Mental health issues, not books, led to teacher’s suspension

The claim is made that what caused Patrick McLaw to fall afoul of the authorities was not the sci-fi books he wrote, but a four page letter he wrote and sent to some Dorchester county officials. This could completely alter the entire story.Note that there is no information presented on what the letter said. However, history is replete with cases of people who have written whackadoodle letters threatening violence… letters that went ignored, then the letter writer goes on to rob a bank or knock over a synagogue or open fire on a crowd. *IF* the letter written was of this kind, then the story might suddenly flip from OMGWTF the cops are going nuts to Oh, good, the cops caught the crazy in time this time.

Again, no data on the contents of the letter. But it may be instructive to point out that McLaw is a male in his early twenties… right about the time that a whole lot of schizophrenics begin to really bloom. So… maybe.

Gotta go for now. My world out here seems to be on fire.

…

OK, I’m back (see the next blog post for pointless details)

Assuming that this is truly a case of a teacher who went bugnuts and either threatened others, threatened himself, or just plain wrote crazy stuff and the authorities were in the right to lock him in the nut hatch, there are still some disturbing features. First: the public goes bonkers and the authorities say approximately diddly. This seems to have been a result of HIPPA rules, which pretty much legally bar the authorities from saying anything about the medical status of someone who doesn’t want ’em to say anything. But you still think they could a said *something* before this point to keep a lid on the public outrage.

Second, and more importantly: just how *easy* it is to believe that the government would lock someone up for writing fiction, even bad fiction. This should be a warning sign to all three people employed by the government inside the US who actually want the public to have an informed yet trusting view of the government.