A student at Clements High School in Texas has been transferred to an alternative place of education after the authorities discovered the teenager had created a Counter-Strike map of his former school. Police were called to the student's home, where five (possibly decorative) swords were found, though he wasn't arrested or charged.

Police did order the former Clements student to erase the maps from his computer, and the authorities were sufficiently concerned by the game map, the swords and other information to deem this a 'level 3' situation. The student was duly transferred to another school, code 3 denoting someone who "engages in conduct relating to a false alarm or report (including a bomb threat) or a terroristic threat involving a public school."

Clements School trustees are divided over this action, two publicly stating that transferral was an overreaction. The agencies responsible defend their hard-line stance. "Ever since Columbine, anything that remotely looks like a threat has to be taken very seriously," community site Fort Bend Now quotes spokesperson Mary Ann Simpson as stating. "The minute we don't, something serious is going to happen."

By Luke Guttridge