My kids are in high school and need their phones for safety and so their dad and I know where they are at all times. When they are out and don't have their phones I am a nervous wreck because I can't reach them and may not know where they are. I have to think of others forms of punishment than taking the phones away. I also confirm with them the phones are charged or they have a portable charger with them before they leave.

I'm one who only takes DD's phone at home for punishment...dd was in elem and we lived in CT when Sandy Hook happened (got her a phone after that) and now in HS, we live in FL. I want her to have a phone outside our house.

Anonymous wrote:It seems like everyone has seen the video to come to the conclusion that the boys was not confrontational.
Could someone provide a link to the video?

The guy with the gun should be extremely grateful that he didn't seriously injure or kill the boy he shot at.

Anonymous wrote:

If you are lost in a residential neighborhood at that time of the morning, there might not be a passerby. I'm pretty sure if there was a store that he knew of, he would have gone to the store. All they had to do was say through the door that they didn't know and move on. High schools start at about 8 am or earlier, what is the likelihood that a criminal would pick that time of the morning to case a house? Many people are still home at that time. I have people (including teens) knock on my door all the time, not for directions, but fundraisers, selling things....I don't open the door if I don't want to. I speak to them through the door or ignore them. I've never once shot at anyone.

Right. All they had to do was not answer the door. Or, like my neighbor, yell through the closed door, "I have a gun, what do you want?"

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people get shot at when they ring the wrong doorbell. Contractors with the power board who have to cut trees off the lines have to call a code red when it happens, and have to return with law enforcement. A supervisor with a power board in NC was returning with a deputy to talk to a homeowner because they needed to take trees off the line and the homeowner opened fire and shot him with the officer standing next to him. It has nothing to do with race and everything to do with people not wanting other people on their property.

No they are not.

Why are people trying to excuse this ahole who shot at a kid who did nothing wrong? You don't consent to having a bullet shot at you when you ring a doorbell. That is insane. The man who shot at this kid is an ahole with a gun. He needs to have any and all guns removed from his possession and spend some time in jail and maybe learn how to act a little more human.

Some of the responses on this thread are appalling. Quit acting like animals.

Anonymous wrote:I’ll wait for the authorities to release the tape before deciding who is racist.

My bet, though is that the teen (who most likely had confrontational behavior with his mom-thus the reason his phone was taken away in the first place) was not so neutral in his body language.

What?

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people get shot at when they ring the wrong doorbell. Contractors with the power board who have to cut trees off the lines have to call a code red when it happens, and have to return with law enforcement. A supervisor with a power board in NC was returning with a deputy to talk to a homeowner because they needed to take trees off the line and the homeowner opened fire and shot him with the officer standing next to him. It has nothing to do with race and everything to do with people not wanting other people on their property.

Really? A lot of people get shot for ringing the door bell? Where exactly?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something is off did the kid skip school and try to break in to a house

Yes, because people routinely ring doorbells to make their presence known before they rob houses

Actually, yes they do, dumbass. If nobody answers the front door, then they go round the back and break in.

+1. This is a very common thing. Talk to a few cops about it. If someone answers, they try to sell them something, or they act lost. It’s pretty much the definition of casing the joint.

It’s especially dangerous for kids who are home alone and have been told to not answer the door when they don’t know the person. Then a burglary turns into a home invasion.

Maybe go back and ask the cops if criminals usually pick times in the morning when people are home to do their casing

What time did this occur? Many houses are empty at 800 am.

It seems like everyone has seen the video to come to the conclusion that the boys was not confrontational.
Could someone provide a link to the video?

I did a summer school course one year so I could take an advanced course that fall the summer I was 13 turning 14. The bus pick up and drop off for summer school was at the local elementary school about 1.5 miles from my home. My mom dropped me off each morning before she left for work and she’d arranged for an older teen cousin to pick me up each afternoon.

Except one week my cousin let us know that she was going to be out of town that Friday and couldn’t do it. After assuring my parents that I was nearly 14, weeks away from entering high school, and more than capable of walking myself home... I got horribly lost.

