-up for a good portion of my childhood for what was then called hyperactivity. I came pretty close to being disfigured by an allergic reaction to thorazine in fact (you should see my first grade picture, it’s a little unsettling.) I do take parenting seriously, and am very cautious about spurious diagnosis of “creative” children. I have a creative child, and I work closely with his teachers to make sure what happened to me doesn’t happen to him, and I assure you, I don’t offer the term “work” loosely. I can easily see the other side of my argument. I still believe that the outrage is what’s outrageous here.
I appreciate the civil discourse, and I’ll agree to disagree. I do hope you’ll pause to consider my viewpoint though, especially if you’re a parent yourself. If you are, you already know how tricky it can be.
..oh and just as an aside, I just asked my 6 year old to draw a vampire face… can you guess what he drew first? Yup. Fangs. BIG ones. I offer that jovially by the way. 🙂
Have a nice day everybody, sorry about the verbosity. It’s just nice to talk about something that doesn’t have to do with the election for a change.
mthr
The teacher should be fired as well as Administraters who let it go this far. This is disgusting.
I am sure this has NOTHING to do with the fact that the kid, Jordan, is African American in a predominantly white school (as the mother indicated).
I wonder if the teacher would have reached those conclusions (“gang member”, “gang killings”) if Jordan had been caucasian.
I guess there’s a new type of crime in America: DWB: Drawing While Black…
#23,
Now that puts a different perspective on things. Interesting, indeed.