Boy's 'Violent Poem' Conviction Is Appealed

By Maura Dolan

May 28, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court appeared inclined Thursday to overturn the felony conviction of a teenage boy whose violent poetry was deemed a criminal threat.

The case of the felonious poetry has received national attention, with prominent writers, including Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee and Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon, weighing in on behalf of the boy.

He was one of several students around the country arrested for stories, poetry or art that evoked violence following the shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in 1999.

Identified in court records only as George T., the San Jose boy was 15 when he wrote poetry about taking guns to school and gave it to two classmates in his honors English course. Eleven days earlier, a boy the same age had killed two students and injured 13 others at a high school in San Diego County.

A Juvenile Court judge determined the poetry was a threat and George served 90 days in juvenile detention. A divided Court of Appeal in Santa Clara County upheld the conviction and the boy appealed to the California Supreme Court.

During a hearing Thursday, several members of the state high court questioned whether the violent imagery in the boy’s poetry amounted to an unequivocal and immediate threat. “We all agree that this case presents a 1st Amendment issue,” said Justice Joyce L. Kennard.

One of the boy’s poems, titled “Faces,” included the line “For I can be the next kid to bring guns to kill students at school.” Kennard noted that the boy used the word “can” instead of “will.”

“Doesn’t that weaken the argument” that the poem represented an immediate threat? she asked.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Jeffrey Laurence replied that “can has multiple connotations.” He noted that the next line in the poem said, “So parents watch your children cuz I’m BACK!!”

Chief Justice Ronald M. George said the poetry may have been in “poor taste” but expressed doubt that the boy intended his words to be taken as a threat. He noted that people utter expressions all the time that could be considered a threat if taken literally.

“Some people say, ‘I could kill you for that,’ or, ‘I could have killed you when you said that,’ ” the chief justice said.

Justice Carlos R. Moreno observed that the boy had made a copy of his violent poem for his poetry collection. He suggested a writer might not copy a poem for a collection if he intended it as a threat.

But Justice Marvin R. Baxter noted that the trial judge determined the boy was being untruthful on the stand. Baxter also asked whether a student has a 1st Amendment right to wear a T-shirt with an obscenity on it. Michael A. Kresser, the lawyer for George T., said schools may legally enforce dress codes.

Justice Janice R. Brown suggested that criminal activity could be disguised as art. She asked whether a hypothetical poem written by a bank robber -- “Roses are red. Violets are blue. Give me the money or I’ll shoot you” -- would be protected by the 1st Amendment.

Kresser said it would not be protected.

“Merely putting something in verse does not immunize it,” the lawyer said. To determine whether someone intended words as a threat, “you have to look to all the circumstances surrounding the communication,” he said.

George had been at Santa Teresa High School for just 10 days when he wrote the offending poem. He approached a girl in his English class on March 16, 2001, and asked her to read it. “Is there a poetry club here?” he inquired.

The girl read the poem and became so scared she fled campus. The girl notified a teacher, and police arrested George at his home two days later.

George, who had labeled his poem “Dark Poetry,” denied he had meant it as a threat.

The boy also had given his poem to a second girl who hadn’t bothered to look at it. When she finally read it after George’s arrest, she burst into tears, according to court records.

George was expelled from Santa Teresa and is now a senior at another high school in San Jose. Kresser said the boy told him he had inquired about going into the military after graduation and was told that his conviction might make it difficult. But Kresser was optimistic after the court hearing.

“I thought the arguments went pretty well for our side,” Kresser said.

Siding with the boy were the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California; PEN USA, a writers group; and the 1st Amendment Project. The state high court has 90 days to reach a decision in the case, In re George T., S11780.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

‘Dark Poetry’

The poem, printed on lined notebook paper, began:

Who are these faces around me?

Where did they come from?

They would probably become

the next doctors loirs [sic] or

something.

All really intelligent and ahead

in their game.

I wish I had a choice on what I

want to be like they do.