I
consider myself to be a pretty compassionate person. I am the kind of
person who believes in second chances, that rehabilitation is possible
and that people who’ve failed can turn their lives around. However, I am
also a big believer in personal accountability. You must own up to your
mistakes, not simply try to bury them. I also believe that while
leniency and common sense should prevail, there are consequences to our
actions. The case of this young 16-year old that drove recklessly and
killed four people does not live up to any measure of justice or
personal responsibility. This teenager was sentenced to serve out
x-amount of time in a rehabilitation facility in California, which his
father (rightfully so) is paying for (in addition to ten-or-so years of
probation). This young man has apparently had prior “incidents” where
drinking and driving were involved. While I certainly believe that an
intervention and rehab are important (and necessary) for this young man,
I do not think justice was served to the families of the victims this
boy killed. It’s true that no sentence for this young man would bring
back any of the deceased. However, what does this say about the
consequences for drinking and driving? What kind of example/precedent
are we trying to set here? Why isn’t this young man being held
accountable for his choice to drink and drive? If he had
been an adult male, they would’ve thrown the book at him. This young man
believed himself to be an adult. He made a conscious choice to drink
and another choice to get behind the wheel of a vehicle.
My
position is this: if you choose to engage in an “adult” activity, you
are responsible for the consequences of said decision. There was a
tragic loss of life in this instance and it’s a real shame. Undoubtedly,
sending this teen to prison would be yet another loss of life as well.
However, the victims no longer have a chance at life, period. Perhaps
this young man’s life wouldn’t have been as fulfilling if he had to
serve jail time. But, it was HIS choice and as such, he should be
responsible for the fallout. It really gets under my skin that because
this boy’s father can buy his son out of trouble, he is given a slap on
the wrist for something that many of us would’ve been shown no mercy
for. Had he been from the “other side of the tracks” (i.e. poor or a
minority), he would be behind bars as we speak. I feel somewhat torn
over this particular case. On one hand, I’ve had to stop myself numerous
times from referring to him as a “boy.” In fact, I concede that I have
used the term “young man” throughout. As someone who studied psychology
in college, I do know that teenager’s minds are not fully developed at
this age. Discernment has yet to be fully shaped and teenagers also have
this invincibility illusion where they truly believe that nothing bad
can happen to them. This type of thinking is exactly the reason why
teenagers shouldn’t engage in drinking at all, much less attempting to
drive somewhere while under the influence of alcohol. It’s not that they
don’t understand the concept of right and wrong; it’s simply that they
don’t believe that negative consequences will directly affect them and
their lives. That is, until after it does. Such is the case here.
Having said all of that, I still believe that the punishment was too
light and had a lot to do with money. Where do we draw the line with
these young people? How much bad behavior do we write off as normal
teenage thinking and reasoning before we start applying adult
consequences to their actions? Is the act of plowing down 4 innocent
people on a sidewalk enough to elicit a harsher sentence? I think so, I
really do. As much as I understand about the way the mind works, there
HAS to be a reaction on our part. Actually, we should really be
proactive and try to keep things like this from happening, period. But
once we reach this place, we have no choice but to react. And it has to
be enough to make other teenagers think twice before committing this
same act with tragic results. If we stand by and do nothing (or not much
of anything), we are going to create entitled adults who believe they
are “untouchable.” Again, what kind of message do we need to send to
young kids? Telling them not to drink is just not enough anymore; they
are obviously not being reached at this level. We need something more.
We need to figure out how we can take measures to change the thinking of
these young people before more lives are lost.
I sincerely hope that part of this boy’s probation will include having
to talk to other kids at schools and other awareness seminars. I also
hope that he feels remorse for his actions and understands how his
selfish needs have forever changed the lives of the victims’ families.
No matter what action has been taken in this case, I’m sure we can all
agree that such senseless acts need to be addressed (again). As parents,
we need to teach our children that while we are able to make decisions
for ourselves, the things we choose to do can also affect others and
often times, in absolutely tragic ways. My heart goes out to the
families that were devastated by this young man’s lack of judgment.
Personally, I would’ve liked to have seen more done in this case,
especially where prior, similar acts were committed. I hope that the
judge who passed this sentence down is able to reconcile this decision
and it doesn’t torment them for some time to come. And yet, in a way, I
do hope the judge endures some sleepless nights over this. I’m not so
sure that they would’ve acted so dismissively had this been a family
member of their own. Let’s keep everyone involved in this tragic
incident in our thoughts and prayers. And please, please let’s talk to
our children and all children/teenagers. It is our responsibility
to convey how drinking and driving is not a game. Lives are forever
changed when this decision is made. This is what we all need to take
away from this.
tragedy tradgedy
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