TEEN ACTIONS CAN HAVE SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES

Young people of this area should recognize and pay heed to a lesson delivered this week on the difference between youthful pranks and criminal behavior. The second of two teens who pleaded guilty to slashing 104 Jackson school bus tires in December, among other acts of vandalism, was sentenced Tuesday in circuit court. The severity of the sentences (cloaked in a very compassionate judgment regarding these teens' lives) should serve as a warning to others who feel destruction can be written off merely as mischief.

Cinema might turn such lawbreakers into benign rogues, boys simply being boys. The plot would have them breaking a few windows and, in order to scrap a school day, flattening some bus tires. In reality, the claims are remarkably high; the teens involved rang up almost $38,000 in damages, $23,000 of which stemmed from the bus vandalism. The malice ran deep in this crime: imagine the effort put forth to slice into even a few tires, much less 104. The burglaries and other destruction that were a part of this case also point to a lawlessness that went beyond adolescent hijinks.

As is the case with most crimes involving youth, the judge holds the future of immature offenders in his hands; how is fitting punishment exacted without wrecking a life in the process? A.J. Seier, the judge in this case, struck a proper and inventive balance, imposing a severe schedule for restitution (keeping the young offenders working and helping victims restore some of their losses) while keeping the teens from a potentially injurious stint in the penitentiary. The judge's message was unambiguous: follow these instructions, walk the straight and narrow, and the teens need not add incarceration to their mistakes. Instilling personal accountability where none was previously witnessed seems an ideal remedy, and the sentencing is to be commended.

Above all, the message should go out to adolescents that a crime is a crime, regardless of the offender's age. What might be viewed in a rush of youthful energy as a harmless antic could actually land a young person in deep trouble with the law. We can't always expect teens to use flawless judgment, but they must realize that confusing wrong with right can have serious consequences.