Worthless Piece of Shit Student

The BBQ Pit
61

Again, and using small words. I said that if he wanted to harm people he would have used something more dangerous than hash. Yes, some people can react terribly to hash, so it was indeed a stupid thing to do. Of course, spiking punch with alcohol is a stupid thing to do, but how many times has that been done at school functions? All of the arguments about allergies, mind altering chemicals and people driving apply to that, surely?

Good for you, your behaviour is an example to us all. However, do you agree that all of the above are things that could quite conceivably lead to people getting very badly hurt. The point is this - kids can do very stupid things, with very serious consequences. I will state again, as I have in every other posting I’ve made in this thread, that this kid deserves to be punished for this stupid behaviour, and punished severely enough that he learns his lesson. But that doesn’t make him out to be a “worthless piece of shit” as the OP states, or line him up for some of the treatment other respondents suggest.

Very good - and you managed it all without having to resort to pictures. See what you can achieve when you try?

62

I am subject to random drug testing. If I come up “positive”, I lose my career (all of it; when you get chucked out of the military, there is no starting over with a competing ‘company’), my family loses our home, and as a 40-year-old intelligence analyst that can no longer hold a security clearance, I’ve got to figure out how to keep us all alive. I’d probably end up working low-end retail until my three kids were on their own.

I have no tolerance for this kind of prank, or the apologists for it on this board.

63

I call bullshit, Bluesman. I am familiar with an enlisted gentleman who tested positive, later to find out that his SO was slipping him a little coke in his coke, as it were. The situation was resolved, and his career continued without incident. He retired and became a contractor with the same organization. Caused him some headache, sure, but nowhere near the extent you’re talking about.

Now, maybe you’re commisioned and expected to hang out with a better class of people, or maybe you intel guys are subject to more stringent requirements. But I seriously doubt this incident (had it happened to you) would destroy your entire life, as you claim. Maybe you wouldn’t make your next grade, or maybe you’d be forced into a new specialty code. But starving on the streets? In my experience, it’s a little harder to get kicked off the government employment roster.

Perhaps it’s my short term memory going bad, but I don’t recall seeing many “apologists” here. Seems the disagreement is on how much punishment this kid should receive, not whether or not he should receive any. You really want to fuck up the rest of a 14-year-old kids life because he did something stupid that he probably saw in a movie? Is the point of punishment not rehabilitation? Is it not to demonstrate how the person was wrong and afford them the opportunity to A) pay for their mistakes and B) learn the consequences?

Punish him, by all means. But let’s not destroy his entire life. Let’s not punish him every minute from now until the grave. He fucked up big-time, but he is a child, who is still working on developing the finer points of critical thinking. Let him make his mistakes and take his lumps; but by God, afford him the opportunity to actually move on with his life.

Is that so much to ask?

64

Hear fucking hear. Well said that…erhm, what is a beelzebubba? At a guess, well said that pick up driving spawn of hell.

65

[nitpick]Doesn’t this depend on whether he had been Mirandized at the time he said it?[/nitpick]

66

Jesus Fuck. This is not the Scopes Monkey Trial after all.

  • Kid gets illegal substance.
  • Kid bakes it into brownies because it is “kewlies”.
  • Kid feeds it to unsuspecting others because it is “kewlies” to see them get high.
  • Kid needs to be sent to prison, or sentenced to the “Knights of Christ the Soldier” Christian Military Boot Camp. Until he’s about 36. I don’t know which would be worse.
  • People who are on the “marijuana isn’t going to cause permanent injury…” trip are missing the whole fucking point, as usual. Tell you what - I’ll bake some brownies with substances that are not permanently harmful, and see how many people are willing to eat them, knowing that they are altered. Any takers for my batch of “Dogshit Double-Fudge”?
67

PL, jesus…don’t send us that way…

On the OP, c’mon, remember, this equation holds true:

14-year boys = idiots. It’s a rule of nature. It applied to me, it applied to you, it applied to Jesus.

I couldn’t tell you the number of dumb-ass things my friends and I did at that age.

Was it wrong? Certainly. Should there be consequences for his actions? Certainly. Should he do time and have his entire life damaged? No.

Speaking as, I’d bet, one of few posters (that I know of anyway) to end up on the wrong side of the law in my teenage years (and get severely landed on) I can attest that it’s possible to straighten out and fly right. And I did much worse things than this kid. I spent 3 1/2 years on a juvenile ward thanks to my being an idiot (remember now…“14-year-old boy = idiot”) and yet here I am: successful executive…loving husband…proud father…posting doper.

