This story is horrifying on so many levels to me as a parent (from CNN).
The video shows a brutal scene: The 16-year-old victim is punched, kneed and slapped by other girls. She huddles in the fetal position, or stands and screams at her attackers, but the assault continues. Authorities say the eight teens said they were retaliating for insults posted on the Internet by the attack victim.
I couldn’t watch the video clips for more than a minute or two, and I’m not going to post them here.
Why bother? They’ve gone viral anyway — but not because the girls posted their sick production online. Although reports say they recorded their brutality so they could upload it to You Tube, the sheriff’s department “secured” it before that happened… and then the idiots released it.
The suspects didn’t have a chance to post the video online before police moved in and seized it, Judd said. The Sheriff’s Department made it public, and it wound up on YouTube anyway. Judd recognizes the irony.
“In a perverted sense, we were feeding into exactly what the kids wanted,” he said. “But according to Florida law, [the video] is public record, and it’s going to be in the public domain whether we agree with that or not.”
Perverted. Ironic. Yup. Thank goodness for that public need to know. (A judge has belatedly issued a gag order.)
But what’s really stuck in my mind about this story is what the girls said when they were charged:
“They were laughing and joking about, ‘I guess we won’t get to go to the beach during spring break.’ And one … asked whether she could go to cheerleading practice,” he said.
The level of disconnect in those statements just blows me away.
Empathy? These kids haven’t got the first clue.
Moral bankruptcy.
There is no denyng that we these kids did is absolutely terrible and horrific. To gang up on someone and beat them for the sole purpose of putting that on the internet is just plain stupid. However, the fact that these some of these kids could possibly face life in prison is ridiculous. No child should ever be faced with the consequence of life behind bars, kids will make mistakes. Albeit in this case what they did is ridiculous and they should have known better.
I have a daughter who attends one of the nicer schools in our city, and she has been harrassed by bullies to the point that I have had to call the police at 4am to report obscene telephone calls. They have spread rumors about her in school, and I have had to intervene by contacting the administrators to request that they be put in other classes away from her. They have run her off the road in their cars and have vandalized my home. She is an honor student and plans to attend a major university this fall for a medical degree. I have contacted the parents about many of these infractions, and they are unconcerned. They don’t even offer to have their children clean off my sidewalk that has shoe polish all over it. One even said that my daughter must have done something to deserve this.
These children know that there are no consequences for their actions, and will keep doing these things until something or someone stops them. The juvenile justice system is not much help. Mostly they slap the offenders wrists unless they have committed major offenses.
The best thing that could happen in my opinion, is to force these children to work to pay for this child’s medical expenses, including psychiatric costs. Jail time just teaches them that bitterness and anger.
As a parent I think this is a sad example of where our society is headed. I agree that they shouldn’t get life in prison, but they better get some time!!!! Otherwise they’ve learned it’s easy to beat the system and that they don’t have to be accountable for their actions. What they did is WRONG and they need to pay.
WHAT A BUNCH OF TRASH. THEY SHOULD BE SLAUGHTERED LIKE THE FILTHY PIGS THEY ARE.
Sigh…. mark, comments like that are hardly helpful.
In fact, I feel that the incivility online is partly why we’re seeing stories like this one.
I only have one comment for these “so called females” and that is “you nasty little c*&%ts. I hope you get at least ten years for this and you get the crap beat out you while in prison. No reason or logic behind it at all. Those pieces of crap boys that were there are no better and they should get some jail time out of it as well. What a bunch of losers! Everyone of them. If that was my kid, they wouldn’t be allowed back in my house ever again. How humiliating these parents must feel. This comment comes from someone who was picked on as a teenager, but nothing like that. Scumbags and sad to say, white trash!
