I agree with both of you. But I've stayed off these threads, until now, because when I tried to defend Mrs. Young (whose husband was OUT OF TOWN) I was flamed bigtime.
I think we have a bunch of kid posters on here, to tell you the truth. A lot of nasty remarks about Mrs. Young, too, who was on FoxNews and was an unremarkable, quiet-speaking woman who said that the sheriff advised her not to sleep at home that night.
About her property--she said that the girls had climbed a fence (not used the gate) there was no way to see them, since they hid in the bushes, and that they didn't knock, they banged on her BACK door, instead of going to her FRONT door, which may well have had motion sensor lights and a peephole.
There are cardiac arrythmias that are a definite matter of concern, which some people get. Many are treated with medication. That's what I would guess happened with Mrs. Young, although I don't know for sure.
In addition, I posted on the other thread--one of the first--that my rural neighbors and I are of the opinion that the girls were lucky not to be 1)arrested and 2)shot.
10:30 at night is no time to be delivering cookies. The girls say they only went to houses with porch lights on--but they went to the BACK door, banged on it, hid in the bushes, and didn't answer when Mrs. Young asked who it was. I hope some of the posters here can at least understand why she was upset.
Judith---I am a bit of a funny beast on this thread. For example, I agree that the teens exercised bad judgement. And I applaud the parents' willingness to pay the medical bills.
My sole, yet quite vehement, complaint is regarding the Young's determination to take this to court. That crossed the line---particularly since the teens were already agreeing to pay the medical bills and issued a written apology. The judge apparently agreed that that was sufficient restitution in this case, too, because he refused to award the Youngs any more than that.
Our court system has no business being clogged with cases like these that can so easily be settled outside of it. The teens had offered a perfectly reasonable settlement, and the Youngs refused: and why? I have to admit I doubt the genuineness of the Youngs when they claim that a verbal apology would have been sufficient. Clearly, their court lawsuit demanded far, far more than that. But even if we take them at their word, the failure to deliver a VERBAL apology it is a wholly inadequate reason to go to court.