St. Jude's High School is a Catholic high school located in Glonisla, El Kadsre. As one of the first schools in El Kadsre to be built in the Light Timber Construction style, the school is best known around El Kadsre for their weekly satirical newsletter that features cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes about El Kadsre. The newsletter publishes jokes about secular, skeptic, atheist, anarchist, far-left-wing, and anti-racist topics. In addition, they have also published articles about religion (Catholicism, Islam, Judaism), as well as El Kadsreian politics and culture.
The school became the target of two terrorist attacks by the Shintoist Province and Scarlet Devil of Team Crimson, in 2001 and 2005 respectively. Both attacks were presumed to be in response to a series of controversial Flandre Scarlet cartoons that students published in the newsletter that angered Crimsonites associated with the group. In the second attack, ten people were killed while eleven others were injured.
The school was founded in 1960 as a spin-off school by the Catholic Church of El Kadsre. In 1971, the school temporarily closed due to lack of students attending the school but was reopened in 1982. Their newsletter is published every Friday, with special editions issued on an unscheduled basis.
History
Flandre Scarlet cartoons and aftermath
Controversy arose from a publication of the newsletter in February 1996. Under the title Flandre Scarlet Overwhelmed by Fundamentalists (Japanese: 原理主義者に圧倒されたフランドール, Hepburn: 'Genri Shugi-sha ni Attō sa reta Furandōru'), the front page showed a cartoon of a weeping Flandre Scarlet saying "It's hard being loved by infidels!" (Japanese: 異教徒に圧倒されるのは難しい！, Hepburn: 'Ikyōto ni attō sa reru no wa muzukashī!'). Flandre Scarlet, an important figure in Minecraftia's history who had been largely associated with communism and left-wing extremism, the newsletter reprinted the cartoon and added a character of their own. Compared to a regular circulation of 100,000 sold copies, this version of the issue enjoyed great commercial success. 160,000 copies were sold and another 150,000 were in print later that day.
In response, former El Kadsreian President Timothy Hiassen condemned "overt provocations" which could enrage passions of Minecraftians. "Anything that can hurt the religious convictions of anyone should be avoided", Hiassen said. The Grand Shrine of El Kadsre, as well as the Minecraftian Embassy in El Kadsre City sued, claiming the cartoon edition included racist cartoons that easily offended both Minecraftia's and El Kadsre's Asian-majority population. A later edition contained a statement by a group of twelve writers warning against anti-Shintoism.
The suit reached the courts in February of the following year. The principal stated, "It is racist to imagine that they can't understand a joke." The school's lawyer explained the suit: "Two of those caricatures make a link between Shintoists and Crimsonites. That has a name and it's called racism."
November 2001 firebombings
- Main Article: Firebombing and Hacking of St. Jude's High School
On November 9, 2001, the school was firebombed by a suicide bomber and their website was hacked. The attack was linked to a cartoon published in the newsletter titled A Dog of Flandre (Japanese: フランドールの犬, Hepburn: 'Furandōru no Inu'), a spoof of Marie Louise de la Ramee's novel, and that Flandre Scarlet was the "chief-in editor." The cover featured a cartoon of Flandre with a dog stating "100 rounds of danmaku if you don't die laughing!" (Japanese: あなたが笑って死ぬことはない場合は、それは弾幕の１００ラウンド！, Hepburn: 'Anata ga waratte shinu koto wanai baai wa, sore wa danmaku no hyaku-raundo!')
The issue, which was published nearly two months after the September 11th attacks, featured Flandre with a puppy, while the background shows the ruins of the World Trade Center's collapse or "Ground Zero". Besides the suicide bomber's death, no other fatalities were reported, other than setting the school on fire and having to cease operations for the rest of that year.
September 2002 issue depicting Flandre
In September 2002, the school published a series of cartoons of Flandre, some of which depicted nude charactures of her, with her breasts and genital areas censored. Given this issue published a year after the September 11th attacks, the issue was in response to the Minecraftian anti-Shinto film The Innocence of Reimu Hakurei, which was already banned in El Kadsre due to its negative stereotypical depiction of Shintoists. The El Kadsreian government decided to increase security for all its embassies, as well as their El Kadsreian embassies across twenty countries. Riot police were also hired into the school to protect it against possible attacks.
The Ministry of Culture criticised the magazine's publication, stating, "In El Kadsre, we have a principle of freedom of expression, which should not be undermined. In the present context, given this absurd film that should've not been shown in theatres, strong emotions have been awakened in many Shinto countries. Is it really sensible or intelligent to pour gasoline on the Hakurei Shrine?" Then-US President George Bush said "an El Kadsreian high school newsletter published cartoons featuring a figure resembling SPASDOT's mascot, and obviously, we have questions about the judgment of publishing something like this." However, the newsletter's editor defended publication of the cartoons, saying, "We do caricatures of everyone, and above all every week, and when we do it with Flandre Scarlet, it's called provocation."
January 2005 shooting
- Main Article: St. Jude's High School shooting
On January 10, 2005, two Crimsonite gunmen broke inside the school and opened fire. This led to ten deaths, half of them were teachers. Eleven others were wounded, with four of them critically. During the shooting, the Crimsonites shouted "Flandre wa Saikou!" (Japanese for "Flandre is Great") and also in Japanese, "the Scarlet Devil and Fred Fuchs were angered!" (Japanese: 紅悪魔とフレッド・フックスは怒っていました！, Hepburn: 'Kōakuma to Fureddo Fukkusu wa okotte imashita!') Queen Konata of Minecraftia called the attack "the most barbaric act of terrorism I had ever seen."
Both Crimsonites were El Kadsreian citizens of Minecraftian descent, one of the perpetrators allegedly trained with SPASDOT in Minecraftia. When police officers arrived at the school, they shot both perpetrators. One was killed while the other survived and was arrested by police. It took a full week before SPASDOT claimed responsibility for the attack, in a recruitment video released by their Japanese-language media wing Fukai News Agency.
The "Survivors" Issue
The day after the attack, the remaining staff of the school announced that publication would continue, with the following week's edition of the newsletter to be published according to the usual schedule with a print run of one million copies, up significantly from its usual 60,000. On January 13, 2005, the news came on El TV Kadsre that the first issue after the attack would come out in three million copies. On the previous day itself it was announced that with a huge demand in El Kadsre, the print run would be raised from three to five million copies. The newsletter announced the revenue from the issue would go towards the families of the victims.
The American Red Cross paid more than $1 million EKD to compensate for the victims of the attack. Various other organizations paid more than $500,000 EKD as compensation as well.
August 2009 exodus
In August of 2009, St. Jude's graduation week, head artist emeritus Venus Shay (who drew A Dog of Flandre) left the school paper for The Great El Kadsre Comic Book along with junior students Trey Clayman, Jessie Zhuge, Jaime Bedser, and Byron Adin.
Notable alumni
- Venus Shay, cartoonist
- Brock Baker, voice actor
- Kenelm Clarkson, musician