Reply #43: Did you read the article?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

Some of them are serving life terms simply because they tagged along with another kid who actually committed the murder. When you were a teen, did you ever go along with another kid's plans simply because you were afraid to go against someone more socially powerful?

Even in the most notorious case in recent Oregon history, Kip Kinkel, who was responsible for the shootings at Springfield High School, was a mentally ill 15-year-old who heard voices and who whimpered "Kill me, kill me" when he was subdued.

Would he have even committed the crimes if his parents (whom he killed before going to school) had recognized the signs of serious mental disturbance and gotten him competent help instead of encouraging his sudden interest in guns?

As it is, he's serving life without parole. Imagine, life without parole at age fifteen. I wonder if he can even conceive of how long that is at his age. I wonder if he would even be a danger to society if his mental illness were properly treated.

We have a nasty attitude toward juvenile offenders in this country. Yes, they do horrible things at times, but in working with teens and college students in both a professional and a volunteer capacity, I've noticed that some of them are capable of reinventing themselves to an amazing degree.

Remember the case of the Michigan first grader who shot a classmate with a gun brought from home? When Michael Moore interviewed the police chief from that town, he said that people wrote in from all over the country demanding that the kid be imprisoned for life or even executed.

Some kids are extremely damaged and cannot be rehabilitated. I saw some of them in working with street kids, and frankly, they were scary. But some of the kids in the article are guilty only of being dimwitted and insecure.