Students Punished for Threats in Artwork

Re “Poetry as Art and Threat,” June 18: After I read the article I was appalled. Not at the students’ work, which was indeed shocking, but at our society’s response to it. Are not these children crying out for some form of therapy, rather than criminal penalties? And it would seem that the last place one would want to put one of these kids is a place where he or she could really get some violent ideas. But I guess it makes more points for politicians to build jail cells than to hire counselors.

Michael Barrett

Burbank