“Death Note” style threats in American High Schools

I just read this article on Anime News Network about 4 high school students and there “Death Note”. Apparently they had written the names of teachers, fellow students and even celebrities into the notebook. I’ll let you read the story yourself for details but for now I am going to interject my opinion.

Expelling  a student based on a notebook is going  little too far. This being said, these students should not be let off scott free. I say let the parents decide the punishment, weather it being a grounding, or in severe cases, therapy. I am unsure if the school faculty was aware of the show, which shows late night on Cartoon Networks Adult Swim. To me, this is on the same level as writing cryptic poems, albeit going a bit farther. This also raises the question as to weather these students actually did anything wrong. While its pretty obvious that actions can be illegal, this is public morals sliding its toes into determining weather thought and ideas are illegal. Making a notebook that lists the names of people you want to off is one thing. Actually doing them is another.

I do feel sympathy for the school though. Recently there have been student attacks in high schools and in universities as well. But this is a fad within the anime fandom that will eventually die down, just like when i was a kid and my friends likes to make believe they were Goku.