Computer Game Violence Level - Confiscated Swords Led To Student's Removal

by Bob Dunn
FortBendNow
May. 03, 2007

Police discovered five swords in the bedroom of a Clements High School senior whose home they searched after getting complaints about a 3-D computer “shoot-‘em-up” game map the student designed, which depicted a portion of the school.

That information surfaced in a Fort Bend Independent School District Police Department report released Tuesday, and was confirmed by several district officials who also revealed other details about the case for the first time.

The student, whose name has not been released, was not arrested or charged by FBISD police, however, he was removed from Clements and transferred to M.R. Wood Alternative Education Center several days ago. Officials said he also complied with a police order to delete the game and game maps from his computer.

FBISD officials said Tuesday school administrators weighed the violent nature of the computer game – a modified version of Counterstrike – along with the discovery of swords in the boy’s room, and other undisclosed information, and decided to classify the matter as a “Level 3” situation.

The district’s student handbook defines “Level 3” as an incident in which a student “engages in conduct relating to a false alarm or report (including a bomb threat) or a terroristic threat involving a public school.” A Level 3 incident, according to district policy, results in mandatory transfer to M.R. Wood.

Two sources close to the case said it’s questionable whether the swords were usable as weapons, indicating they may have been decorative.

The incident came to light after the boy’s mother, Jean Lin, expressed her concern over her son’s punishment to FBISD Board trustees in an executive session during an April 23 meeting. About 70 members of the area Chinese community also attended the meeting to show support for the family. Some said the boy and his family were upset to learn he may not be allowed to attend graduation ceremonies with this Clements classmates.

The matter erupted into a political controversy on Monday, at what was to have been a special FBISD board meeting, called by trustees Ken Bryant and Stan Magee to discuss the boy’s case further.

Board President Steve Smelley and trustees Laurie Caldwell, Cynthia Knox and Sonal Bhuchar failed to show for the meeting. With only Trustee Lisa Rickert, Bryant and Magee, the board had no quorum and the meeting had to be abruptly canceled, much to the chagrin of many of the 120 or so people who showed up in support of the Lin family.

On Tuesday, Magee and Bryant called for another special meeting (see related story).

School district officials initially declined to discuss any details of the case, citing privacy concerns and a general policy against revealing information about disciplinary cases.

But a day after Magee and former FBISD board trustee Naomi Lam criticized the district for disciplining the boy over a matter that took place entirely off campus, the school district provided new details of the incident and a rationale for its actions.

Magee said Tuesday he doesn’t believe the boy is a threat to fellow students at Clements, and said he doesn’t believe administrators believe he is, either.

“I feel we went beyond our jurisdiction,” he added. “If he put something on a computer at Clements, that’s different – but he didn’t do that. I think we’ve jumped the gun here.”

The FBISD administration sees it differently.

“When you have the floor plan of a high school that houses over 2,000 students in a game about killing people, you have to have consequences,” FBISD spokeswoman Mary Ann Simpson said. “And also realizing what the reaction would be in the community,” district administrators “still felt very confident in their decision.”

“Ever since Columbine, anything that remotely looks like a threat has to be taken very seriously,” Simpson said. “The minute we don’t, something serious is going to happen.

“You’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.”

Some observers in the case and Magee have suggested district administrators overreacted to complaints about the Clements student’s computer game by two or three parents in part because he is Asian, as was the perpetrator of the recent Virginia Tech shootings.

Simpson disagreed sharply with that assessment.

“That has absolutely nothing to do with this decision,” she said. “The decision was based on the potential for violence in this game, which used one of our high schools as a backdrop.”

Officials also weighed whether there might be a connection between the swords found in the boy’s room, and “weapons depicted in the game itself,” Simpson said. “You see these big, dark hands with knives in them” in the boy’s modified Counterstrike version.

While no charges were filed against the boy, both Simpson and Smelley said other mitigating circumstances – which they declined to specify – came to light as a result of the police search.

“Unfortunately, there are some other things, even though no criminal charges were filed,” Simpson said.

“They got more stuff that doesn’t look too good,” Smelley said.