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.