“It [denial by the Marines] is because you’re not allowed to have open court [cases],” said Jameson Emling, a fellow Cary-Grove senior who planned to enter the Marines with Lee.

Authorities detailed excerpts of the essay in criminal complaints against Lee. On Friday, Lee released the entire essay and included a note about what he was thinking when he wrote it. The references that Lee made to school shootings and drug use prompted police to arrest him Tuesday for disorderly conduct. He declined to comment about his Marine Corps activities.

Lee said his reference in a school essay to shooting people and having sex with dead bodies was written as if from a quote by a fictitious character in another story.

Current and former Cary-Grove students rallied behind Lee on Friday, with most interviewed saying they didn’t think he did anything wrong.

Lee said his friends, whom he declined to identify, distributed packets Friday afternoon containing complete copies of the original, handwritten essay and a typed version that included “Author’s Notes” explaining his thought process.

District 155 Superintendent Jill Hawk said school board members would discuss student discipline at a school board meeting Monday but would not say whether the meeting was about Lee.

Hawk said district officials were continuing to evaluate Lee to determine if he was a threat. Officials said he still was receiving an education, but in a separate building on the Cary-Grove campus.

Lee’s nearly 350-word essay referenced drug use, video games, various acts of violence, and also that the teaching style of his creative writing teacher, Nora Capron, could inspire a shooting at Cary-Grove.

On Thursday, the Northwest Herald obtained a copy of Capron’s free-writing assignment, the one that prompted Lee’s essay, which was part of the poetry segment of her creative writing class.

The writing assignment instructed students to write non-stop for a set period of time and to “write whatever comes to mind.” Students also were instructed not to judge or censor what they wrote.

One student, senior Andy Hanus, said he believed that Lee had the right to write what he did. But he also said he did not like the last line of the essay referencing a school shooting.

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