A Chinese student in Clements High School was kicked out from the school because he made a Couter-Striker map which depicted the hallways of Clements High School.

SUGAR LAND ¡ª A special school board meeting called to hear the appeal of a student disciplined for playing a violent computer game involving his high school was canceled when four board members stayed away.

The Fort Bend Independent School District trustees who did not attend said the meeting circumvented the districts disciplinary process.

Two trustees said they called the meeting because school district officials overreacted when the Clements High School student was punished. Board members Stan Magee and Ken Bryant said the special meeting could have expedited the resolution of the case.

Magee said district officials went overboard when the 17-year-old boy was suspended from school and placed in the M.R. Wood Alternative Education Center.

"I think we overreacted as a result of the Virginia Tech ordeal," Magee said Tuesday.

But a district spokeswoman said school officials cannot afford to ignore anything involving school-based violence.

"This goes back to Columbine. Ever since that horrid incident took place schools today have to take every incident that is reported very seriously," Fort Bend ISD spokeswoman Mary Ann Simpson said. "And they have to impress upon students how serious this type of thing is. We cant joke about things or take things lightly anymore."

Clements High depicted
Simpson said that on April 17, the day after the Virginia Tech massacre that left 33 dead, Clements High School officials learned a student had been playing Counterstrike, an Internet-based shooting game. The locale of the shootings depicted on this students game were the hallways of Clements High School.

School district police investigated the report and questioned the student at school and then visited his home. The students parents gave police permission to search the 12th-graders room and computer. Simpson said police determined no criminal charges were warranted but that disciplinary action was.

Simpson said because of the violent nature of the game and because the actions had taken place in a computer-generated rendition of the high school, official consider the matter to be very serious.

"This was nothing to kid around about," she said.

Simpson said the student was transferred to an alternative school for the remainder of the school term.

The teens parents appealed the decision. The school district has a four-step appeal process at the end of which a student can make a final appeal directly to the board of trustees.