Child Suspended For Drawing Jesus... Or Not

A 7-year-old boy drew this picture on the left, and apparently was suspended from school and ordered to undergo psychiatric counseling.

Well, that's what his father would have you believe, as the story hit the news and brought nationwide attention to the situation, and angering Christians everywhere.

Of course, in the end, it was all about some petty shithead using the claim of religious persecution in order to get paid:

Amid the flurry of media attention, the boy's father held court today at his girlfriend's apartment here, demanding the school district compensate him for his family's pain and suffering.

"It hurts me that they did this to my kid," Chester Johnson, the boy's father, told the Globe. "They can't mess with our religion; they owe us a small lump sum for this."

Julie Hackett, superintendent of Taunton Public Schools, said the student was never suspended and that neither he nor other students at the Maxham Elementary School were asked by their teacher to sketch something that reminded them of Christmas or any religious holiday, as the newspaper reported and the father suggested.

She said it was unclear whether the boy -- who put his name above his stick-figure portrait of Christ on the cross -- even drew it in school.

She said the boy's drawing was seen as a potential cry for help when the student identified himself, rather than Jesus, as the figure on the cross, which sparked the teacher to alert the school's principal and staff psychologist.