A Mother’s Truth

I saw a headline in the local paper, today about how one 18 year old threatened another with a gun last night, and was hauled off to jail, this morning. He’s being held in lieu of bail of a million dollars.

All I could think was:

WHY WOULD A KID DO THIS TO THEIR PARENTS?

(It should be noted, here, that my own son is now 17, so this headline kind of hits close to home for me. I lost a lot of sleep, getting him through his rather troubled infancy and babyhood, due to some health issues and there were more issues, later in grade school, because he was on the gifted side and bored in school).

That kid was rightfully hauled off to jail when the gun was found in his home this morning. Sadly, that leaves his parents to wonder what will become of him.

He might not fare well in prison. His parents might not have a good lawyer to get him out of this mess he made by threatening someone’s life. Considering that his name indicates Hispanic parentage, he may end up doing a longer sentence than a White 18 year old would do for the same crime. On top of that, he’s no longer a minor at the ripe old age of 18, so…..

He could also have easily left another young man’s parents CHILDLESS. They would have had to go through the pain and anguish of burying their child- perhaps their ONLY child, AND they would have had to pay funeral costs, and risk Covid at their child’s funeral, to boot.

SOCIETY NEEDS TO CHANGE.

Maybe high school curriculum needs to include more in the way of social sciences, and maybe those classes need to include trips to hospitals, prisons and funeral homes to be told and more importantly SHOWN stories about the real life consequences of violence.

Maybe some trials and tribulations of pregnancy and motherhood need to be sprinkled into the sex education and biology classes to give students an appreciation of what it really takes to create and nurture a human life.

We need to start thinking a step ahead, this way, rather than disempowering our youth, and making them hate their elders with security guards and police being called into schools to drag students to jails, because that’s not a preventative measure. It’s not enriching or empowering for students. It doesn’t teach them to behave respectfully toward their peers. It only makes them afraid and distrustful of authority figures.