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YOUNG HORROR WRITER JAILED AS SUSPECTED TERRORIST

Disgusting, absolutely disgusting. Believe it or not, I try to keep my politics under wraps in most news stories on this site. If I didn't, everything would be one long rant. But when something like this comes forward, and is relevant to the discussion, all bets are off. An 18 year-old student has been arrested for making terrorist threats against his school. Even though his school was never mentioned, even though he never actually made any threats. Why did they lock him up? He is a horror fan who wrote a short story featuring an unrelated high school being overrun by zombies.

William Poole is a writer, and from what we gather, a pretty active one. When his grandparents were looking through his journal (Why were they doing that? Perhaps another argument for another time.), they found a short story about a school in peril. Unfortunately, the school was is peril from a rampaging horde of zombies and the story was for an English class.

"My story is based on fiction," Poole said. "It's a fake story. I made it up. I've been working on one of my short stories. The short story they found was about zombies. Yes, it did say a high school. It was about a high school over ran by zombies."

After the grandparents turned the story into police, the Kentucky teen was arrested. Now Poole, who would likely want a prosperous life and career ahead of him without a criminal record, is being charged with a second-class felony. That's right, a felony.

"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 News.

Roger Clark High School Principal (and we know what rocket scientists they can be), John Atkins says Poole is making excuses. "The boy's version was that he was writing a story about zombies and it was for a portfolio entry that was going to be turned in at school," Atkins said. "The teachers aren't aware of any kind of project like that. The word 'zombies' was not mentioned in the writings."

"It did not mention [Clark High School or school officials] specifically but it did mention 'the high school,' and how many teachers were there and how long it would take the police to arrive once they received an emergency call," Atkins said.

The word 'zombies' was also not mentioned in 28 DAYS LATER but few seemed threatened. The fact that teachers are not aware of the story he was writing is irrelevant. For one thing, how many English teachers know the exact nature of a short story in progress before it is turned in? Almost never in my day. Or even if they did know, how many students do they need to keep track of? Would they remember everything? The fact that the story went into great detail was likely not a case of threatening material, but good research.

Nevertheless, Principal Atkins didn't appreciate the attention to detail. "It sounded to be kind of an advertisement or recruiting to meet a goal, and a goal was stated which was very negative about the school," Atkins said.

But Poole swears he never intended anyone to take this story seriously. "It didn't mention nobody who lives in Clark County, didn't mention (George Rogers Clark High School), didn't mention no principal or cops, nothing," Poole noted. "Half the people at high school know me. They know I'm not that stupid, that crazy."

But the Kentucky law against terrorists threats casts such a wide net, the statute itself is suspect. According to the section: "A threat directed at a person or persons or at a school does not need to identify a specific person or persons or school in order for a violation of this section to occur." (Source: Student Press Law Center).

Poole's bail was initially set at a thousand dollars, but was raised to five thousand when prosecutors pointed out "the seriousness of the charges."

Ah yes, "the seriousness of the charges," said without a shred of irony. In this post-911, Bush-reigned country, we have lost all shred of common sense, all sense of freedom. We speak of freedom and Democracy while the actions of national, state and county law enforcement contradict everything a democracy stands for.

I have made no bones about my own feelings of censorship in the past. I may have even mentioned by own struggles over a cable access television show, involving county board meetings, various meetings with lawyers, a fallacy-ridden smear campaign in the local media and death threats against my family and I. Much as I was opposed to censorship before, this experience kind of cemented the whole deal.

Only in this day and age, almost ten years later, things have gotten much worse. I made music videos and used clips from films we love like SUSPIRIA, OPERA and ALTERED STATES and I was branded obscene. I was never branded a terrorist, however. William Poole and many like him are being branded as terrorists by people so nervous after Columbine and 9-11 that they have no qualms about forfeiting the rights of themselves and others. Like Debbie Rochon once said with a nod to Will Rogers, "We live in a time where common sense is no longer common."

I am not overreacting. This kind of thing is so serious, I don't know if you can overreact until the whole practice is done away with. What happens if they actually convict him, or someone similar down the road? Once he gets out of jail, you can forget about him ever getting a decent job, especially as a writer. What happens when he applies to a newspaper? "Have you ever been convicted of a crime?" "Yes, I was convicted of making terrorist threats." SLAM! Don't call us, we'll call you.

Personally, if I were him, I would think very hard about getting the ACLU on board.

Worse yet is the precedent it sets. If an English paper can be labeled a terrorist threat, what other forms of free expression will follow? It's a domino effect, and it is not paranoia to suggest that various conservative groups will rally together to ban works originally deemed "indecent" under the new idea that they are a threat to national security.

It is a hypocritical crime against any free society to stamp out freedom of expression, label any kind of artist as a threat and then proclaim that doing so is merely to protect the very freedoms you're trampling all over. Like Benjamin Franklin once wrote, "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security." Franklin dealt with war, revolution and the drafting of a new government from the ashes of a colony. So don't tell me the times are different now. He knew what he was talking about and the principle did not expire with Columbine or the terrorist attacks on the U.S.

The 18 year old student is currently being held in the Clark County Detention Center. He will remain there for an indefinite time. A court hearing is scheduled for next week.

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