Police, lawyer release statements on student's alleged dinosaur killing

SUMMERVILLE, SC (WCSC) - A Summerville High School student who says he was arrested and suspended after writing about killing a dinosaur using a gun in a class assignment has hired a lawyer.

Attorney David Aylor, who is representing 16-year-old Alex Stone, said his client's arrest over a creative writing assignment on Tuesday was "completely absurd," and is seeking to appeal the suspension and "proceed with the legal issues of [Stone's] arrest."

“This is a perfect example of ‘political correctness' that has exceeded the boundaries of common sense," Aylor said in a statement released on Thursday."Students were asked to write about themselves and a creative Facebook status update – just days into the new school year – and my client was arrested and suspended after a school assignment."

The Summerville Police Department who arrested Stone on Tuesday on a charge of disorderly conduct is disputing Stone's account of his arrest.

"The information that is being reported is grossly incorrect in reference to what led to the juvenile being charged," said Capt. Jon Rogers in a Summeville police statement released on Thursday."The charges do not stem from anything involving a dinosaur or writing assignment, but the student's conduct."

Stone said he and his classmates were told in class to write a few sentences about themselves, and a "status" as if it was a Facebook page. Stone said in his "status" he wrote a fictional story that involved the words "gun" and "take care of business."

"I killed my neighbor's pet dinosaur, and, then, in the next status I said I bought the gun to take care of the business," Stone said.

Stone says his statements were taken completely out of context.

"I could understand if they made him re-write it because he did have "gun" in it. But a pet dinosaur?" said Alex's mother Karen Gray."I mean first of all, we don't have dinosaurs anymore. Second of all, he's not even old enough to buy a gun."

Investigators say the teacher contacted school officials after seeing the message containing the words "gun" and "take care of business," and police were then notified on Tuesday.

Summerville police officials say Stone's book bag and locker were searched on Tuesday, and a gun was not found. According to police, when Stone was asked by school officials about the comment written on the assignment, he became "very irate" and said it was a joke.

A Summerville Police Department report states that Stone continued to be disruptive and was placed in handcuffs, and was told that he was being detained for disturbing schools.

According to Gray, Stone was suspended for the rest of the week. Gray says she is furious that the school did not contact her before her son was arrested.

She says her son followed directions and completed an assignment.

"If the school would have called me and told me about the paper and asked me to come down and discussed everything and, at least, get his point-of-view on the way he meant it. I never heard from the school, never. They never called me," said Gray.

Stone and his mother say they understand the sensitive nature of what he wrote, but they say it was a rash reaction to an innocent situation.

"I regret it because they put it on my record, but I don't see the harm in it," Stone said."I think there might have been a better way of putting it, but I think me writing like that, it shouldn't matter unless I put it out towards a person."