It didn't come right away. Then, last night, it showed up. The reason the system is filled with what used to be "things kids do," appeared on my blog:
But the client, no matter how much we all hate to say this, assaulted someone. Your client hit someone. They struck the first blow. If someone had hit you, you would want some sort of revenge or justice. I agree that while parents are no longer raising their children to be as respectful as they should be, and that some parents are checking out of raising their children, but we do still need to make children understand that they will be accountable for their actions.
If the prosecutor had let your client off with no punishment, what's to stop them from hauling off and hitting the next person who teases them? Your client needs to understand that people aren't always nice, but you have to deal with what they say.
Teaching a child to hit someone who teases them just causes more fights.
Let me summarize: "we need to let our children know that if they get in fights at school, they will be arrested, jailed, sent to court, and sentenced." "If it happened to your kid, you would want it that way."
No, I wouldn't. No, we don't.
While I appreciate the honest comment, it only reaffirms that generation of adults we have out there that believe the criminal justice system is there to resolve all of our disputes, to help us with our "revenge," that "justice" exists only in courtrooms, with cops, judges, and prosecutors.
If my kid got into a fight, I'd hope it could be handled at the school level. If it couldn't, I'd teach my kid about forgiveness and second chances. This was a fight with no injuries for God sakes. Have we no ability to use these opportunities to teach our children about resolving disputes? Or should we just teach them to call 911?
I will say it again, this is our failure, not the failure of our kids.
That we as adults can't see any other way to resolve a dispute between two children says more about us, than it does about our kids.
Brian Tannebaum is a criminal defense lawyer in Miami, Florida practicing in state and federal court, and the author of The Truth About Hiring A Criminal Defense Lawyer.
Post to Twitter
Posts
Amen.
ReplyDeleteYou are missing the point. Your client hit someone because the other person was teasing them. That is wrong. I was not saying that the police should be called for children fighting at school, but rather that a fight shouldn't be ignored just because they are children. There needs to be a punishment.
ReplyDeleteSMyer,
ReplyDeleteI am missing the point? You weren't saying that the police should be called?
You said, in part: "we do still need to make children understand that they will be accountable for their actions.
If the prosecutor had let your client off with no punishment, what's to stop them from hauling off and hitting the next person who teases them?"
So you don't think the police should have been called, but you don't think the prosecutor should have said "I have important things to deal with, you all go settle this?"
"You are missing the point. Your client hit someone because the other person was teasing them. That is wrong."
ReplyDeleteI assume you mean the "hitting" was wrong? When did it become necessary to take the threat of violence or the act of violence off the table as a deterrent?
Even as an adult I know that if I cross the line I may get popped even by a friend and vice versa.
Maybe the problem is not the client here using violence but the other kid not understanding that violence might be used against him/her?
But then it seems that problem has been resolved.
Yes, the problem is resolved. The case was dismissed. The prosecutor apparently had other, more important criminal cases to prosecute.
ReplyDeleteYes, you were missing the point. I said that children need to be held accountable, but not necessarily by police. I am all for schools and parents taking more control over situations like this, but a child does need to know that there will be consequence (grounding, anyone?) for hitting someone else. If the school and the parents refuse to do anything about a child who, lets say, continues to hit everyone in their path, maybe the police should be called for more of a scared straight situation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone here that parents and schools need to take more responsibility, but when they fail we cannot let children get away with anything they want just because their parents won't tell them no.