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The Allen Lee incident, where the violent creative writing assignment of the straight A senior in Community High School District 155 led to police arrest despite the fact that Allen appears not to have threatened any individual or organization, is by all appearances a case of extreme over-reaction. We often forget that children in schools are not “little adults” - and that intervention, not incarceration is the rational way to deal with inappropriate behavior. These kids are still learning! In this case, a creative writing assignment, while the student’s treatment of the assignment clearly showed a lack of judgment - we should be teaching that in school and at home.

Here’s a letter from William Yoshino, Midwest Director of the Japanese American Citizens League, who graciously permitted me to reprint it here (it was also sent to the State’s Attorney):

Ms. Susan Popp
Principal
Cary-Grove High School
2208 Three Oaks Road
Cary, IL 60013

Dear Ms. Popp:

Through newspaper accounts, I learned about the actions by the Cary-Grove High School in alerting the police to the writings of Allen Lee, a senior attending Cary-Grove High School. It goes without saying that the horrific tragedy at Virginia Tech University has caused great caution in trying to anticipate the actions of troubled students. However, it is troubling when this may result in an overreaction thereby stigmatizing the character of a student.

There is very little information surrounding your decision except that Allen Lee is a straight-A student. We don’t know if there is a history or pattern of behavior that caused your decision. We don’t know whether you interviewed the student or provided counseling prior to your action. We don’t know whether there was any form of parental intervention prior to the action.

What we know is that you called the police and they arrested Allen Lee, charging him with disorderly conduct because he wrote an essay for an assignment in a creative writing class because the contents according to the police were “violently disturbing.”

We are concerned too because Allen Lee is an Asian American, which was made abundantly clear to the public because his photograph accompanied the story of this incident on the front page of the Chicago Tribune. As the oldest and largest Asian American civil rights organization in the United States, we hope there wasn’t the slightest instance of racial profiling involved in the decision to call the police, thereby criminalizing Allen Lee’s class assignment.

We would appreciate a more detailed explanation for the actions taken by you and the high school district.

Sincerely,

William Yoshino
Midwest Director
Japanese American Citizens League