You’d think they’d praise him for encouraging their fetish religious symbol, rather

An 8-year-old second-grader from Taunton, Mass., was suspended from his school and even faced a psychiatric examination, all for a drawing he made in class. We’ve seen several cases of kids drawing violent or threatening pictures before, and some kids have been known for being more than a little unstable in th past, so this isn’t exactly new and precautions should indeed be taken. However, common sense needs to be held on to in such cases so that we don’t punish kids for relatively (or completely) harmless drawings. Is this such a case? You be the judge:

SHOCKHORROR incarnate

… Seriously. A drawing of a stick-figure Jesus on the cross. No blood, no entrails, no … nothing. It’s the same scene that Christians around the world worship to, for fuck’s sake.

Here’s the story, below. This just reeks of ridiculousness.

The father said he got a call earlier this month from Maxham Elementary School informing him that his son, a second-grade student, had created a violent drawing. The image in question depicted a crucified Jesus with Xs covering his eyes to signify that he had died on the cross. The boy wrote his name above the cross.

[…]

The student drew the picture shortly after taking a family trip to see the Christmas display at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette, a Christian retreat site in Attleboro. He made the drawing in class after his teacher asked the children to sketch something that reminded them of Christmas, the father said.

“I think what happened is that because he put Xs in the eyes of Jesus, the teacher was alarmed and they told the parents they thought it was violent,” said Toni Saunders, an educational consultant with the Associated Advocacy Center.

[…]

“They weren’t looking at the fact that this is an 8-year-old child with special needs,” she added. “They made him leave school, and they recommended that a psychiatrist do an evaluation.”

The school, in fact, required the evaluation before the boy could return, the father said.

OMG – he drew ‘X’s over Jesus’ eyes! A practice used by graphic artists and cartoonists since the beginning of drawing to indicate that someone is dead or incapacitated! The violence! The gruesomeness! Burn it! BURN IT!!

Seriously. It’s a drawing of Jesus on a cross. When the kid starts drawing himself gunning down bullies or his parents or whatever, then you can bring in the shrinks. Until then, I wouldn’t worry about it. Just so you know.

(via @ReligionNews)

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