I respectfully suggest that all those who are advocating trying the kid as an adult aren’t really in touch with what it means to still be exploring possibilities and not being aware that one’s actions have real world consequences.

Oh, and, on a lighter note:

You! Out of Virginia! NOW!!!

68

Indeed. More of a witch-hunt.
**

Yeah, fuck that fucker! Hell with prison, 22 years ain’t enough! Give him the chair!
**

Enlighten me, then. What’s the point of throwing away his entire life?
**

What does this have to do with anything? For a more accurate comparison, next time you go out for the lunch order, lace your bosses chocolate shake with ex-lax. We can then discuss whether or not a 22-year jail sentence is appropriate for you.

69

I don’t think he should be tried as an ADULT, but I definitely don’t like the posters saying, “Where’s the harm?”
Try him as a juvenile…
Taking drugs yourself is one thing-giving them to others without said others’ prior consent is something entirely different.

70

And people who are on the “Kid needs to be sent to prison” trip are missing the whole fucking point, as usual.

Another l’il story. When I was fourteen, I got my hands on a home brew kit. Knowing that I’d have trouble hiding a drum of yeasty smelling brown liquid from my folks in the house, me and some friens set up our little still in the woods near my house.

Funnily, this kind of screwed up temperature control, a rather important part of the brewing process, so we had to improvise by adding extra yeast/sugar (lots of it, as I recall) and anything in the pack that seemed to promote fermentation. When the time came to decant the stuff and give it a test, it was definitely alcoholic enough, but the most vile tasting piss you could imagine, and we had a few gallons of it.

With an ingenuity that I’m proud of to this day, and with the help of a neighbouring friend who’s folks had several big freezers at their farmhouse, we put this muck in two drums in the freezer. Over the next week or so we removed the ice that formed until we were eventually left with about two pints of murky looking liquid, that burned if you smelt it, yet alone taste it on your tongue. We waited till a suitable weekend night, mixed the stuff up with cola and had a party.

It certainly had a kick - I think it was about 30 minutes before the first of us passed out, which seemed hilarious at the time. I doubt any of us stayed conscious for more than an hour or so. Cue about a weeks hospital time, with various tests to check for long term liver/kidney damage, and probably another week before any of us could so much as look at food. We were taken to task by every adult involved, from doctor to police to parents. I stretched out my illness as long as possible, knowing that as the ringleader I was going to take most of the blame and the worst of the licks. I think it was about three months before I saw a free night or day to see my friends - I think that was worse than the lumps I received from my somewhat angry folks.

Of course, it could have been a lot worse. God only knows how bad that stuff could have been, or even just what it was we were drinking. Certainly I think I was told every hour for a month by any adult passing that I was a stupid fool, and we could have all killed ourselves. What can I say - I was a kid, and kids try dumb stunts. It was a great example of Hanlon’s razor - no malice involved, just some fairly standard teenage stupidity.

And that’s what I see here. A kid doing something stupid. Oh yeah, definitely deserves to go to prison.

71

It would’ve been alesser crime had it been ex-lax.
Marijuana is a class 1 illegal drug (am I right about the class 1?)
Expelling seems appropriate.
I assume they will give him a long probation and make him give anti-drug speeches.

72

Trying a 14 year old kid as an adult for an act of stupidity? It seems more than a little harsh to me.

The fact that some of you swear that you knew not to do this as 12 or 14 year olds is next to meaningless. You might have been smart 14 year olds, and this guy’s a stupid 14 year old.

Yes, this is a violation of somebody’s right NOT to take drugs.

Yes, it’s a dangerous thing to do, as some people are indeed allergic to cannabis products.

Yes, an adult doing something like that should answer for his crime.

However, there are a few points that ought to be considered:

-His intent was NOT to cause harm. He wanted, by his own admission, to get the class stoned. Of course, as stated above, this could have had some catastrophic results, but we don’t know that HE knew that. Ignorance might not be an excuse, but still. He was not TRYING to hurt anyone. It’s all too easy for a bunch of intelligent adults to deplore his actions, but I think most of you are not putting yourselves in his mindset (not that anyone would want to spend too much time in there). In short, this is similar to the difference between murder and manslaughter. One is premeditated, the other isn’t.

-What do you think will happen to this kid when his parents get their hands on him? I think that to a 14 year old, a parent’s wrath is a pretty big punishment. Isn’t that why they invented report cards?

