More Students Punished Over 'Death Notes'

by Zel
May 26, 2008 12:43 AM | 154 Comments

Yet another group of students have been disciplined for bringing a 'Death Note' to school, this time it happened in Tacoma, Washington.

The school sent a pre-recorded message to parents

“Recently, an event at Kopachuck has raised safety awareness to an even higher level,” he said in the message. “A few students wrote some fear-provoking notes in a published book, and the matter has been thoroughly investigated. There is no credible threat to the school, students or staff.”

The 'Death Note' contained around 40 names, some of which were students from the school. The students were supposedly suspended, and the school district is unsure if they will ban the book.

Source: The News Tribune

20 of 154 Comments Recent Comments

viskera said:
The students and the school admins are both stupid...=.="

/signed

Aug 3, 2008 3:51 AM by Ryuga

I remember reading a story on ANN about how some of the kids who were suspended for "death noting" wrote names like George Bush, and Paris Hilton, which is definitely something to laugh at.

But there was a more serious case in Belgium(or somewhere in Europe) where there were remains of a body(or bodies) and someone left a note with it that said "watashi wa kira dess". (which obviously should be 'desu')

It's fascinating though, how everyone sees this series. You don't hear about how great it is from the media; only how it teaches your kids that it's okay to write down the names of people you want dead. I think the school admin who suspended those kids should lighten up a bit, but at the same time I do know how concerned they are thinking about the worst case scenario involving these kids.. who knows if they'd end up becoming like Kira from Belgium?

Aug 2, 2008 2:19 AM by sorasfishing

JTSlayer said:
It's only going to get worse with a US movie in the near future.

Say, the "WANTED" movie adaptation. People would buy guns just to try "bend"
bullets around street corners or their mates!
"Shoot the wings off the flies... I mean Planes"

~*~

Regarding the Death Note stuff, hell, when I was at uni, I had one to draw pretty pictures. Class mate was obsessed with Death Note saw my sketchbook...
He asked me "If it worked, would you, "dare" to kill anyone?"
I replied "Yeah I would, rid the criminals!" (I was sarcastic yet gave a evil tone)
After that, he thinks I'm scary and stuff... for about 1 semester.
Got more scared when I found his real name lol (his uses a nickname throughout)

I think its just a measure of keeping society on the safe side. People reenact scenes that is dangerous, or reek of danger bound to have it whooped back at them.
I'm glad that my sketchbook didn't grab much attention from 2 people...

Jul 31, 2008 2:41 PM by TEH_GEASS

Nathan-the-Axe said:

Reavery2k said:
i have heard about these kinds of things. i also heard about a kid who died in a sandbox while trying to imitate Gara from Naruto.

The kid wouldn't have died if he was smart enough not to cover his head. Makes you wonder how deep that sandbox was.

Jul 30, 2008 6:45 PM by Gin-iro

Reavery2k said:
i have heard about these kinds of things. i also heard about a kid who died in a sandbox while trying to imitate Gara from Naruto.

That is actually one of the funniest/saddest things I have ever heard in my life. Let's ban Naruto now! (I know, I'm a dreamer)

Jul 30, 2008 5:27 PM by Sick_Bastard

Those people saying that they shouldn't have been suspended are ridiculous... Firstly, suspension usually only last for a week to 10 days. How is that an over the top punishment?

This is basically a threat, same as writing a note saying you are going to bring a bomb to school. What if you were one of those kids that's name was written in the book? I would DEFINITELY want them suspended... hell maybe even expelled. There are kids out there who have problems and making a list of names of people in a death note is not just fun and games.

Jul 29, 2008 1:27 PM by restivesilence

Any child psychologist will tell you that playing out one’s imagination is an important part of childhood. I dont see anything wrong with emotionally venting out one’s frustrations at life. If you hate someone so much that you need to wish them dead IN WRITING, then have some common sense and put that stuff in a non-descript diary with a lock or something so that no one will be able to read it, don't TAKE IT TO SCHOOL!

I also found it ironic, that when I read an article concerning this, I cleaned out my 10 year old brothers closet and found a "death note," stapled together with black construction paper as the cover, do you know what he had inside? "Hilary Clinton and Venessa Hudgens," xD

Jul 27, 2008 2:07 PM by Kittenia

The students acting as if they are writing the names of people who will die as a result of it is harmless, by itself, but I think it's more of a "what can result from this" that's more frightening. What if they wanted to make their Death Note more authentic and decided to take it a step further? It might not happen, but the thing is, it could happen. It's the school's responsibility to make sure that the school's environment is safe. Seems to me that they're just nipping it in the bud before it has the chance to grow into something more, even if it doesn't.

Jul 27, 2008 11:42 AM by Adrim

Puh.. So pathetic.

