Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic has been trying to get the sheriff of Dorchester County on the phone to get some answers since yesterday.
He hasn't been able to talk to him yet, but he did talk to the state's attorney for Wicomico County, Md, and the explanation he got from him is peculiar, to say the least.
UPDATE (September 2, 2:51 p.m.): According to The Los Angeles Times, a law enforcement official is saying that McLaw drew the attention of authorities not because of his books, but because of a "a four-page letter to officials in Dorchester County." ...
The story goes on to state, "McLaw's letter was of primary concern to healthcare officials, Maciarello says. It, combined with complaints of alleged harassment and an alleged possible crime from various jurisdictions led to his suspension....
UPDATE II (September 2, 5:37 p.m.)
I just got off the phone with Matthew A. Maciarello, the state's attorney for Wicomico County, Md....
Maciarello told me that the issues here have less to do with McLaw's books and the overall state of his mental health. When I asked him if Dorchester authorities led the press -- and public -- to believe that McLaw was being removed from his job because of the books he had written, Maciarello said, "We have a different way in Wicomico County. I can't speak for Dorchester."....
Authorities grew concerned about McLaw after he sent a "four-page letter" to a school administrator over the summer. According to Maciarello, the letter contained no threats against schools or school personnel, but that it indicated that McLaw was not mentally sound. "Health care professionals were concerned, he was in a relationship that had just come to an end, he was talking about his mother as being overbearing, there was some thought that he could be a threat to himself." Based on the "totality of the circumstances," Maciarello said, McLaw was involuntarily committed for evaluation. Among those circumstances: Authorities said that McLaw had built a model of a school building in his home, and had asked an administrator to move classrooms, to one near the "point of ingress and egress" of the school.
Pressed by Goldberg as to whether Mr. McLaw's science fiction novels had had any bearing on his detention or not, the state's attorney admitted they did:
"The books are a factor," he said. "You cannot consider the total picture without knowing that he had this book, this other writing. This was very concerning to the administrators. It's 2014 -- you can't have a person who has mental issues, someone who's complaining about his mother, complaining about teachers -- it's all taken into totality.
Besides, the state's attorney said, McLaw had "Columbine material" at his house. Pressed again by Goldberg for specifics, he said it was a report on the school shooting. Goldberg suggested it might have been research for his novel, and the state's attorney agreed.
And then I think Maciarello gets down to the real core:
"If someone wrote a novel about school shootings it wouldn't concern me. I person is allowed to follow their pursuits. I love fiction. I love expression. But some citizens did react to this, there were citizen complaints based on the book, but this wasn't an overreaction.
So there you have it: Patrick McLaw wrote two science fiction novels, some "citizens" "reacted" to them, and when he wrote a letter to a school administrator over the summer that contained no threats of any kind but that someone thought may have been a little odd, the entire school bureaucracy and law enforcement fell down on his head.
Sounds like nothing but pure paranoia and ass-covering to me, with maybe a little personal animus somewhere thrown in.
If you want the earlier story on this, it can be found here.
Update (1) Sept 3:
Apparently this isn't the first time state's attorney Matt Maciarello (who initiated the involuntary psych evaluation for this teacher) has concerned himself with the potential dangers to be found in artistic expression.
Via an anonymous commenter here, some interesting new information.
Earlier this year Maciarello went after a rap group (three young black men) for their rap video in which guns are shown. He tried his best, but couldn't establish enough evidence of probable cause to charge them with gun offences.
Maciarello is a Tea Party Republican who is up for re-election for another four-year term. He's talked about federal gun laws being unconstitutional, and about "nullification," and how the Firearm Safety Act needs a carefully constructed legal counterattack.
Kind of a strange juxtaposition of interests there, just saying....
Update (2) Sept 3:
Despite his expressed concerns for the privacy of Mr. McLaw, state's attorney Matt Maciarello is now airing further details, such as "a possible inappropriate relationship between McLaw and a minor, who was not McLaw’s student" (and may or may not have been of the age of consent during the relationship), and that the four-page letter from McLaw to school administrators was an emotional resignation letter. His investigation is continuing.
Update Sept 4:
Local media have now talked with Mr. McLaw by phone from a mental health facility where he's being held:
WBOC spoke with McLaw, who is currently in a mental health facility on the other side of the bay. He told WBOC that he does not belong in a mental health facility....
"This entire situation is a complete and total misunderstanding," McLaw said....
"Law enforcement have not tried to contact me, they have been misinterpreting information, they have been disseminating information incorrectly to the psychiatrists and to the medical professionals up here who have been making diagnoses that are invalid and irrelevant," McLaw said.
As for the model of the school, McLaw explained that building models is just a hobby.
"I used to be in architecture and engineering and as a result of that, as a hobby I built miniatures," McLaw said. "And I built a miniature of a cruise ship, a miniature of a house, and a miniature school. Now given the situation, they have only focused on the miniature school."
His lawyer says he is "in a good place" and "receiving treatment."