Asked to keep a journal of drawings for his Prosser High art class, an unnamed 15-year-old punk-rocker managed to strike fear into the heart of his quiet Washington-state community. Included in his submitted project were drawings of the Bill of Rights burning, George W. dressed as Satan and a man holding an effigy of Bush's head on a stake with the caption, "End the war - on terrorism."

School administrators called the police, who saw a great threat to the life of their president and called the Secret Service, who interrogated the boy and went home. Now nobody wants the blame for what most consider a gross over-reaction. The school isn't talking, the Secret Service say they were just doing their job and Prosser police chief Win Taylor blames Columbine.

"We've all been under the gun with all these mandated policies for school security plans," complained Taylor. "Now it's, ‘Oh, we want you to use discretion again.' We can't win."

» Scott Saxon