Tip to Students: If you write graphic death threats about mutilating your teacher, don’t turn them into said teacher for credit
In what might be the stupidest thing ever committed by supposed “honor” students (Scott McKnight, 17, and Sam Smith, 18,), two high school students who had been tasked with keeping journals for a class assignment decided to write how they would torture, kill and mutilate their teacher at Tesoro High, Miss Alyssa DiSomma. They then turned in the journals to the very same teacher they were threatening. Doy. What did they think would happen?
Needless to say, when the teacher read about how they wanted to kill her and then mutilate her body, she reported them to school officials who then suspended the pair. This being California however the two have continued to play on the school football team. I think that everyone would agree that nothing short of them actually committing the murder/mutilation should keep them off the squad and reducing the chance of the team advancing in the CIF.
According to reports:
The entries make reference to gluing DiSomma naked to a wall and cutting off her feet, stabbing her and slitting her throat, hanging her from a lamp post, torturing and killing her friends and family while she watches, burning her house and defecating in her mouth.
Another entry had this:
“Right now you look friendly, soon you will look mutilated. I am planning on coming in your room late one night while you’re still working,” reads one partial entry by McKnight dated Oct. 18. “I will smother you in gasoline and light your head on fire, putting the fire out right before your head is charred.”
According to CBS2, this was written:
“I will kill you f*cking lickity split b*tch. Ha ha ha. Get killed b*tch. I’m going to murder you.”
and
“I will watch her sob and weep and cry in agony and pain….I will then begin stabbing her in places that will cause pain and torture.”
To which their lawyer John Eastman said, those things are “taken out of context.” Huh? Page and page and paragraph and paragraph about killing their teacher is “out of context.” “…defecating in her mouth” is out of context?
Another sign that this is California, the parents of the students have sued the teacher for violating the students’ rights by reading the assignment that they turned in. Fortunately, an Orange County judge ruled last month that the journal entries could not be considered private. The court also upheld the teens’ suspension pending the hearing. The fact that it took a judge to rule that homework when turned is not “private” shows the desperation of the defendants.
Let’s also talk about blaming the victim. The parents have solicited an email drive showing support for the boys and blaming Miss DiSomma. (Note: if you are an idiot or a felon, or both, these are exactly the kind of parents you need and depend on–lots of money and in complete denial that their kids are screwed up.) According to CBS2 in Los Angeles, the parents focus is to get the boys back playing on the football team as soon as possible seemingly oblivious that anyone who writes what their kids wrote has serious, serious issues that need addressing in therapy. They even got former Ram quarterback Jim Everett to write a letter in support of them. Presumably Everett doesn’t like school teachers either.
If nothing else, the boys are guilty of felonious stupidity and deserve everything that happens to them. This is a good way to learn that ignorance of common sense is no defense.
Finally, another apparent teacher-hater State Senator Joe Dunn called the school board to ask them to “take it easy on the two boys.” Heck, it’s not as though they threatened a state senator.
If there was ever a time for the teachers union to get behind a teacher it’s now. Violence in the classroom should be a far more important and less divisive issue than the ones that they just spent their war chest on.
*****
Updates: There is a Orange County online community that is discussing the story. The general sentiment there is that the teacher is a “liar” because she read journals she said she wouldn’t read. Some also said that she was a bad teacher and didn’t deserve tenure. These might be true and if so she should be dealt with. However not by threatening to cut her head and mutilate her body. The link http://talk.ocregister.com/showthread.php?t=17012&page=2 (source: Essential Emmes)
I must admit that I did enjoy one post on the board that said “The spoiled brats make me sick, and so do their indulgent parents. ” This comment then had the link below.
To put a face on the “victim” (teacher Alyssa Di Somma) here is a story on her from 4 years ago when she was at CSULB and from which the picture above was taken.
*****
Update (12/15): CBS2 reported that the youths will not be expelled but will finish out the school year at an “alternate” school. Not sure it that means “continuation school.” If it does, the type of thing they wrote would have gotten them an ‘A’ instead of being nearly expelled. There was no mention what is happening with the teacher.
More coverage: SoCal Law Blog
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December 3rd, 2005 at 12:13 am
Check your facts–
You say, “the two have continued to play on the school football team.”
According to the press, they haven’t been playing football –
Orange County Register 11/18/2005:[http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/local/article_777684.php]
“Tesoro seniors Scott McKnight and Sam Smith may no longer practice with the school football team, a Superior Court judge ruled Thursday.”
Orange County Register 11/30/05: [http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/atoz/article_864670.php]
“Their suspensions have kept them out of class for six weeks, prohibited them from playing football and brought them what they say is undeserved public attention.”
The underlying issue of this sad case is not incidental facts or opinions, but why it became so publicized, when similar cases of threats and violence happen 3 to 8 times per day in the Capistrano Unified School District, according to police reports reviewed in the media. If every similar case drew such media and community attention, there would be little room in the newspaper for anything else. Whose cause did this media circus serve? Cetainly not the teacher’s or the boys.’
December 3rd, 2005 at 12:45 am
From http://www.nbc4.tv/news/5290845/detail.html the following:
“Attorneys for the boys last week convinced a judge to issue a temporary restraining order allowing them to continue to play football while on suspension.”
“The seniors are off-campus in an independent study program while awaiting their expulsion hearing. But under the original TRO, they can come onto the school grounds for practice.”
The reports you have cited are subsequent to the link above so I stand corrected that they have not been playing on the football team despite this earlier report.
