Those parents should be ashamed of themselves.

We don't know what type of parents they were. I had friends growing up that had terrific parents, and wound up being addicted to drugs, treating others poorly, stealing etc. Yes, bad parents can make for bad kids, but so can good parents.

For those of you who want blood...

"Klein, who asked police not to charge the boys, issued a plea for the madness to end.

"I feel kinda bad for them and their families because of what's going on," she said. "They're being harassed terribly, and I don't like that. I don't want any harm to come to them."

The boys have received 1000s of death threats. Adults have suggested the boys be raped as part of their punishment. So wrong that adults angry at preteens for verbal bullying are responding with threats of violence. The families have to have police protection.

This has gotten out of hand on so many levels.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do these collection things work? The amount is based on pledges which may or may not have been collected yet correct? I can pledge now and not follow up later come collection time. Well, I guess even if only 25% follow through with their pledges, she can retire.

Wait...you don't pay when you contribute? If not, major bummer. Can someone clarify? I plan to contribute next week (money shortage!!).

Why? $500k isn't enough.

To follow up - you have a money shortage this week, but you plan to donate next week to support a $5000 vacation when the fund is around $500,000 already? Unless the reason you don't have a money shortage next week is that you won the lottery, that's just nuts.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do these collection things work? The amount is based on pledges which may or may not have been collected yet correct? I can pledge now and not follow up later come collection time. Well, I guess even if only 25% follow through with their pledges, she can retire.

Wait...you don't pay when you contribute? If not, major bummer. Can someone clarify? I plan to contribute next week (money shortage!!).

Why? $500k isn't enough.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do these collection things work? The amount is based on pledges which may or may not have been collected yet correct? I can pledge now and not follow up later come collection time. Well, I guess even if only 25% follow through with their pledges, she can retire.

Wait...you don't pay when you contribute? If not, major bummer. Can someone clarify? I plan to contribute next week (money shortage!!).

I don't think they are pledges - I think you have to pay with a credit card or paypal. In their FAQ it talks about returning the money if you fall short of your goal (if you chose that option). I think the money is already there.

Good, I hope she does retire based on this. Those parents should be ashamed of themselves.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The defenders on this thread are interesting. I wonder if they feel the same way about the "misguided" youths who ride the Metro. Different reactions for different demographics?

ITA. No one is standing up for the AA kids acting the same way on the metro here on DCUM. Most on this board view those students as criminals.

Let's turn the tables and put this scene on the metro, and make all of those students black. I bet there would not be a SINGLE defender of those children here.

By middle school, if you are an asshole, you are an asshole. If this was 6 and 7 year olds, sure, kids don't understand the consequences of their actions. All of you defending those children probably have asshole kids who do stuff like this when they can get away with it. Yes, I called your kids assholes. a 13 year old can be charged as an adult for a crime for a reason. They know the difference between right and wrong at that age.

I am one of the PPs who is probably being classified as a "defender" in these posts, and you people are way off base. No one on this thread has defended what these kids did. Not one poster. All anyone has said is that they do not see their actions on this one occasion as something that should *necessarily* ruin the rest of their lives, and that we would do better to try to rehabilitate these kids than to write them off. I totally disagree that someone who acts like an asshole one time at the age of 13 is necessarily going to be an asshole for the rest of his life. I would never have done anything like these kids did (was more likely to be a target of it, actually, since I had braces, coke bottle glasses, and a mustache at 13), but I certainly did and said things at 13 that I wouldn't stand behind today and wouldn't have stood behind even a few years later. My character was *forming* but was not fully formed at 13 -- indeed, I'm pretty sure that the parts of the brain that govern moral reasoning aren't finished forming until the mid-20s.

I just don't see how it makes the situation better to ruin 4 lives (or however many kids it was) than to try to teach 4 kids the error of their ways. If everyone writes them off now, then it is a self-fulfilling prophecy that they will be assholes as adults.

And as far as race, I didn't see the races of the kids in the video and I don't know anything about the area where they are from, so I had no idea what race(s) the kids are. As it happens, I would still argue for not writing them off regardless of race and regardless of neighborhood.

Anonymous wrote:How do these collection things work? The amount is based on pledges which may or may not have been collected yet correct? I can pledge now and not follow up later come collection time. Well, I guess even if only 25% follow through with their pledges, she can retire.

Wait...you don't pay when you contribute? If not, major bummer. Can someone clarify? I plan to contribute next week (money shortage!!).

How do these collection things work? The amount is based on pledges which may or may not have been collected yet correct? I can pledge now and not follow up later come collection time. Well, I guess even if only 25% follow through with their pledges, she can retire.

To me, it seems that making the kids apologize in person and listen to her tell them how their actions made her feel would be the best way to actually change their behavior. If Ms. Klein herself would like them to do something additional in terms of yard work, whatever, that's fine too.