181 replies to this topic

[ducky]

Anyone know how the family of the teacher feel about the punishment. Since they're the victims in this, I'm just curious whether they feel it's a just punishment.

According to the article in the Bee it sounds like the husband is more interested in how the youth conducts himself after he gets out. Mr. McNew didn't attend yesterday because he didn't want to hear empty apologies. The gist of what Mr. McNew said is that after 10 or 20 years of living a clean and productive life this young man can come to him and apologize.

[Chad Vander Veen]

I'm sure you know the difference.

I don't think there is a difference. It's an example of engaging in extremely dangerous and illegal activity that results in an innocent person's death

[cw68]

Oh please. Things just don't happen, they happen because of people's actions. The fact is that these kids were doing something in total disregard for other people's safety, and someone died as a direct result. It didn't just 'happen'.

Yeah, these kids should be eventually be shown compassion and forgiveness, but they should also be punished in accordance with the crime.

Brown, you've summed up my feeling on this completely.

I do feel badly for these kids. Why? Because they killed somebody while being completely self-centered and selfish. It was an avoidable accident and only they held the power to make it avoidable. Had they been going the speed limit, the outcomes could have been much different, but they chose to speed and take the risk. They should take the punishment.

[cw68]

According to the article in the Bee it sounds like the husband is more interested in how the youth conducts himself after he gets out. Mr. McNew didn't attend yesterday because he didn't want to hear empty apologies. The gist of what Mr. McNew said is that after 10 or 20 years of living a clean and productive life this young man can come to him and apologize.

Mr. McNew sounds like a smart man.

[Darthvader]

It was an accident... They were NOT drinking. If they had been drinking, I'd say lock em up forever... but they were not.

6 months- 1 year is enough IMO.

What the hell does them not drinking have to do with this? And as somebody said before if they were going the speed limit and she pulled in front of them that would be an accident. Street racing at 40 over the speed limit and killing somebody isn't an accident.

I can't believe how people (Andrea, Lexihillsmom) give these kids a pass. I'm sure they'd be on the other side if it was their family though.

[twnkltoz]

Ok, so they weren't drinking, bully for them! That means they were in full possession of their faculties when they decided to drive 90 mph on Iron Point.

[Sonny]

Let's not be hypocritical, what percentage of boys speed on occasion. I'm sure some of you have sped in your past. What's the fastest you've gone? Honestly. 65 on the freeway- harhar.
I've done 120. In fact everyone I know has pushed it before, even the very slow and safe types. Is it just the people I know? What's your top speed? #

[LexHillsmom]

What the hell does them not drinking have to do with this? And as somebody said before if they were going the speed limit and she pulled in front of them that would be an accident. Street racing at 40 over the speed limit and killing somebody isn't an accident.

I can't believe how people (Andrea, Lexihillsmom) give these kids a pass. I'm sure they'd be on the other side if it was their family though.

I've considered that - but I don't think so. I'm a fairly forgiving person if I think someone is sorry and have been impacted by their mistakes. Just me, though.

[ChipShot]

What the hell does them not drinking have to do with this? And as somebody said before if they were going the speed limit and she pulled in front of them that would be an accident. Street racing at 40 over the speed limit and killing somebody isn't an accident.

I can't believe how people (Andrea, Lexihillsmom) give these kids a pass. I'm sure they'd be on the other side if it was their family though.

Right on, Darth. Why is there this childish inability and unwillingness to hold people properly accountable for their violent, heinous crimes? Is it the ever-rising softheadization of our society? No wonder the recidivism (yes, it's a word, look it up) rate is so high...nobody is punished properly anymore. Yep, these 'moms' would be screaming bloody murder if it happened to their family, you can bet on that.

[doj_gal]

His 800 hours of community service should be to twirl a sign at that spot saying "I'm the reckless loser kid who killed that wonderful woman right here"

I think that is a great start!!! and another 1000 hours of speaking enagements!!! That equals 1000 speaches...or approx 10 years of his life!!!

According to the article in the Bee it sounds like the husband is more interested in how the youth conducts himself after he gets out. Mr. McNew didn't attend yesterday because he didn't want to hear empty apologies. The gist of what Mr. McNew said is that after 10 or 20 years of living a clean and productive life this young man can come to him and apologize.

I think that Mr. McNew is the most intelligent/compassionate person!!! After 20 years, I think that teen will have something more to say than "I am sorry"


He should have gotten more time and community service. Six months is not enough 2 years CYA and 1800 hours of community service seems like a fair place to start!!!

[stacycam]

I think this is just another sign of how our society does not make people responsible and accountable for their own actions. I see no difference between driving recklessly and driving intoxicated. In both cases, a choice was knowingly made. It's time for people to start paying for their bad choices.

It sickens me that no one is at fault these days. People are fogetting about their children and letting them cook in the car all day, yet no they are not charged. I'm disgusted by the thinking that just because someone didn't MEAN for something to happen, makes it okay.

When my 6yo does something she knows is wrong, she is punished. When she pushes her brother on his bike way too fast, and he falls over and gets hurt - she's busted.

My only other question about this case is what happened to his license. I think the most important part of his punishment is that he not be allowed to drive AT ALL for many years.

[cw68]

Let's not be hypocritical, what percentage of boys speed on occasion. I'm sure some of you have sped in your past. What's the fastest you've gone? Honestly. 65 on the freeway- harhar.
I've done 120. In fact everyone I know has pushed it before, even the very slow and safe types. Is it just the people I know? What's your top speed? #

So what? If we had killed someone while doing that, we would have deserved punishment as well. On that one, one could say after murdering his wife and her friend, "OJ killed his wife and that guy and got away with it. So should I."

(My top speed was over 130. My speedometer stopped there.)

[FolsomBarb]

A sentence that is too light will not serve as a deterrent to other teens who will make the choice to drive over the speed limit on neighborhood streets, endangering everyone around them. Many teens don't see the consequences as being anything they need to worry about, unless they see from someone else's example that it can really mess up their lives for the next few years. They don't seem to have any sense of responsibility, in many cases, when it comes to things that they do.

In my opinion, this sentence is much too light. Because a death was involved due to their own choice to drive recklessly, they need to be made to understand the gravity of what they have done. The only way to do that, is to give a sentence that is enough to seriously inconvenience them until they're 21, and serve as a reminder to any other teen (or adult for that matter) that makes a concious choice to drive at dangerous and reckless speeds on neighborhood streets, regardless of whether they're racing or not, that their actions will have consequences if those actions result in someone else's life being lost.

Just my $.02

[Prairie Oaks Agitator]

Not even close to being enough. Let's give these street racing, no brain punks a free pass even though they killed a woman. And oh yeah, he took full responsibility, after he went back to his car to get his stereo out of the wrecked car.

His 800 hours of community service should be to twirl a sign at that spot saying "I'm the reckless loser kid who killed that wonderful woman right here"

Darthvader finally says something helpful that makes sense. Thank You.

[supermom]

This punishment is very disapointing. Not only did the man lose his wife; but now he's losing his home. No, I don't think the kid should be in jail. For the next several years he should be forced to not only pay his own way through society with a job; but he should have a second job to help the victims family with their loss of income. Maybe he should do that the German way. "The expected lifetime of income the victim would have been expected to accrue, if she had not been killed."

Jail for this is BS. Bad all around. Now he sits in jail for 6 months and the victims family's taxes pay his 3 hots and a cot.

The kid should be paying them.