Texas boy earns 'A,' six days in jail for Halloween tale
The Associated Press
11.03.99
Printer-friendly page
 |  |
Christopher Beamon, 13, walks out of Denton County Juvenile Detention Center with his mother, Jan Beamon, in Denton, Texas, Nov. 2.
 |
PONDER, Texas — A 13-year-old boy has been freed after spending six days in custody because the Halloween horror story he wrote as a school assignment described shooting a teacher and two classmates.
"It seems like a year ago, a big ol' long year," Christopher Beamon said after a judge ordered him released yesterday from a juvenile facility.
"I was supposed to write a horror story. I don't think I did anything wrong."
| Christopher Beamon's essay |
|---|
|
Text of Halloween essay that led to the arrest of seventh-grader Christopher Beamon in Ponder, Texas, as supplied by the Associated Press.
My flashlight went out and I heard someone right behind me and I turned in a very slowly scared way and boom the lights came on and the door bell rang. I walked very slowly and creepy and turned the knob ding dong the door bell went again. I said just a minute and I will be right there and I looked through the little hole in the door and Robin said Boo. I told him to come in and have a seat and we both wated and wated for Ismael because he was supposed to bring the ounce so we could get high but half an hour later still no Ismael so I got the idea of freeon and we grabbed a bag and a knife and ran out back to the airconditionar. We througth the bag over the nostle and covered it tightly and used the knife to press the volv. We started to hear something after we got high so we ditched everything we quickly run to the door to see who it was and there wasn't anybody there then we heard someone at the back door to see who it was I thought it was a crook so I busted out with a 12 guage and Ismael busted out with 9 mm and we step off the porch and this bloody body droped down in front of us and scared us half to death and about 20 kids started cracking up and p----- me off so I shot Matt, Jake, and Ben started laughing so hard that I acssedently shot Mrs. Henry. Ismael saw somebody steeling antifreeze so Ismael shot over ther near the airconditonar and hit somebody (indecipherable word) also scattered out and went home and my mom drove up and everything was back to normal but they didn't have any heads.
|
His English teacher, Amanda Henry, thought he did such a good job that she gave him an "A," plus extra credit for reading it aloud in class.
The seventh-grader's story, written in first person and with misspellings, included a passage in which he becomes angry and "acssedently shot Mrs. Henry."
Some parents named in the essay worried that Christopher might harm their children. Ponder High School Principal Chance Allen called authorities, and deputies removed Christopher from school on Oct. 28.
Christopher's mother, Jan Beamon, said she met with a vice principal that morning and had no idea her son would be treated as a criminal.
"I left for work. Chris left for class. And then I got a phone call that he was in juvenile detention," Jan Beamon said this morning on NBC's "Today."
School superintendent Byron Welch told NBC the outcome would have been different if Christopher had used fictional names. "The fact that we're dealing with real people, named specifically in the classroom, that is a real problem," he said.
Denton County Juvenile Court Judge Darlene Whitten ordered Christopher detained for 10 days after reviewing his school disciplinary records. She approved the early release after the family's attorneys demanded his freedom, journalists began highlighting the case and the district attorney said he didn't want to prosecute.
"That means this child was in jail for six days for nothing," the family's lawyer, William Short, told Reuters. "All of his constitutional rights were violated."
The judge wouldn't discuss specifics of the case but said she takes any threatening statement seriously.
Short said Jan Beamon wanted Christopher publicly identified to call attention to an injustice. "It's insane," he said of the boy's confinement.
Christopher and his mother said students were told to write an imaginary story about being home alone in the dark and hearing noises.
"It looks like to me the child was doing what the teacher told him to do, which was to write a scary story," County District Attorney Bruce Isaacks said. "But this child does appear to be a persistent discipline problem for this school, and the administrators there were legitimately concerned."
However, for the last six-week period in the writing class, Christopher's teacher called him "an outstanding student" on his report card.
Ponder is a farm town of about 500 residents, 40 miles northwest of Dallas.
