Jasper
10-26-03, 04:30 AM
A Roswell High School freshman has been expelled for the remainder of the year for writing a fictional tale in her private journal about a student who dreams that she kills a teacher.
Rachel Boim, 14, who moved here from suburban Denver, about 20 minutes from Columbine High School, was expelled after a closed, three-hour hearing conducted Wednesday by a Fulton County school system official.
School system spokeswoman Susan Hale said the expulsion was for "inappropriate writings that describe the threat of bodily harm toward a school employee."
"Anytime the safety and security of our students and staff are put into question, we investigate the situation and, if warranted, take serious action," Hale said. "After reviewing the evidence, the hearing officer felt expulsion was an appropriate disciplinary response."
Rachel will be allowed to attend another school within the Fulton system until the end of the academic year, but the choice must be approved by school officials. The family plans to appeal the decision to the Fulton County school board.
Wednesday's hearing included testimony from Rachel's parents, Georgia's poet laureate and an editor of Five Points, a literary magazine published by Georgia State University. They all testified that the girl's story was nothing more than a work of fiction in a journal filled with drawings, coloring, poems and other creative expression.
Poet Laureate David Bottoms, who was contacted by the family for help in defending Rachel's writing, said Thursday that he tried to convince the hearing officer that the journal entry was a narrative that grew out of creative thought.
"In my opinion, based on my experience as a writer and with more than 20 years of teaching creative writing, this piece of work is clearly an imaginative piece, a piece of fiction -- totally non-threatening," Bottoms said, recounting the statement he made at the hearing.
Teacher seized journal
The journal entry describes a student, who is unnamed, having a dream while asleep in class. In the dream, the student shoots a teacher and then runs out of the classroom, only to be killed by a security guard. After that, the school bell rings and the student having the dream wakes up, picks up her books and walks to another classroom.
The journal does not name a specific teacher, according to Rachel's parents, who described their daughter as a gifted writer and not someone with violent intentions.
The family and Bottoms say the suspension is another example of Georgia school officials failing to use common sense when applying "zero-tolerance" policies. Three years ago, Cobb County school officials suspended a sixth-grader from Garrett Middle School for breaking the school's zero-tolerance weapons policy by having a Tweety Bird wallet with a 10-inch keychain. Cobb officials said chains were prohibited under the weapons policy, and the girl was given the maximum punishment: a two-week suspension.
David Boim said his daughter often carries her personal journal and did not have it in class as part of an assignment when it was confiscated Oct. 7. Art teacher Travis Carr took the journal during the class because Rachel was passing it to a classmate, Boim said.
Carr kept the journal overnight, and on Oct. 8 Rachel was taken from her second-period class by school police and her parents were summoned to the school.
Carr could not be reached for comment Thursday night. Roswell High School Principal Ed Spurka declined to comment.
An honors student
Rachel is an honors student in biology, French and English literature, her parents said. She is the captain of her crew team and a voracious reader, they added. She comes from a family of writers. Her sister edits the Roswell High School literary magazine, and her mother, Kimberly, is a former journalist and has taught literature at Chattahoochee Technical School.
"I think Rachel has been treated unfairly," her father said. "I believe the school system is asking her to cede her Fourth Amendment right, her First Amendment right and her right to due process. Basically, the school system is saying they decide what is an appropriate topic to write about and what is an inappropriate topic."
He said the family moved to Roswell from Colorado three years ago. Because they lived in suburban Denver at the time, the Boims often talked at home about the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, in which two students used pipe bombs and gunfire to kill 12 classmates and a teacher before killing themselves.
"Thomas Wolfe, Faulkner, all wrote about the South because that was their experience," Boim said. "Students today are very aware of the violence around them. The shootings in school, we all hear about that and they affect children. Creative writers, or people who create art, write about what's happening in their society."
Rachel's journal, one of many, contains a whole range of musings, he said -- some dark and disturbing. Others her father described as "springlike" and "very fluffy kind of stuff." The story that prompted her suspension was in a section titled "Dreams."
"She writes about death and pain," Boim said. "But we're also talking about a kid who is a vegetarian because she can't stand the thought of animals being killed. Her writing reflects a full gamut of emotions. . . . We're not saying this shouldn't have been brought to our attention. But the decision was made to expel Rachel without any understanding of the fact that this was just a story."
