Heard the kid's lawyer interviewed - he did not characterise the writing as an "essay", but as an exercise whereby the class had been instructed to just write, non-stop, whatever came into their heads, not to mentally edit or censor, just write, write, write. This is not an unusual sort of creative writing exercise, to "get yourself started". Apparently some of the offending bits were quotations from Green Day songs.

However, there was in the midst of it all a bit that could be taken, in the current climate, as a not-so-veiled death threat directed at another teacher, with whom this student has had some difficulties. The lawyer played it down, but I think I would have been troubled by it if it had been handed in to me. So I think this is another instance where I would want to know more before making up my mind. It is disturbing, though, that police involvement so often seems to be the first rather last recourse in school issues.