*****es be crazy yo!

but seriously the first point is interesting. I suppose if anything it makes a case for parental responsibility in this case. as adults we know teens and pre teens can tend to make the silliest things into giant issues.

Yes, they can - and do - take the silliest little things and blow them completely out of proportion. Kids are absolutely merciless with one another. With boys, it often winds up getting physical; with girls, it is more apt to stay emotional. It's the way it is; always has been, always will be.

Most kids survive this teasing and tormenting just fine. This poor young girl was (is) certainly not the only one out there suffering similar abuse. Yet the other several million somehow soldier on, finding a way to cope. It's a right of passage most of us must endure at some point, and the vast majority manage just fine. When someone goes off the rails and over reacts, to the point of taking their own life, the problem clearly lies with them, as does the responsibility.

Not to beat a dead horse, but I just had another thought on this (scary stuff, I know...).

I wonder how many of those calling for parents to exhibit greater interest in, and control over their teens' virtual communications and activities have also called for those very same parents to stay out of those very same teens' sex lives, among other "privacy" issues.

It strikes me that at least some of the girls involved in this might be old enough to get contraception, or possibly as far as abortions, without their parents' knowledge or consent. I'm really not sure what the age for that is, or if it varies state to state, but I do seem to recall that 14 is in that range. Or maybe it's always "statutory rape" until the girl is "of age". Dunno - I just remember much ado about handing out contraceptives at high schools, and even more ado about under age girls seeking the services of Planned Parenthood et.al.

So, which is it - kids' right to privacy or parents' right to know? Maybe I'm not paying close enough attention to these issues, but I think I'm getting mixed signals. I think those mixed signals are generated out of knee jerk, "do something - anything - even if it's wrong" reaction to emotional situations.

I guess at times like this, it's kind of a blessing that making new law in this country is so damn difficult. I think otherwise we would be endlessly chasing our collective tail...

I'm so between on several points here ( and in general), I'm starting to think reverting to (very) old school justice in some of these situations and charging the parents with the kids crime or the enablement there of may just stop it.

So sick of kids and young adults getting away with so much and so little punishment.

Flame on.

Charges dropped in fatal Polk bullying case

BY MIKE SCHNEIDER
The Associated Press

Published: November 20, 2013 | Updated: November 20, 2013 at 04:48 PM

ORLANDO – A lawyer for one of the two defendants charged with stalking related to the bullying of a classmate who committed suicide in Florida says charges against his client are being dropped

Attorney Jose Baez answered “yes” when asked Wednesday by text if charges had been dropped against the 12-year-old girl.

Baez was planning a news conference later in the day.

Brian Haas, a spokesman for the State Attorney’s Office in Polk County, said Florida law prevented him from commenting on the details of juvenile cases.

A spokesman from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office didn’t respond to a call or email.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd announced the arrest last month of the 12-year-old girl and a 14-year-old girl.


He said the two girls primarily were responsible for bullying Rebecca Sedwick