Rachel Boim, 14, who moved here from suburban Denver, about 20 minutes from Columbine High School, was expelled after a closed, three-hour hearing conducted Wednesday by a Fulton County school system official.
School system spokeswoman Susan Hale said the expulsion was for "inappropriate writings that describe the threat of bodily harm toward a school employee."
"Anytime the safety and security of our students and staff are put into question, we investigate the situation and, if warranted, take serious action," Hale said. "After reviewing the evidence, the hearing officer felt expulsion was an appropriate disciplinary response."
Rachel will be allowed to attend another school within the Fulton system until the end of the academic year, but the choice must be approved by school officials. The family plans to appeal the decision to the Fulton County school board.
Wednesday's hearing included testimony from Rachel's parents, Georgia's poet laureate and an editor of Five Points, a literary magazine published by Georgia State University. They all testified that the girl's story was nothing more than a work of fiction in a journal filled with drawings, coloring, poems and other creative expression.
Poet Laureate David Bottoms, who was contacted by the family for help in defending Rachel's writing, said Thursday that he tried to convince the hearing officer that the journal entry was a narrative that grew out of creative thought.
"In my opinion, based on my experience as a writer and with more than 20 years of teaching creative writing, this piece of work is clearly an imaginative piece, a piece of fiction -- totally non-threatening," Bottoms said, recounting the statement he made at the hearing.
Teacher seized journal
The journal entry describes a student, who is unnamed, having a dream while asleep in class. In the dream, the student shoots a teacher and then runs out of the classroom, only to be killed by a security guard. After that, the school bell rings and the student having the dream wakes up, picks up her books and walks to another classroom.
The journal does not name a specific teacher, according to Rachel's parents, who described their daughter as a gifted writer and not someone with violent intentions.
The family and Bottoms say the suspension is another example of Georgia school officials failing to use common sense when applying "zero-tolerance" policies. Three years ago, Cobb County school officials suspended a sixth-grader from Garrett Middle School for breaking the school's zero-tolerance weapons policy by having a Tweety Bird wallet with a 10-inch keychain. Cobb officials said chains were prohibited under the weapons policy, and the girl was given the maximum punishment: a two-week suspension.
David Boim said his daughter often carries her personal journal and did not have it in class as part of an assignment when it was confiscated Oct. 7. Art teacher Travis Carr took the journal during the class because Rachel was passing it to a classmate, Boim said.
Carr kept the journal overnight, and on Oct. 8 Rachel was taken from her second-period class by school police and her parents were summoned to the school.
Carr could not be reached for comment Thursday night. Roswell High School Principal Ed Spurka declined to comment.
An honors student
Rachel is an honors student in biology, French and English literature, her parents said. She is the captain of her crew team and a voracious reader, they added. She comes from a family of writers. Her sister edits the Roswell High School literary magazine, and her mother, Kimberly, is a former journalist and has taught literature at Chattahoochee Technical School.
"I think Rachel has been treated unfairly," her father said. "I believe the school system is asking her to cede her Fourth Amendment right, her First Amendment right and her right to due process. Basically, the school system is saying they decide what is an appropriate topic to write about and what is an inappropriate topic."
He said the family moved to Roswell from Colorado three years ago. Because they lived in suburban Denver at the time, the Boims often talked at home about the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, in which two students used pipe bombs and gunfire to kill 12 classmates and a teacher before killing themselves.
"Thomas Wolfe, Faulkner, all wrote about the South because that was their experience," Boim said. "Students today are very aware of the violence around them. The shootings in school, we all hear about that and they affect children. Creative writers, or people who create art, write about what's happening in their society."
Rachel's journal, one of many, contains a whole range of musings, he said -- some dark and disturbing. Others her father described as "springlike" and "very fluffy kind of stuff." The story that prompted her suspension was in a section titled "Dreams."
"She writes about death and pain," Boim said. "But we're also talking about a kid who is a vegetarian because she can't stand the thought of animals being killed. Her writing reflects a full gamut of emotions. . . . We're not saying this shouldn't have been brought to our attention. But the decision was made to expel Rachel without any understanding of the fact that this was just a story."