This is absurd.
In grade school I wrote a series of short stories about a boy who could alter reality with his mind. He often killed other children, and since I was bad at making up names for my characters I used my own schoolmates' names.
Kids are violent. They have violent thoughts. They draw violent pictures and write violent stories. I knew several others in my class who wrote similar stories as I did. I also knew several kids who drew violent pictures.
Now that I think about it, I did that too. I often drew cities being blasted, mushroom cloud in the distance. Or bombed by planes. I drew ghosts, demons, monsters...even zombie angels.
I've grown up to be one of the least violent people I know. I'd never dream of hurting another person.
The boys’ parents said they thought the children should be punished by the school and families, not the legal system.
Absolutely correct. They should be punished, because this does depict
them specifically harming a classmate. Children need to be taught that violence is not acceptable, unless in a completely ficticious context. But the law certainly didn't need to be brought into this.
"I find it elevating and exhilarating to discover that we live in a universe which permits the evolution of molecular machines as intricate and subtle as we."
-Carl Sagan
