Teens get to delay jail sentence in order to play football

487 Views 24 Replies 20 Participants Last post by tireesix, Aug 21, 2006

krissi

Discussion Starter · Aug 17, 2006

DH sent me this one yesterday, infuriated by it:
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjourna...e/15285877.htm

Quote:

A judge decided two teenagers can complete their high school football seasons before they serve 60-day jail sentences for a car crash caused by a decoy deer placed in a country road. Two teens were injured.

Gary McKinley, a retired Union County juvenile judge hearing the case in Hardin County Common Pleas Court, said he knows his decision will be criticized.

"I shouldn't be doing this, but I'm going to. I see positive things about participating in football," he told Dailyn Campbell, a junior quarterback at Kenton High School.

Their stupid prank caused a car crash that resulted in probably over a million dollars in medical bills, 11 surgeries for one of the victims and permanent brain damage to another person. But because the offenders are football players, apparently they deserve special treatment and not only get to continue playing football (if I were a coach I'd boot them off the team for this) but also get to delay their punishment until the season is over.

Anyone else think something is wrong with this picture?

1 - 20 of 25 Posts

artgoddess

· #2 · Aug 17, 2006

That's disgusting.

griffin2004

· #3 · Aug 17, 2006

I work in a juvenile court and that kind of thing isn't that uncommon. Last year, we had a case where a girl driving a car was in an accident (she was WAY over the speed limit), a teen passenger was killed, 3 teen passengers were injured in varying degrees, and the girl got not a single day in jail. It still boggles the mind.

chersolly

· #4 · Aug 17, 2006

Quote:

Howard's father, C.J., said he wants the ordeal to be over for his son.

"Jesse has never ever been in trouble before. He doesn't drink, he doesn't do drugs, he doesn't go to parties, he doesn't go out very much," the father said.

Yeah, the young man with brain damage doesn't go out very much either.

tinuviel_k

· #5 · Aug 17, 2006

Oh puke!

: That is downright disgusting. That judge should be fired. Can you imagine how the injured people and their families must feel? This "boys will be boys" crap makes my blood boil.

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Danelle78

· #6 · Aug 17, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by artgoddess
That's disgusting.

Yup

rabrog

· #7 · Aug 18, 2006

My first reaction is that if I were the parents of one of the injured, I'd build a jail cell in my backyard, haul those little cretens to it and lock 'em up myself!

: That's just sick!

And this kid doesn't do bad things....just seriously injure two other people for a damn prank!

And if I were the parents of one of those kids, I'd haul their asses to the jail myself - TODAY!

Jenn

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Mama Dragon

· #8 · Aug 18, 2006

If it were my kid, I'd personally remove them from the football team and send them to jail myself, then make them do a heck of alot of community service after that. I agree, this "Boys will be boys" is a load of crap and has got to go.

SirPentor

· #9 · Aug 18, 2006

Counter arguments.

I've never thought that kids should have their lives destroyed (by doing years of jail time) for something that honestly seemed reasonable when they did it. I've seen things in the middle of the road before. You handle them. What happened to the victims here is horrible but there's no sense in ruinning four lives instead of just 2.

It is entirely possible that these truly are good kids. I don't know if they are or not--I don't know them. Good kids do stupid things. Hell even good adults do stupid things.

Also, it's entirely possible that their particular football program has a sufficiently good coach (good as in "good person/mentor" not "good at winning games") that this will be a good thing in terms of "learning their lesson".

Having said that, my personal prejudices are that these guys are probably stupid asshole jocks that have snowballed the judge and the coaches and teachers into thinking they are good kids. And that football will only further their poor grasp on how humans are supposed to function.

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artgoddess

· #10 · Aug 18, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by SirPentor

Having said that, my personal prejudices are that these guys are probably stupid asshole jocks that have snowballed the judge and the coaches and teachers into thinking they are good kids. And that football will only further their poor grasp on how humans are supposed to function.

You had me going for a second there.

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chersolly

· #11 · Aug 18, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by SirPentor
Having said that, my personal prejudices are that these guys are probably stupid asshole jocks that have snowballed the judge and the coaches and teachers into thinking they are good kids. And that football will only further their poor grasp on how humans are supposed to function.

I doubt they have snowballed anyone... Daddy's money did all the talking.

Meanwhile, there are two families nearly $1,000,000 in debt.

timneh_mom

· #12 · Aug 18, 2006

12

uke

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grypx831

· #13 · Aug 18, 2006

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SirPentor

· #14 · Aug 18, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by artgoddess

You had me going for a second there.

I want to be clear that the things I said before that may very well be true. I am very prejudice against "athletes" (mostly because of my experience with athletes through Jr. High and Highschool).

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artgoddess

· #15 · Aug 18, 2006

My biggest issue is that the judge did think for whatever reason the two teens did deserve jail time, but just at their convenience. I agree with the concept of kids make stupid mistakes, it's just the message this postponement of sentence sends.

hellyaellen

· #16 · Aug 20, 2006

i know a guy who pulled a similar stunt but there were no injuries, and there were drugs and underage drinking involved. and this guy was the sheriffs son. and he did serve some time, i doubt it was delayed for anything and he was on probation for a long time afterwards too.

i get what you're saying about people doing dumb things.

i also know a guy who dropped a cinder block off of an overpass and i gues there was a wreck and maybe some seriousinjuries. he served time also. and from what i recall was not allowed to walk at graduation because of it.

around here judges do not have much sympathy for kidds doing dumb things. 60 days in juvy delayed for football season doesn't seem like enought to ensure that any kind of lesson is taught. i think the kids should have do some kind of community service working with victims of 'dumb pranks' and advocating for teens to think before they act. no need to ruin lives but lets make damn sure they know what they did and will never do it again, will talk other kids out of other dumb pranks, etc

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ericswifey27

· #17 · Aug 20, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Synthea™
If it were my kid, I'd personally remove them from the football team and send them to jail myself, then make them do a heck of alot of community service after that. I agree, this "Boys will be boys" is a load of crap and has got to go.

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UUMom

· #18 · Aug 20, 2006

Skip the jail time-- what a waste of taxpayer money!! We already have too many people in jail for ridiculous reasons. If they broke the law, make them do community service. Clean the roads, mow the school laws etc *during* football season. They can do both. Plus, how rich can they *really* be? The truly wealthy kids go to boarding and other private schools.

Anyway, jail is a huge waste of time and money in a situation like this. There is no reason healthy, strong, able bodied teen boys should sit doing nothing for 6o days.

BellinghamCrunchie

· #19 · Aug 20, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by UUMom
Skip the jail time-- what a waste of taxpayer money!! We already have too many people in jail for ridiculous reasons. If they broke the law, make them do community service. Clean the roads, mow the school laws etc *during* football season. They can do both.

Jail is a huge waste of time and money in a situation like this.

Not to mention Juvie is the LAST place to go to learn positive social values or develop compassion for the people you hurt.

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UUMom

· #20 · Aug 20, 2006

Of course, I just read through a couple of articles on these kids... and I have to say teen frontal lobes are so undeveloped. These kids caused severe injuries and 60 days probably isn't enough. They def shouldn't be playing football or anything else. They need some intense intervention.

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