Posted on 07/06/2006 10:41:40 AM PDT by devane617
NEW PORT RICHEY - Last week, her son turned 10 years old. On Tuesday morning, she watched as police took him away in a patrol car, charged with a felony.
A neighbor saw the boy break into her car and make off with a pocket knife, according to a police report.
Police were originally uneasy about arresting the boy, who will be a fourth-grader this year. But New Port Richey Lt. Jeffrey Harrington said the mother insisted. They charged him with armed burglary.
"The mother was at her wits' end," Harrington said Wednesday. "She thought he was just incorrigible. She asked us for help to get him into the system."
The single mother told the St. Petersburg Times that her son was so out of control that someone had to do something. (The Times is withholding her identity to avoid identifying the boy.)
"This kid has me in such fear for my own safety and my other son's (an 11-year-old) safety," she said. "I'm not giving up on him. I just think this is what he needs."
She said her son began beating her at age 6 with a Nerf baseball bat that had a metal rod inside. She said he knows that she has a bad leg from a car accident, and he aims directly for it. Sometimes, she said, he threatens to kill her or slit her throat during the night, and she is so afraid that she has a friend stay over so that she can get some sleep.
The mother listed several incidents involving her son since she moved to a new home June 1. The police had been to her home at least eight or nine times before the arrest.
Her son had punched walls in her last home, which angered the landlord so much that they had to move. She said he stole a bike from a little girl at the library and has also stolen jewelry, money and other items.
Recently, a police officer brought him home after he was found spray-painting the playground on Main Street, she said. But because of his age, nobody would press charges.
"Everyone's felt so bad because he's so young that nobody wants to press charges, but that doesn't help him," the mother said. "Apparently, he's trying to act like an adult, so he needs to be treated that way and learn he can't do these things."
When she saw her son in court Wednesday morning, she said, he was arrogant and refused to look at the judge, giggling throughout the proceedings.
"At one point, the judge had to yell at him to look up," she said. "And he said he didn't care if he was kept there for 21 days."
So that's exactly what the judge ordered. The 10-year-old will remain in the juvenile detention center near Land O'Lakes for just shy of a month. His mother said she hopes it will make a difference.
"I pray to God it will," she said "No matter how bad it gets, you just have to be a parent and give unconditional love."
The interesting point of this story is that the mother seems to have another son who is completely normal. Same environment, different outcome. Some of it must be luck of the draw in genetics.
Boy's Town was successful in its time, albeit with some notable failures; society hamstrings the parents and then blames them for the full prisons.
Number one, where's Dad?
Number two, how many times was this kid spanked?
Not anymore, Child Protective Services will take him and he will end up in foster care anyway, only difference is that she would be charged with child abuse and she probably couldn't afford a lawyer to get out of it.
bread and water only... and 2o lashes at the main square.. LOL
"Number two, how many times was this kid spanked?"
Spanked?
Can't have any of that,unless you want to be charged with 'child abuse'./sarc
If the boy is a sociopath or psychotic, it wouldn't matter how good a mother the woman is. At least she wants him to understand that adult actions call for adult consequences. Of course, without knowing much more than an apparent lack of a father, I'd have to support her decision to protect herself and her other child who apparently isn't a monster in the making.
Thanks for pointing that out. And there are times when being single is better than staying with the wrong man.
____________
My wife got lucky (literally and figuratively). She found me. (I'm kidding, I'm the lucky one).
You jump to that conclusion but it just could be a "bad seed." There are such people in the world -- anti-social, pathological, whatever you want to call it -- that even the best parents can not handle. They are that way from birth. Thankfully, it's rare, but I have seen it.
"This kid has me in such fear for my own safety and my other son's (an 11-year-old) safety," she said. "I'm not giving up on him. I just think this is what he needs."
Yep. Single parenting is the way to go. /sarcasm
Children need a mother AND a father.
Well, she can't give hime the beating he deserves. If she does, she'll get in trouble for child abuse, end up in jail herself, and lose custody of her other child. It sounds to me like this kid may need to spend some time in one of those juvenile boot camps, or maybe just ship his little bad self off to military boarding school.
Now military school is probably the best idea yet. At least he would learn some self-respect. I wonder that a 10-year-old has so much rage. I hope someone can help him but I know there are some people who just can't - or won't - be helped.
My guess is the boy already eliminated the dad and made it look like an accident.
"The rod and reproof bring wisdom.
But a child left to itself brings shame to its mother."
~Proverbs 29:15
That kid was a amateur. Guy I went to school with flipped out in high school. Climbed on top of one of the buildings at school dressed like an injun and shot a couple of other kids in the back with broad tipped arrows he fired from a compound bow. He split before the cops got there, made a run for it in a car he stole from his dad. He made it across two states before pulling a gun and firing on some Arizona Highway Patrol officers. buh-bye!
SNAP-SNAP-SNAP-SNAP-SNAP <- Sound of Dad's belt pulled quickly though belt loops. Still sends a chill up my spine.
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