quote: Those books are what caught the attention of police and school board officials in Dorchester County. "The Insurrectionist" is about two school shootings set in the future, the largest in the country's history.
Phillips said McLaw was taken in for an emergency medical evaluation. The sheriff would not disclose where McLaw is now, but he did say that he is not on the Eastern Shore. The same day that McLaw was taken in for an evaluation, police swept Mace's Lane Middle School for bombs and guns, coming up empty
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I normally never play the race card (I'm a white male so not my department) but a black man teaching on the eastern shore is bound to stir up the locals. I know, I dated a teacher on the shore. That's a very old school neck of the woods.
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I hope that whatever they are investigating has a lot more substance to it than "wrote about fictional school shooting".
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No weapons were found, and the sheriff tells WBOC when there is someone who is interested in these types of incidents, like school shootings, it is only prudent to do a search as a precaution.
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quote:Originally posted by scifibum: I hope that whatever they are investigating has a lot more substance to it than "wrote about fictional school shooting".
quote:Originally posted by Stephan: No weapons were found, and the sheriff tells WBOC when there is someone who is interested in these types of incidents, like school shootings, it is only prudent to do a search as a precaution.
That's their justification for investigating this guy? That he's interested in school shootings?
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I don't know, sam. I mean why on Earth would a teacher of all people be interested in or concerned about school shootings?
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We all know someone like Orson Scott Card would never have an "alias" to write a novel. Obviously this guy must be hiding something. It's sad that we live in world where people might hide behind a name to write this filth. It's like that guy Scott Richards, writer of Zanna's Gift, should he really be allowed to use a fake name? Come on now!
Oh that was perfectly alright? I guess this is only considered 'odd' or 'strange' when the writer is black. Nevermind.
Card has 7 known alternate identities. Good thing he's white!
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Card has 7 known alternate identities. Good thing he's white!
And has written about a child being killed by another child in a "school". Also teaches at a southern school. Yeah, good thing he's white or they would be searching his premises next.
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Some people might be saying it is perhaps lightly excessive to swat-raid the guy, arrest him, give him an emergency psychiatric evaluation, hold him in an undisclosed location, put him on leave, bar him from being allowed to be present at a school campus, tear up his house with a police search squad looking for drugs or other illicit materials, and then establish a full day police guard at his former school, because he is a person who wrote literature in which a school is shot up in the very distant future, and two protagonists find themselves having to catch the perpetrator before they strike again.
But to them, I say: 888 years from now, we will be hailed as heroes for preventing this tragedy before it could happen.
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I really think part of the problem is people are afraid he might be guilty of something. I know as a teacher on the shore myself, it makes me nervous about talking about my feelings publicly.
Kind of why I came here.
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They keep claiming there is more to the story, but they only hint at what. Some "4 page letter" that supposedly exists.
His books need some heavy editing. (Unrelated to his detention, just a comment about his prose.)
Example Sentence:
"She then glances upward with tears in her eyes at the incompletely overcast sky at the massive triangular black aircraft circling the premises overhead with a large spherical structure constructed of tinted glass suspended below it."
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quote:"It didn't start with the books and it didn't end with the books," State's Attorney for Wicomico County Matt Maciarello told The Times. "It's not even a factor in what law enforcement is doing now."
ah.
ideally it has little or nothing to do with the books
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quote:"She then glances upward with tears in her eyes at the incompletely overcast sky at the massive triangular black aircraft circling the premises overhead with a large spherical structure constructed of tinted glass suspended below it."
He then glances downwardly wincing at his monitor at the extremely overwordy and overcomplicated sentence being displayed on his incompletely maximized screen in the window of a browser that was Chrome on which a yellow forum was displayed but which was sharing screen space with a Youtube video of various technical guitarists.
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quote:For the first time we are hearing from a Dorchester County school teacher placed on administrative leave and admitted to a mental health facility after police say he wrote a fictional book depicting a school shooting.
But that’s not all, a four-page letter with suicidal overtones raised the eyebrows of colleagues and members of the community but the teacher says they got it all wrong.
The teacher spoke by phone from Sheppard Pratt saying things are being taken out of context and he does not need mental treatment.
Patrick McLaw remains on leave from his teaching duties at Maces Lane Middle School in Campbridge. police say his fictional book “The Insurrectionist” gained national attention for its alarming depiction of a school shooting and a four-page letter sprinkled with suicidal undertones was sent to colleagues.
“They believe that perhaps he was reaching out for some help,” said Sheriff.
But McLaw says they have it all wrong.
“Law enforcement has not tried to contact me, they have been misinterpreting information,” McLaw said.
In a phone interview from Sheppard Pratt in Baltimore, where McLaw is being treated, he says he does not need a mental evaluation.
“They have been disseminating information incorrectly to the psychiatrist and medical professionals up here who have been making diagnosis that, you know, are invalid and irrelevant,” McLaw said.
Sheriff deputies say the investigation into McLaw didn’t stem solely from his writings.
“Within hours we received information of perhaps an inappropriate relationship involving a student so we had some concerns,” said Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis.
The 23-year-old teacher is banned from school property. Investigators say inside a shed, they recovered a handmade model of a school.
But McLaw says what has been taken as a threat is nothing more than a hobby.
“This entire situation is a complete, and total misunderstanding. And it is unfortunate that it has come to this,” McLaw said.
quote:Sheriff deputies say the investigation into McLaw didn’t stem solely from his writings.
“Within hours we received information of perhaps an inappropriate relationship involving a student so we had some concerns,” said Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis.
The law enforcement people involved with this case can't seem to help but make themselves look foolish. If he was having an inappropriate relationship with a student, what does that have to do with getting him committed? How you can you use this information to justify your investigation if you receive it after you started (even if it's within hours)?
"...a four-page letter sprinkled with suicidal undertones..."
That sounds pretty mild considering the response he got - involuntarily committed for psychiatric care and his house searched and his reputation completely trashed by police and media.l
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quote:Originally posted by Wingracer: But which technical guitarists?
The technical guitarists, who were good, and playing guitars that didn't care about split infinitives and subject verb object disagreement.
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As usual in this case the guitarists of the technical nature who are renown for being good, were in this case mostly videos of the guitarists specificially who are Steve Vai and Joe Satriani as is becoming a typical scenario for me, but it was to compare them directly to some less known technical guitarists who engage in the guitarist trade in a manner which appears that they take on after those two guitarists previously mentioned, such as Tosin Abasi, whose works while interesting were bringing me back to a conclusion that even the best guitarists of a technical renown are at their best when they move away from pure technical wankery,
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quote:Originally posted by Thesifer: "a four-page letter with suicidal overtones"
and
"a four-page letter sprinkled with suicidal undertones"
I'm really confused at which one it was...
In music being over tone is going Sharp, while being under tone is being Flat.
Either his allusions to suicide involved a Sharp knife or being crushed Flat by something. That's my official independent analysis.
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quote:Originally posted by Thesifer: "a four-page letter with suicidal overtones"
and
"a four-page letter sprinkled with suicidal undertones"
I'm really confused at which one it was...
if you're betting on which one it turns out to be then you have to get an over/under on over or under
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