Jul 27, 2008 3:17 AM by Rethice

i have heard about these kinds of things. i also heard about a kid who died in a sandbox while trying to imitate Gara from Naruto.

here is the link if you want to see it.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wTeiIOeBk9g&feature=related

Jul 26, 2008 9:34 PM by wpoieng9845g9p8n

I heard somewhere that students in China are banned from reading the Death Note series just because of incidents that creep up like these. Death notes are getting rather popular, there is even a virtual Death Note website (mostly filled with spam).

It doesn't really disturb me that they thought to do it, as much as how damn stupid they would have to be to bring it to school. No common sense at all. It doesn't matter that they are 99.9% not going to every kill anybody in their life, it is just disturbing to see that there are kids that stupid walking the landscape.

Jul 24, 2008 11:02 PM by Sick_Bastard

being a teen myself, I can (sort of) understand all that I-want-you-to-die crap. Not that I've wanted anyone dead (except a certain french teacher haha), but I got a friend who actually has written a Death Noth himself. Never saw it myself, never knew the names in it, but I knew why they were there: my friend was simply being bullied around. The day he talked about it to me he said "You don't know how it's like to being pushed around like me". Of course he had it wrong but thats not the point of what I'm writing. The reason he filled the DN was, in a certain way, the only possible thing he could think about to get himself out of this situation (on the moment). This got him a bad reputation around in school but he never got expelled or anything. Today he's doing better, after a while he got pretty much forgotten and people had stopped bullying him (or at least diminushed the amount of). The lesson of the story? The reasons of doing such an act (wirting names in a DN) are various, an so are the consequences. The best solution is not to expell the student but to search and understand why the kids did that and then use the appropriate solution/consequence. Besides, the best way to get rid of a tree is by removing its roots, right?

Jul 24, 2008 9:49 PM by Waza

These stories are starting to wear thin. Besides, do they think that by banning 'Death Notes' that they'll stop children having these thoughts? It's just typical pre-teen/teenage angst ("People don't understand me", "I'll show them one day" Etc) ...Like someone has said before, I don't think we need to worry unless someone goes to school tooled up like Rambo...

Point is, it rarely means anything, and these children will grow out of it (hopefully!)...

Jul 23, 2008 7:32 AM by OranSolus

It's only going to get worse with a US movie in the near future.

Jul 23, 2008 3:49 AM by JTSlayer

how silly....how very silly.
Why do they punish these kids ...i don't get it.
Are they afraid that death notes are real :)) or what...it's kinda funny in a way...adults can be so silly C:

Jul 23, 2008 3:30 AM by Yuki_Michiyo

Hm, I never thought about kids bringing these to school. I don't know why. I can see how school officials would be worried if they didn't know where the book was from

Jul 18, 2008 5:11 PM by Zelgato

It is all a bit silly in a way, but there are some serious issues within it.
Yes, it is really scary to think that some teenagers would like to see some of their classmates dead. But I bet a lot of teenagers think about it. Just they aren't stupid enough to write it down where everyone can read it, or put it into action.

What I think needs to be done though, is find out why the names were in the note.
Was it a joke? Or was there bullying involved? I bet some of the names weren't of innocent students who had never said a bad word to the people involved.

That said, it must be awful to find out that someone hates you so much that they want you dead.

Jul 18, 2008 4:36 PM by rachelcabbit

Psh. It's all annoying hype.

I used to write names on lemons in blood for the same effect when I was younger. (It's like a voodoo version of Death Note.)

Jul 18, 2008 3:21 PM by Ryderj

Ckan said:
Everyone is free to have their own opinions.

Some people (protective parents) might find such things as "death notes" offensive, giving younger people bad ideas, ie. killing anyone you want.

Others might just see it as harmless fun.

It all depends on the context really, the idea of a "Death Note" might give some paranoid teacher a heart attack.....

But yeah, I do think suspention is abit much.
Give them a detention and confiscate it. Going to all the trouble to suspend them is wasting your own time.

I'ts not like they were sending out death threats... were they?

I couldn't agree more. I personally believe that it's quite drastic to punish these students with a suspension. I do think that it's quite threatening if your name was to be written in a death note, it can definitely raise paranoia levels up and even intimidate students. I'm not saying this to offend anyone, but American schools are so dramatic. Over here, you'll just get a detention and then the issue will be dismissed and then over and done with.

Jul 18, 2008 3:08 PM by Undercrimsonmoon

Tiamat said:
More of a...write-your-feelings-down-on-paper-and-not-send it-thing...?

Yes but the "political correctness crap/shit" dosnt let you even think about murdering someone. They somehow want to restrict you, so that's why i think they dont allow books + there are a lot of retarded kids who would just write something and then do it themselves. But they would never admit those kids are just stupid and that they are to blame. T_T

Jun 22, 2008 2:29 AM by JudgeRuthless

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