School suspends boy who drew picture of attack, then grinned while showing it BY JEREMY KOHLER Of the Post-Dispatch 10/04/2001 11:15 PM
Child suspended from school for this drawing of World Trade Center towers A Jefferson County fifth-grader served a three-day suspension this week for drawing the World Trade Center attack on notebook paper and grinning while showing it off.
Paul Volz, 11, last week drew the skyscrapers side by side with smoke and fire pouring from the left tower. He said he taped the drawing to the outside of his study cubicle at the North Jefferson Intermediate School.
In a discipline notice sent to Paul's parents, school Principal Jeff Boyer indicated the boy had made "disruptive physical conduct or speech" and "communication of a threatening nature."
Paul, who is from the Fenton area, was suspended Monday through Wednesday and returned to school Thursday. On a copy of the drawing Boyer faxed to Paul's father, Boyer noted that the boy stuck a small paper airplane on one of the skyscrapers, said the boy's father, Paul Volz.
Boyer wrote on the notice: "When I asked him why he did this, he just looked at me and smiled. This is totally inappropriate and Paul's behavior has to change." Boyer did not return a call from the Post-Dispatch Thursday.
District spokesman Ben Helt said it was Paul's grinning - not the drawing - that brought the suspension. He would not discuss specifics of how Paul acted.
"How a child handles that drawing could be just as important (as the drawing itself)," Helt said. "Some drawings can be therapeutic and others can be offensive."
Volz said his class had been assigned to write journal entries and "peace poems" after the attack. He said he drew the center because it was on his mind and said he shared it with only one student. He denied sticking an airplane to the drawing.
Paul's father said he was angry at the school.
"If it was such a big deal to them, I don't know why they didn't take him . . . to talk to a counselor instead of just suspending him," Volz said.
Isn't this a little overboard? I mean, these poor children have been saturated with this attack on television and don't have any relief from it, and also, are being told to write about it in school. But, just don't write about your true feelings, o.k? Besides, if you check out the photo of the drawing, it's just a basic design of the attack, no words or any other thing that could be misconstrued. People are going nuts.
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