It was one of those dreadful hot summer days where it was 100 and felt like 110 and all I wanted to do was get home ASAP so I could go to the neighborhood pool. I cut down some side streets in what I thought was a shortcut and ended up in one cul-de-sac after another. I was all turned around and confused even though I’d lived in that area my entire life. I went to the elementary school from which my trip originated, for goodness sake! I made that trip by bus twice a day from K-5th grade! Plus all the random times I’d driven it as a passenger in my parents car! I finally managed to get myself back to the main road that I recognized and made it home almost 2 hours later. This was precell phones too, so no pulling up the GPS app or calling for help.

I can easily see how this could happen to someone that age as I did the same thing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something is off did the kid skip school and try to break in to a house

Yes, because people routinely ring doorbells to make their presence known before they rob houses

Actually, yes they do, dumbass. If nobody answers the front door, then they go round the back and break in.

+1. This is a very common thing. Talk to a few cops about it. If someone answers, they try to sell them something, or they act lost. It’s pretty much the definition of casing the joint.

It’s especially dangerous for kids who are home alone and have been told to not answer the door when they don’t know the person. Then a burglary turns into a home invasion.

Maybe go back and ask the cops if criminals usually pick times in the morning when people are home to do their casing

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids have survived without phones in the past. The bigger question is how did he get lost on the way to school? I use to walk to school. Never heard of anyone getting lost on the way to school. The story seems to be sketchy.

The article says he usually rode the bus and on this day he missed it.

I can totally see how a teenager would think they remembered the bus route and then make a wrong turn.

Especially at 14! !4 year old boys still have a lot of maturation to do.

No schools are easy to find. Something else was going on.

What? Schools are easy to find? I live close to a high school and have been asked by multiple adults how to get to the school because the got lost. It's not on a main road and is hard to find if you don't know where you're going. My DS's middle school also is hard to find if you don't know where you're going.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://amp.fox2detroit.com/news/local-news/black-teen-misses-bus-gets-shot-at-after-asking-for-directions-in-rochester-hills?__twitter_impression=true

Teen missed the bus. His mom had taken away his phone and was at work. Dad was deployed. He decided to walk to school but got a bit lost. He did what everyone on DCUM always argues their kid can do when their phone has been taken as a punishment: he rang a doorbell to ask for help/directions and was shot at. Luckily the overzealous homeowner missed and their Ring doorbelll camera recorded the entire encounter.

I’m all for taking away their phone as punishment, but not outside of the house. They get it when they leave for school and give it back when they return home. You can even install an app that turns the smartphone into having flip phone capabilities until you enter a master password to allow it to be a smartphone again.

This is a terrible and frightening story. But what did people do before cell phones? How on earth did we all survive?

I was never told to go up to random stranger's houses and knock on their door and I think that is not a wise thing to advise a kid to do. I would have asked a passerby for directions. I'm certainly NOT excusing the individual who tried to shoot this kid, I am only saying that going onto a stranger's property like that can be a risky proposition. It's better to ask a passerby or go into a store to ask for directions.

The house that shot at him had a Neighborhood Watch sign on the door, so I'm sure most kids would assume that house would be a good place to get help.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids have survived without phones in the past. The bigger question is how did he get lost on the way to school? I use to walk to school. Never heard of anyone getting lost on the way to school. The story seems to be sketchy.

The article says he usually rode the bus and on this day he missed it.

I can totally see how a teenager would think they remembered the bus route and then make a wrong turn.

Especially at 14! !4 year old boys still have a lot of maturation to do.

No schools are easy to find. Something else was going on.

He took a short cut through a neighborhood and got lost. The house that shot at him was the second house he approached. The first house gave him directions, he got lost again, and approached the second house and was shot at. IMO, he wasn't really lost the second time just unsure and anxious about making sure he was going in the right direction.

Anonymous wrote:Kids have survived without phones in the past. The bigger question is how did he get lost on the way to school? I use to walk to school. Never heard of anyone getting lost on the way to school. The story seems to be sketchy.

He usually takes the bus and missed it. Some bus routes are convoluted. If you're not paying attention on a bus trip of a reasonable length, you can get lost trying to walk it, especially if you think you could take a short cut. I recently got lost dropping my child to school because I took what seemed like a logical "short cut" because there was a back up in traffic on the usual route. This is not a walker claiming not to remember how to walk to school. This was likely his first time walking the route.