RECENT STORIES

December events at WOW! Children's Museum ( Katie MacDonald )
Boulder County election results ( Boulder County )
Police Blotter: Skis stolen ( Boulder Police )
Tax lien sale Dec. 5 ( City of Boulder )
Business economic outlook forum Dec. 8 ( CU News Services )

share a story | more postings »

YourHub.com \\ Boulder \\ Stories \\ Sound Off \\ General Sound Off

VTech Blowback II -- Univ. Florida

e-mail to a friend | print this | link to this

Contributed by: Louise Benson on 9/19/2007

First it was Max Karson at CU, now a student at the University of Florida has been tasered for speaking his mind to Senator Kerry, and refusing to be silenced. I saw the video of the incident on TV this morning, and he should have left the microphone when his time was up, and should have cooperated with police removing him. But he did nothing to deserve having his life put at risk by being tasered.

Is this where we are now? Any college student who speaks and perhaps makes a nuisance should be considered a threat to safety? Any applicant to college will be grilled about past juvenile indiscretions or mental health issues? Exuberant football fans will be turned away "just in case they get out of hand"?

This post-Columbine madness gets racheted up with each tragic, but rare, event such as VTech, or the recent State Capitol shooting of (another) mentally ill man. Yes, there are things we can do, such as making sure laws and alert citizens keep guns out of the hands of the certified insane.

But over-reacting to high school and college students who push the envelope on verbal outbursts or pranks is just ridiculous, and it is really beginning to feel like a police state.

I have written about this topic in this space before, and have published a book about it, Scapegoating for Columbine: Collateral Damage in the War on School Violence. Learn more by attending my booksigning at the Boulder Bookstore on Thursday, September 27th at 7:30 pm, and by listening to my interview on KGNU October 1st at 8:35 am.

[Report this as objectionable content.]

SUBMIT COMMENT

Rate the above story

Talk Back : submit comments to the story

*Note: you need to log-in to add a comment or rating.

Thank you! Your comment has been updated.

CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Louise Benson

Broomfield , CO

Louise Benson has posted 64 stories and 38 comments since joining on 3/11/2007. Louise Benson 's average story rating is 4.51.

view profile » view other postings from Louise Benson »

SAVE AND SHARE THIS STORY

STORY RSS FEEDS

All stories

All stories in Boulder

All stories by Louise Benson

WANT TO WRITE FOR YOURHUB.COM?

Want to see the stories you write and the photos you shoot featured in the YourHub.com Thursday print section available all over the Front Range and with home subscriptions of the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post? All you have to do is register, then post a story or column, start a blog or tell everyone what events are happening in town. We will print the best stories, columns, event listings, photos and blog entries in our print sections.

Loading Ad