Reason #1 To Never Live in Kentucky If You Are Creative

When I got to work this morning the top post on boingboing.net was about an 18-year old high school student from Kentucky who is facing felony charges for writing a story about zombies taking over a high school. This kid, William Poole, wrote a short story that he says was for English class and his grandparents found his journal and turned it into the police. In Kentucky it is a felony to posses or create any type of material that proposes a threat of some sort to a school.

If all this kid did was write a story about zombies taking over a school, then the state of Kentucky is wildly overreacting. If, on the other hand, the "...discovered materials at Poole's home that outline possible acts of violence aimed at students, teachers, and police..." take into account other materials than just this story, then it's understandable that some action be taken. However, an (obviously) fictional story about a zombie takeover should hardly be the straw that breaks the camel's back and sends this kid to prison. As stated in the article, the judge presiding over the initial hearing raised this kid's bond from $1,000 to $5,000 at the prosecution's request. This kid is a big risk, and he might raise zombies from the dead and set them on the school! I think the only reasonable option now is to issue copies of The Zombie Survival Guide to William Poole's classmates and teachers so that they can be prepared for when this kid raises zombie hell!

Bottom line, there's a lot of stuff left out of this article, so I can't really draw a firm, fair conclusion. However, my parents never screened the books I decided to read or the drawings I decided to create. Stifling creativity in its early stages is retrograde to education and development. It's unfortunate that the laws in Kentucky are such that it would be hard for any Kentuckian child to grow up to become the next George Romero, Edgar Wright or Sam Raimi.