Kid-Cuffin'

 

Ocala, Florida is safer now with the arrest of two terrorist plotters. Well, perhaps that’s too strong a characterization. They seem just to have been planning a murder. Well, probably not a murder but at least some serious mayhem. And who knows how far those plans would have been taken. But to be on the safe side, police handcuffed the perpetrators and took them off to meet justice.

Where they were charged with a felony...drawing violent stick figure. Boys aged nine and ten, they had drawn pictures depicting a classmate being stabbed and hung. They had also drawn themselves holding knives pointing at their target, who was crying. The figures were identified by names and initials in case there was any chance of confusion. There were also misspelled profanities.

On top of being arrested, the boys were suspended from school. The boys’ parents said they thought the school and they should be responsible for punishing the boys; that it shouldn’t be a matter of the legal system.

Maybe they have a point, about the boys, but it might not be a bad idea to have authorities check out the parents. After all, not all children that age draw murderous scenes involving classmates. What kind of parenting allowed these boys to incorporate such images into their consciousness? Were they unaware of their children’s playmates? Did they allow them to watch too much of the wrong kind of television?

It’s unlikely that these drawings were the first evidence of miscreant minds, and one can’t help but wonder what would have happened if someone hadn’t seen the drawings and decided to intervene, whether or not the parents might have thought that intervention appropriate. Increasingly we are witnessing depravity amongst ever younger children and one has to think that it is the failure of the parents and the schools to monitor these as yet unformed adults.

Columbine surely comes to mind. The parents of the psychotic killers seemed genuinely surprised at what their sons did. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, it was because they failed -- so dramatically and completely -- as parents. There were also indications that the school dropped the ball, probably because they were afraid to do their job.

Society has a right to be protected from dangerous individuals, of whatever age. If the parents don’t supervise their children, then the next, and often last, line of our defense are the schools. After all, we’re talking about people who lack mature consciousness and can’t be left to their own devices.

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.

 

Home

©2005 SetonnoteS

.