A Sincere Thank You, and an Incessant Rant from a Mad Woman...

First off, I'd like to say a HUGE and sincere thank you for allowing me to take part of the JT-Irregulars blogging group.  It is an honor to be able to participate in such a diverse group of intellectual bloggers.  I welcome intelligent discussion, whether you agree or disagree, and I welcome everyone who comments, to feel free to discuss your view point, because even if we disagree, I think understanding where the other side is coming from, is the key to being able to be more of the community that we all want.  A special thank you goes to "Lizard Mom", that I met at a Rely Local luncheon at Z's, for making this special invite...

I'd like to introduce myself as Lika, a mother of a pretty good 14 year old, and the founder of a registered 401c4 nonprofit called Youth Voice Initiative (YVI).  YVI was formed, to create social change to ensure that our children are not to be viewed as "property" of the parent(s) or legal guardian(s), to hold accountable child perpetrators.  From there, will be able to influence the legal system from the law makers, to the law practitioners, to the law interpreters, so we can stiffen up on those who abuse our children.  Too often, we don't want to "get involved", when we most often need to, since childhood abuse can lead to higher rates of drug and alcohol addiction and suicide than the rest of society.  Of these, sex and psychological abuses are the worst, and the victims are either blamed or ignored, enforcing the non-involvement to further victimize the abused child or survivor of child abuse.  I blog often, and would like to invite you to my blog site as well, here on blogger, Lika's Laments to take part in discussion, as well.

Anyway, even after this, I am really concerned about these 12 year olds who stabbed the other girl, after reading and playing into this Slenderman myth, found at creepypasta.com.  What gets me, is, it doesn't seem as if the parents were even slightly concerned where on the internet these girls went.  I allowed my son, who was almost 13 at the time, to finally get a facebook account, and I had ours linked together.  I also insisted that the friends list only included people I knew, or, even if I didn't, that someone such as his grandpa (who is a pastor) could vouch for, so there is no one there to raise an eyebrow.  And yes, I have the log in information, and yes, I do spy on his account.  If he changes his password or other settings on his profile, I get an email message that this happened.  I'm his mother, and it's my job.  My husband has parental controls set up, so he can see where my son goes while he's online.  I don't care if it sounds invasive, protective, or strict.  If the other parents would have done this, they could have intervened about the stabbing.

Worse yet, didn't any of the parents, teachers, classmates, guidance counselors, etc...  notice that the behaviors of these girls were off?  No one heard them discussing the urban myth?  No one knew about the plans of these two wanting to make a sacrifice by stabbing another classmate who was supposed to be a friend?  Didn't the parents teach their kids the difference between right and wrong?  I remember taking a psychology class in high school.  I learned that little kids, at the age of 3, understand the basic differences between right and wrong.  At age 5, kids have polished up that knowledge, even when they're being brutally honest.  Being that young, they haven't learned the concept of when it is it okay to tell little white lies, such as telling someone that their outfit is too little for them, when a young woman in their 20's is dressed a bit on the skimpy side, or that it's not nice to blurt out the fact that the color you're wearing doesn't look good on you.  But, aside from that, they know that lying, hitting and stealing is bad.  Telling the truth, paying for what you want, and keeping your hands to yourself is good.  So, why didn't these12 year olds know?  It's possible that the one is mentally ill.  Yet, if you look at them, they are NOT the innocent little girls that 12 year olds ought to be.  I also think their parents should have to account for part of the girls' bad judgement, especially because of the severity of the crime.  Another little girl has a lot of therapy to go through, and it shouldn't be up to her family to have to foot the bill.  The girls' who did the stabbing and their parents should be held financially responsible.  As for the outcome of the actual stabbing case?  We shall follow the news on the court proceedings.  May justice rule.