These girls definately could use some jail time. The 14 year needs to be held in Juvenile custody until she is at least 18… possibly 21. (I think she might have been a case of trying to “impress” her older friends.) I think the older ones could use 5 to 10 years in jail plus paying for any medical treatment the victim needs. That might convince them of the seriousness of their crime. But they also need intensive therapy. These girls are on their way to being very dangerous sociopaths…maybe with enough therapy they can be saved. I think these kids will eventurally realize what they did was WRONG and has had terrible consquences on their lives. I can’t say they will ever feel guilt, but maybe they can at least learn not to do something like this again.
I do think their homes need to be investigated, if only for the protection of any of their younger siblings. It is very possible that these girls and boys are victims of abuse themselves. (Many children learn this behavior at home long before it manifests in them outside the home.) That does NOT excuse their behavior but maybe we can save the younger siblings before they do something like this as well.
This has been a topic of discussion amongst our family, it’s quite disturbing indeed, and sad. Some one suggested I google a book called “Primate teen”, very interesting theory on what is going on with our children today.
Sadly, sending the 14 year old to Juvi until she’s 21 will probably only turn her into a career criminal. I think hefty civil judgments in the hundreds of thousands of dollars would do more to teach these families and girls a more profound lesson than substantial jail time.
As an interesting aside, the girls wanted to post the video online to “embarrass” the victim – yet even in other videos of fights on the internet, the perpetrators are the ones who look bad and draw the worst comments – so I don’t quite understand the motivation to post it – bullying is bullying, only crass blow-hards find enjoyment in it. My 2 cents…
I sense that a tremendous learning opportunity is at hand.
Through a combination of moderate jail time (say, 18 mos – 3 yrs) and severe civil penalties (yes, negligent parenting does and should have have it’s cost), this group of perps, their so-called parents and other potential losers might take heed. As a warning to the others, as it were.
I realize that, for some, the concepts of group punishment and family responsibility are out-dated notions, despite all of the feel good dribble about “community” and all that.. However, if kids and their parents know that drastically inconvenient consequences are to accrue for reckless and anti-social behavior, some of this crap might stop.
I think it is 100% the right thing for these “girls” to face life in prison, especially after making such callous remarks about if they would miss Cheerleading practice after the attack.
I think we are at a tipping point in society.
These girls need to face the fear of spending the rest of their lives in prison for their actions. That young victim could have easily been killed just by falling into a sharp corner during the beating, and she probably thought she might die during it. It sure doesn’t sound like they planned on showing her any type of mercy. However, her attackers will more than likely get a little jail time, which is fine by me. Hopefully it will be long enough behind bars that they can flush their “cheerleading dreams” down the toilet along with their chances at ever attending a decent school, let alone being a cheerleader again.
I am a parent of three, and like most parents who read this, I can’t wrap my mind around the brutal actions of these kids. I only wish the parents of these thugs would be held somewhat responsible too, as they are the products of their upbringing.
For Shame! When are we going to do something about the growing “white on white” crime?!
Nicole — yes, I see the irony in the outrage level here. It may very well be part and parcel of the shock factor, too. OTOH, it’s the nature of people, generally, that social problems are far more real when they manifest in a way that strikes close to their own immediate lives.
And that’s true across all racial or ethnic lines.
I am not sure which is more disgusting: the actions of these teenagers, or comments like those from “mark”. Both of them turn my stomach.
~EdT.
Wow.
I heard about this on Talk of the Nation and was shocked, but the more I think about it, the more I believe that the ease of getting online and trading barbs can make an already-stressful and hormonal middle/high school situation worse.
It wasn’t so long ago that I was a high schooler and online with many of my friends, back when ISPs other than AOL were becoming affordable, and I know that we did some cruel things to our “friends” online, going so far as to constantly harass one girl in particular (and she in return). We eventually apologised, and we’re never going to be friends, but I know that we both regret what we did. I don’t know how parents today can handle this — I really think that online attacks spilling into the real world will become more prevalent, and parents and guardians must be involved in their children’s online lives in order to keep things calm.
Also, how unclassy of CNN to actually post the video. Is that really necessary?!