As for your point that the “underlying issue” is the media attention. Huh? The underlying issue is what they did and perhaps the media attention will serve notice to others who think it okay to turn in papers threatening to kill, mutilate and defecate on the bodies of the teacher they are turning their homework in to. What effect do you think the death threats will have on a teacher that is just 9 years older than one of the students making the threats? Oh yeah, I forgot, your theory (as printed in your blog) was that perhaps she was simply embarrassed by reporting the boys in the first place? If you have read the reports of late, this isn’t the case and she is quite scared.
Go ahead blame the media, the victim and anyone else other than these two “honor” students. Don’t worry however they’ve got an incredible constitutional lawyer, a former pro football player, and incredibly a state senator all pulling for them so the teachers union and school district doesn’t stand a chance.
December 3rd, 2005 at 6:53 am
But dammmnnn, Insider…How will ya’ feel if they LOSE in the play-offs?…Betya didn’t think
bout that now, didja?…Well?…Didja?
Sincerely,
Every Asshole High-School Coach in TEXAS, where HS Football iz King
December 3rd, 2005 at 9:25 am
Insider:
You make excellent points. I should have added that these boys made a terrible mistake, one of bad judgment as well as of strange behavior. While they and their teacher suffer the consequences of awful choices, I absolutely agree with you that “what they did and perhaps the media attention will serve notice to others who think it okay to turn in papers threatening to kill, mutilate and defecate on the bodies of the teacher they are turning their homework in to.”
However, since this is not an isolated incident and, based on reports by the police in the media, happen several times a day on average in the school district, the events could have been handled better by the administrators, for all those involved, including the teacher.
The boys may need discipline and guidance, to what extent I don’t know. I’m not an expert. The “experts” should have been dealing with this on that level, not as a public tug of war between the school district, the media, and teachers’ union. As I have mentioned on my blog, there is more than meets the eye to any story, and is probably true with this one. Two honor students of proven good character writing such aberrational trash in the journals, leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
December 3rd, 2005 at 10:43 am
I have no idea why one incident becomes media worthy while another goes unnoticed. For every Elizabeth Smart that is covered daily in the papers, 10 or more abductions don’t even make the paper. How about Nadalee Holloway? We agree the eye of the media is indeed random.
To us, violence (or the threat of violence) in classrooms is always worthy of writing about but rarely are such graphic threats actually written down and then made available to report. That made this a very easy story to jump on.
One of the Independent Sources staffers’ mothers was a school teacher for 25 years in a not-so-nice area, and violent episodes involving teachers wherever and however do have quite an impact on teachers’ mental states. As we said earlier, the upside of the media attention on this story is to dissuade others from doing something equally stupid. I equate this to yelling “fire” in a crowded movie theater–even as a prank or making a joke about a bomb while getting on a plane. Even if no harm is intended these actions cause significant problems and punishment is needed so others don’t do the same thing.
The other issues that made this notable (at least for us) are the fact that they actually turned the journals in evoking a “are they really that stupid?” angle. If the threats had been found in a locker or on a website it might not have had the same appeal. The reaction of the parents–conducting an email campaign–and the silly comments by their attorneys also made this something that interested us. Getting Jim Everett to call on the boys’ behalf is so off of the mark that we question how much of a grip the parents even have on the situation. Facing expulsion and they have an ex-pro football player call to tell the school about how important football is to young men? Possibly not the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard but certainly up there.
We rarely support the teachers unions actions but we are 100% behind their call for zero tolerance for anything even close to violence toward teachers (even as a joke or in this case the students mistakenly thinking the teacher wouldn’t read them). Part of zero tolerance is making sure others know the consequences of doing so.
As for the teacher, I’m not sure what she should have done differently. I can’t imagine a 27 year old female English teacher doing anything other than turning the journals over after reading what she did. And if these two nitwits ever did something violent and it was learned that a teacher had read their threats and didn’t report them, that would raise questions too. No doubt the parents would have attacked her for that as well.
If I were them, I would be in lock-down mode, no more email campaigns, pro football players, stupid attorney tricks, etc.. Be contrite, get the punishment and move on. Forget the football season and pray that they haven’t screwed up getting into a 4 year college. I guess they could always play ball at Saddleback College. The media will be quickly bored if they aren’t claiming 1st amendment rights or that turned in homework is private.
December 3rd, 2005 at 11:43 am
Insider:
Again you make all excellent points. I have tried to show that there are shades of grey to complex matters such as this case, and everything is not always black and white. The teacher made an assignment to write journals which the students claim she insisted would not be read. According to one press account, the word “hate” was written so large on one of the pages of the boys’ journals that if the teacher were just fanning the pages to make sure something was written on each one, she could not have missed seeing this large word. Therefore one could assume that the boys wanted to be caught, or that they were daring the teacher to stick by her word not to read the journals. Who knows?
In a post on a chat site one person writes of a political duel between the school boeard and teachers’ union, that actually caused this case to be made public (See “Aliso Vet” entry).[http://talk.ocregister.com/showthread.php?t=17012&page=2]
As far as college goes, we all know that football and the bottom line will trump ethics. How scarred the boys’ records are is left to be seen, but finding a place in a college that needs football players shouldn’t be too difficult.
The whole situation reminds me of the quote from blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo when he was belatedly given the Laurel Award in 1970: “…it will do no good to search for villains or heroes or saints or devils because there were none; there were only victims.” In this case the teacher has been made a victim, beyond the initial journal writings, due to all the media scrutiny.
December 3rd, 2005 at 2:47 pm
Emmes. The link you included was enlightening. I added it to the original post above.
December 4th, 2005 at 4:33 am
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