Oct 18, 2008 07:00 AM
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George Rogers Clark High School student William Poole is just like any other 18-year-old high-schooler: Full of angst, at odds with his grandparents and facing a second-degree felony charge of "terrorist threatening" because of a short story he wrote for english class that saw his school attacked by zombies. We wish we were joking, but we're not; writing a story where a high school is attacked by zombies actually turns out to be a felony in the state of Kentucky, because it outlines "possible acts of violence aimed at students, teachers, and police." Prepare to be stunned.
Lexington, KY's Poole doesn't deny writing the story; he's just able to recognize the difference between realities and zombies:
My story is based on fiction... It's a fake story. I made it up. I've been working on one of my short stories, (and) 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... 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... Half the people at high school know me. They know I'm not that stupid, that crazy.
That doesn't stop it being worth taking seriously, claims local police detective Steven Caudill:
Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function it's a felony in the state of Kentucky.
The story - written for an english class and handed to police by Poole's grandparents, who found it in his journal - is apparently so appalling that Poole's bail bond was raised from one to five thousand dollars after prosecutors requested it because of "the seriousness of the charge." His home was also raided, and police claim that they found "materials... that outline possible acts of violence aimed at students, teachers."
I'm not the only one kind of appalled about this, right? It'd be one thing if the stories were about anything that could actually happen, but Poole wrote about his school being attacked by zombies. What kind of insane legal processes do we have that that actually gets a teenager charged with terrorism and his bail quintupled?
[Update: This story turns out to be years out of date; my apologies, all. My indignation stands, however.]
Flickr image by treatzone (s).
Student Arrested For Terroristic Threatening Says Incident A Misunderstanding [Lex18]
Send an email to Graeme McMillan, the author of this post, at graeme@io9.com.
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
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