ISSUE OF THE DAY: Monstrous Children

After reading Ann Althouse's post and all the comments to date and after re-reading my post on the Murdering Little Bastards - 10 and 11-year-olds who murder, I got to thinking about the failure of legislatures to respond to inappropriate behavior by children.

While most teenage and pre-teen offenders are not Lord of the Flies variety, there are enough misfits in that category who victimize others without penalty.  In Massachusetts, a prosecutor has brought charges against nine teens who contributed to the suicide of a 15-year-old girl. It's an exception to the immunity children are usually given unless the crime is so egregious that their role cannot be denied.   Normally, the charges aren't even examined at length in public debate because of a lack of details.

What the South Hadley, MA, case has done is expose the case to public scrutiny. [Detail of the charges and photos of those charged. The three juveniles, all girls, are not named. No school officials were charged, although they knew of the bullying. The girl's parents had spoken to two school staff members.]

It's still a choice to prosecute and not a given. (Something that seems to be changing in Massachusetts without a new law.) But how else can you respond to teenagers or pre-teens who beat and abuse others and capture it on their cellphones to share with others? We allow teens and pre-teens to make decisions to get abortions without parental knowledge and Planned Parenthood aids them by providing the service but society doesn't demand to know what percentage of abortions performed by Planned Parenthood are underage girls. Legislators are allowing children to make a life and death decision over an unborn child but won't hold them responsible for offenses anyone else would go to jail for.

These are whole bodies of law that are inconsequential to legislators. While I think bullying advocates are over the top, as I do all activists who want legislation without debate and the legislators who want the same thing, there is a problem when most authorities elect the slap-on-the-wrist approach and yet do not provide for civil penalties. What's missing is common sense by school officials. And parents need to be able to act as advocates for their own children in civil lawsuits, against both the school and the parents of the teens.

Pursuing criminal charges is the preferable route because lawsuits are usually settled with non-disclosure agreements that do not serve as object lessons to abusive teens and their parents.

A 16-year-old boy making a stupid remark on a WalMart courtesy phone is "facing an afflicting harassment and bias intimidation" charge for asking blacks to leave a store. But if he and his friends had repeatedly phoned, harassed, cornered and intimidated a girl, it would be of no interest to authorities. That doesn't have political implications.

The Children's Commissioner in the U.K. thought the death of a 2-year-old toddler at the hands of two 10-year-olds was "unpleasant" but should not have been prosecuted because - she said so. She's an advocate for children but not dead children. Not victims. In Scotland, the city's "worst offenders" were schoolchildren who commit 400 crimes a year. The newspaper had to obtain the list under the Freedom of Information law. In the U.K., adults and and increasing number of children are given an Asbo orders for anti-social behavior. The Brimsby Telegraph has an Asbo Watch, complete with pictures and the offenses.

Asbo notices are no deterrent and are routinely  ignored, as teenage thugs drive old people to death or incinterate others in their home. Teenagers drove a mother and her disabled daughter to suicide. And the police refused to act.

How far will we let "child advocates" to go in shielding children from the consequences of their crimes? These monsters need to be stopped.