Bloody Vampire Pic Sparks Panic At School

(AP)  When Pooler fifth-grader Jordan Hood drew a bloody vampire in art class, it scared a teacher so much she reported him to the principal and campus police.

Homeroom teacher Melissa Pevey said drops of blood dripping down the vampire's face looked a lot like gang-related teardrop tattoos. And she said the words "I Kill For Blood," written in red next to the vampire's face, could be tied to the Los Angeles street gang, The Bloods.

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Click here to see the picture.

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"The school system resolved the Tuesday incident by requiring Jordan to undergo psychological testing the next morning and then returning to class in the afternoon.

The boy's mother, LaKisha Hood, told the Savannah Morning News she was shocked the picture exploded into a gang investigation.

"They told me the droplets could actually be a gang symbol for the number of people he killed," she said.

School system spokesman Bucky Burnsed said teachers are told to watch for anything that could harm students and some have received gang identification training.

Jordan's mother, however, is dismayed over the school's reaction.

"He didn't know anything about gang symbols until the teacher accused him. We moved to Pooler thinking he'd be in a more diverse school with better opportunities," she told the newspaper.

"And so far, it hasn't been a pleasant experience."

[sigotratando]

There is this thing called ''priming'', where an idea is introduced to a person & the idea then has become a type of mental sensitivity. Problem is, it also creates a scenario where ''if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail''.

I did look at the picture & understand it was related to a Halloween Art context. A little bit more scrutiny before pulling the trigger on the kid might have reveal that there was blood coming out of the nose as well on the teeth, some weird scare by the eyes ... things that are more halloweeny than gangy.

Another thing the teacher cld have done is simply ask the child to describe the content of the picture to glean whether is was gang-symbol motivated. Bravo for simply not using your head, teach.

[jaxspp]

Georgia schools. We''re Number 50! We''re Number 50!

[zwaggsy]

Mind you we had a similar incident over here in the UK in the late 60''s. Thing was the teacher was ignored & the little girl involved turned out to be a killer of two young boys (3 & 4) as well as the attempted murder of at least 4 young girls! Truth is often stranger than fiction!

[karenbe111]

Teach must be a paranoid Repub!

[rick_day]

Why is AP not reporting that the drawing was ASSIGNED? The art teacher not only REQUIRED a ''scary'' image, but actually HELPED the kid with the thing?

One more time, the state of my residence SICKENS me with its over reaction and ZERO TOLERANCE policy that is destroying our country.

The parent should file suit against the system for traumatizing her son, and they should pay her well.

Bad leaders! No earmarks!

[luckygirl042]

Lord what fools these mortals be!!!!
That teacher should be ashamed of herself. She has singled out a child and embarrassed him, she taught him and the class about gang symbols, she distroyed the kid''s trust in showing anything to adults. Geeze, didn''t the HR teacher know that the art teacher helped with the picture? As Bugs always said "Wadda Maroon".

[rolbeth]

teach you are a moron i knew it was a vampire when i saw it why didnt you u need to get out of the classroom if things freak you out like this..kids are so desensatied they will draw anything they see... it does bother me as a parent of teenagers who draw like that i consider them artist...because the pictures like that vampire are better that so art picture some so called artist do...lady get a life and get away from those children.

[grandesign]

Did anyone click the link to see the picture?

It looks like he drew a scary Halloween mask in art class. Now it is on syndicated news outlet--but did he get any royalities for his work? Nooo. This is artistic exploitation of a minor.

[grandesign]

Teacher wasn''''t smarter than a fifth grader?
Posted by rsmik at 07:07 PM : Oct 31, 2008

Hey, they should make a television show about that!! Maybe a game show, ya think.

[spiritwalk]

Hey, spiritwalk, you remembered the story well ! his mother was shot by your good old American hunters.

Posted by drinuk at 12:30 AM : Nov 01, 2008

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I stand corrected. But, now I am wondering why nobody took advantage of your post to use it as an excuse to say something nasty about Sarah Plain hunting? Must be bio-bigotry. Its not nice to shoot a doe, but blasting a big old smelly moose is different.
Too bad nobody thought to make up a poster showing Palin with a smoking gun standing over a dead Bullwinkle.
That is the level of this election debate isn''t it?