-As mentioned above, the kid is obviously not too smart. Even if his stupidity almost led to some pretty nasty stuff, I don’t think this is a reason to take away his chance at living a relatively normal life. He did something he thought would be funny. The fact that it wasn’t funny is beside the point. Even if all he gets is a truckload of shit from his folks, and a day at juvie-court, I doubt that he’ll try to pull a stunt like that again.

Anyway, c’mon, people. He’s 14 years old. It’s not like he raped or killed anyone. He pulled a stupid, stupid prank, and he got caught for it. He’s already in shit - of that you can rest assured.

Mental note: don’t post after work, Zaph. You can’t even put a sentence together at this time, much less communicate a thought.

73

It would still have been wrong even if it was just caffeine.
The point is the kid played a mindfuck game with the others without their consent.

Having said that I think the OP goes a bit overboard and think the juvenile and/or the school disciplinary systems are the appropriate parties to correct this kid’s behavior.

74

Ahh…draconian harshness and dripping sarcasm, all in one post. Y’know, it may give you some satisfaction to ruin a kids life because he distributed marijuana, but there’s a social and economic cost at the other end, when this kid grows up in prison and is released without the benefit of skills or education. Maybe we should just excecute him instead.

I agreed a few posts above that what the kid did was wrong and that he needed to be punished. Hey, I even agree with the OP when he says that a stunt like that might fly in a Cheech and Chong movie, but not in real life. It wasn’t a bit funny. But he’s still a kid, for Christ’s sake. Maybe one who is a lot more confused and frustrated than you or me.

75

Damn, I meant that last sentence to end, than you or I were at that age.

76

At this point it seems fruitless to address the whole pot brownie issue. Yes, I think it was really stupid.

Of course the real issue here now is punishment, and how juveniles need to be punished. The double standards in this regard are incredible. Why were juvenile laws created in the first place? I don’t know for sure, but I assume it is because kids, generally, don’t have the critical thinking skills to weigh all potential consequences of their actions. When a child does something stupid, they need to know that some things are unacceptable and be punished to curtail bad behaviour while not ruining their future.

At some point somebody thought that it was a good idea to try juveniles as adults. Get tough on crime and all that. Now I have to ask, what is the point of having any juvenile laws? Obviously a portion of our society sees no reward in the possibility of rehabilitation of a youngster who fucks up. We can keep building jails and lock these people away for a long, long time and continue to try and remake the world into an idealized 1950’s family sitcom. Or we can try and bring new ideas and critical thinking to the concepts of crime and punishment for youths.

The crime doesn’t strike me as violent in its nature and that needs to be considered. Punish the child/children involved so they know what they did is wrong. Don’t screw them by denying them their future, which will only lead to worse problems. And ask yourself what does our society gain by treating young offenders as adults?

77

A friend of mine has severe allergic reactions to ingested marijuana, requiring a hospital visit should it occur. She can smoke it just fine. Apparently cooking and eating it changes the way it affects the system.
Giving any chemical to any person without their knowledge is a Bad Idea ™.

78

I don’t know how far people read into these multi-page threads, but according to:

http://www0.mercurycenter.com/front/docs1/brownies1005.htm

Quote: “The kid was known to have had a history with marijuana at the school,” Clark said. So when the 25-year-old teacher asked him for one of the “pot brownies,” Clark said, “I think it was in jest.”

It’s quite possible that they will argue that everyone was well aware the brownies were doped. After all, the teacher “Seemed to.”

This article does not state whether the kid himself advertised the brownies as such.

-Myron

79

Interesting that you brought up Jesus. Last I checked, Jesus (assuming you mean the Jesus of the New Testament and not some neighbor kid down the street) was a member of a society which considered 13-years old as being adult.

80

**

Ok, I can accept that. I don’t want his liver on a stick or his entire life ruined. But I think his actions demand serious consequences.

**

I don’t know what his parents will do. But I do think the school needs to take action. Expelling him for the year and forcing him to retake whatever grade he is in seems like a fitting punishment to me. Or sending him to an alternative school for the rest of the year.

**

I don’t think it is obvious at all. Just because someone does a stupid thing it doesn’t mean that they are stupid. I’d have to check and see if he has a history of doing really stupid things before I could come to the conclusion that he was an idiot. Personally I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he just did something stupid. I know I did a few stupid things when I was around his age.

Marc