Teen punished over violent video game

(5/01/07 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- A senior at Clements High School isn't in his normal classroom. The district removed him for playing a violent computer game that looks a lot like his school.

The student created a video game from his home computer. But when word got out at school, among other students and subsequently their parents, that's when school district officials took some action.

At Clements High School, student Jordan Schlafer is appalled and shocked to learn her school was used as a backdrop for a violent video game.

She said, "If somebody can make a map like that of the whole school, I mean, it does kind of scare me a little bit, and make me wonder, you know, what else they could do."

The game is called Counter Strike  a popular online game where the user, either as a terrorist or anti-terrorist, kills his or her targets. One of the features is that the player can create their own location. A 12th grader who got in trouble apparently made the Clements campus the scene of his game.

"It was the exact replication of the campus," said Fort Bend ISD spokesperson Mary Ann Simpson. "There were players in the game that were armed and the purpose of the game was to shoot and kill."

What made the situation even worse is that the video game was discovered by a fellow student days after the Virginia Tech shootings. School officials immediately removed the teen from school, placing him in an alternative education campus. They called the situation a 'terroristic threat.'

Allan Cease, the teen's attorney, disagreed, "Looking at the criminal definition of terroristic threat, we're not even close to that definition. There was no criminal intent, there was no intent to harm anybody."

Cease says in no way did the teenager attempt to replicate the game. He's fighting on behalf of the teen and his parents to have the student placed back in school.

In the meantime, students we talked to are torn as to whether the game was a real threat or not.

"I think he just did it for fun," said student Maaria Faoqi. "I mean, he goes here. He probably didn't mean anything."

Schlafer said, "I do think some measures needed to be taken, about making him out for the school. So, if they thought that the alternative school was the best for him, then, yeah."

The Fort Bend ISD police searched the boy's home. No charges have been filed.

The teen's parents are appealing the decision. They'll need to go through a four-step process before any action is taken.
(Copyright © 2007, KTRK-TV)

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