This past Friday on Halloween no less, I was subpoenaed to appear in Juvenile Court to testify for the state against a 14yo boy who had stolen keys from my hotel in an attempt to steal cars. Child gone wrong story again right?
Yes it is, but there is far more to it than that, and I don't think I am going to cover it all here.
You see I saw a pproximately 40 different children ranging in ages 12 to 17 in court to face a judge on a variety of charges. I am certain the range was significant. Of all the children there (to include the defendant in my case) only 10 had parents and or guardians with them. 1 girl kept talking about how she just wanted to get a bag of weed, with her boyfriend and how she would just cut off her tracking device if they put one on her. I couldn't help but think"where are all the parents at?"
I remember when I was 12 years old, I was arrested for shoplifting a $0.79 bag of nuts out of a grocery store. My mother was certainly not happy about this, and I got the beating and grounding I will never forget, but my mother was there with me in court, at every probation office meeting, and generally made good and d@mn sure I did everything the courts told me to do. She was there.
I had the supporrt and discipline given to me in a time I needed it.
it was eveident that these kids didn't have anyone. Here they are facing jail time, probation or whatever and the parents couldn't take 1 moment of their time to be with these kids. What a sad sight.
Then I find out more about my case. the minor had 12 seperate trials goingo on that day for a multitude of offenses he had been arrested for. Sadly he refused a plea deal from the State attorey's office which included counselling and educating him to help him in becoming a procutive member of society, not just another statistic. Again no parents in sight. This child is going to be locked up in juve hall until he is 21. No telling what will happen to him after that. And the parents couldn't even take a moment of their time to just try and be there for them.
I don't excuse their crimes, and feel it proper to have them face proper punishment to meet the crimes they have commited, but to have no one on your side?
I see it in news blogs all the time, now I've witnessed several parent's inaction to help their kids.
Originally posted by KJCavalierWell said. 😳
I don't excuse their crimes, and feel it proper to have them face proper punishment to meet the crimes they have commited, but to have no one on your side?
You remind me of an experience I had in court the one time I was 'scheduled to appear', if you will. I was sixteen or seventeen and just had a speeding citation in a county that required all juveniles to appear in person before a judge. I dressed up in shirt and tie, my father took me, and I respectfully addressed the judge and was treated in a kind and empathetic fashion, esp. for a youngster...
There was another, younger child there for some sort of malfeasance, and he decided it was a great idea to talk in an EXTREMELY rude way to the judge. She had the bailiff take him into custody, after several warnings to the child went unheeded. Remarkably, the child was there with his father too (too young to drive himself) but the father never said a word to the little villain when he mouthed off, and when the judge actually chided him for his inaction I still remember the reaction he gave. It was a silent shrug of the shoulders, nothing more....
Sorry to derail your thread, but I was thinking about that after I read your post and I wanted to include it in my response.
-J
Originally posted by JaminThis doesn't derail it, but rather adds another case in what appears to be a excessively series of long cases to the cause here.
Well said. 😳
You remind me of an experience I had in court the one time I was 'scheduled to appear', if you will. I was sixteen or seventeen and just had a speeding citation in a county that required all juveniles to appear in person before a judge. I dressed up in shirt and tie, my father took me, and I respectfully addressed the judge and was treated in ...[text shortened]... s thinking about that after I read your post and I wanted to include it in my response.
-J