Too sensitive?

My friend Judy sent me this link about a student who tore pages out of a Bible during a class presentation. The story is rather confused as it focuses on one girl who felt "threatened" by the demonstration. The article and video don't describe the incident in much detail or even reveal if the boy was punished. Neither gives the boy's perspective or that of other witnesses.

I have never felt threatened like that in a classroom before," said Jacobson.

The 17-year-old is talking about an incident in her English class two weeks ago during a class presentation.

"This boy got up and his visual aid was a Bible and a book. And he got up and started his speech by saying 'Now, this piece of crap' and pointed to the Bible."

Jacobson said that she quickly felt threatened.

"He took the Bible and he said, 'I'm going to do this because I can. I'm going to do something that your stupid, little minds aren't going to be able to comprehend and he took the Bible and started ripping out pages."

While the language used by the boy is somewhat aggressive (and keep in mind this is from her recollections and is thus not necessarily what happened), why would she feel "threatened"? Possibly some Christian persecution complex? Many Christians have heard so often that Christians are being persecuted, they see it everywhere. Certainly, he wasn't respecting Christianity, but was he threatening anyone in the room? As for God, shouldn't an omnipotent being be able to handle someone ripping up "His" book?

School officials said that they know about the incident.

"We take this extremely seriously," said Dr. Karen Schulte, Janesville School District safety and security coordinator.

Officials said that they will not confirm whether the boy was suspended.

"We do an assessment of this situation and students involved to ensure the safety of every student and staff at that school," said Schulte.

Officials said that ripping up a Bible is constitutionally protected, adding the punishment has nothing to do with the student's Freedom of Speech demonstration.

"Any actions that were taken in this case were because of behavior separate from the Bible," said Parker High Principal Dale Carlson.

To their credit, the school is being fairly neutral here. They haven't condemned the boy publically and sound like they're just trying to calm down some extremists. It seems likely that they're being forced to act and are trying to make this go away.

But they wouldn't confirm whether or not he was suspended? Why would he be suspended at all? If the ripping of pages is admittedly Constitutionally protected, what warrants punishment? There's not enough information here to explain so it's possible there was additional behavior, but if so then it's not about the Bible. It's hard to imagine the boy getting punished if he had been ripping pages out of "Catcher in the Rye".

More facts are needed to see if this event is just hysteria over a free speech issue, but right now it looks like he was right when he said, "I'm going to do something that your stupid, little minds aren't going to be able to comprehend."

Update!: He was suspended. Here are additional details.