Posted on 05/24/2017 1:06:36 PM PDT by Forgotten Amendments
It took school and police officials just a few minutes to extinguish 16-year-old Corey Walgren's promising future. All they did was utter two words: child pornography.
Corey, a junior at Naperville North High School in Naperville, Illinois, was a perfectly normal, social, good-looking 16-year-old. He was an honor roll student with dreams of attending a Big Ten college. He had typical interests for a teenager boy: hockey, fishing, and, yes, girls.
Corey committed suicide in January, just hours after a school resource officer confronted him about an alleged illegal item on his cell phone—a recording of Corey having sex with a female classmate. The girl had informed a dean at the school that she believed Corey had played the recording for his friends (it's not clear whether he did), which prompted the authorities to summon Corey to the principal's office. They called his mother and told both of them that Corey was being investigated for possession of child pornography.
Corey left the meeting, headed to a nearby parking garage, and jumped.
That's all according to a heartbreaking story in The Chicago Tribune, which obtained police records of the case and spoke with Corey's parents about his death.
"I think they wanted to scare him straight," Corey's mother, Maureen Walgren, told the Tribune. "Instead, they scared him to death."
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
“The girl had informed a dean at the school that she believed Corey had played the recording for his friends....”
If that is accurate, Corey violated the law and the girl was fully within her right to inform the school of Cory’s alleged actions.
If the girl made a mistake, it was only that she did not go to the police instead of the school officials.
As for Corey, he made his choices.
Sad as this story is, “The kid himself was responsible for what he did” is a bare truth.
Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes.
The girl should have gone straight to the Sex Crimes Division of her local police department and reported Corey’s violation of the law.
More hypersensitive whining by “Reason” magazine. For a publication that likes to hold individuals accountable, they sure did a poor job on this one. The kid was irresponsible and disrespectful to the girl he had sex with. Furthermore.....he killed himself...period. There’s an awful lot of snowflaking happening on this thread.
https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?ContentTypeID=1&ContentID=3051
From the link:
Understanding the Teen Brain
It doesn’t matter how smart teens are or how well they scored on the SAT or ACT. Good judgment isn’t something they can excel in, at least not yet.
The rational part of a teen’s brain isn’t fully developed and won’t be until age 25 or so.
In fact, recent research has found that adult and teen brains work differently. Adults think with the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s rational part. This is the part of the brain that responds to situations with good judgment and an awareness of long-term consequences. Teens process information with the amygdala. This is the emotional part.
In teen’s brains, the connections between the emotional part of the brain and the decision-making center are still developing—and not necessarily at the same rate. That’s why when teens experience overwhelming emotional input, they can’t explain later what they were thinking. They weren’t thinking as much as they were feeling.
I do recognize that there is an entire generation of kids who have almost never seen something of note with their own eyes. They see everything through a 'viewfinder' of some kind.
This is a serious issue and I don't want to introduce humor into this, but I when I saw this illustration, it made me laugh, but at the same time, hit 100% home:
I also want to backtrack and don't want to compare what this kid did to shoplifting and petty vandalism, either. When I was a teenager, the concept of engaging in sexual relationships was somewhat unattainable to me (not for lack of desire or trying) but I would never have gone and bragged about it. Even a kid as stupid as me could recognize the damage that could do to someone else, never mind, cut off any future interactions due to being a blabbermouth.
This a horrible and disturbing story. I sit on a public school district board of trustees and this is one reason I will never support creating a school district police department.
The world in general and our educational system in particular need some common sense, good judgment and discretion in the exercise of authority.
Sounds like facing his mother is what made him do it.
Sounds to me like he was already suicidal. And his mother knew it. This confrontation by authorities may have been a final straw, but I'd bet this boy was mentaly messed up and contemplating suicide for some time.
Reminds me of that black student a few years back - he was 18 and got oral from a 17 year girl and they gave him 5 years in prison and sex offender status. Bill Clinton rapes and is celebrated, a black kid gets a BJ and his life is ruined.
You couldn't make me be a teenager again for all the tea in China. I wouldn't mind having that healthy body capable of running and jumping, but...if I had to go back and live it again and have to learn lessons the same way again...no. Never.
That was too unpleasant.
Talked with this with my granddad - he just shook his head. He said they’d all be in jail today for one reason or other.
Dittoes. Reason is a Liberaltarian rag. They are just knee-jerking here at an opportunity to bash "authorities". While at the same time - they did indeed ignore the responsibility of the individual.
“I sit on a public school district board of trustees and this is one reason I will never support creating a school district police department.”
It is not as if Corey was busted for chewing gum in class.
It is apparent that Corey committed a Felony.
bfl
The boy was showing pictures of the two having sex and the girl was upset. I don’t blame the school resource officer. What the boy did was wrong for many reasons.
Then he committed suicide. It doesn’t sound like anyone’s fault but the kid’s and perhaps his upbringing. Why would he share an intimate moment with the other boys.
I wish the story had a better outcome, but the school resource officer is not the problem here.
It doesn’t sound like he was arrested. He just couldn’t handle the situation.
I can’t even imagine how painful it is to be a teenager actually having sex with every new boy/girl friend like they do.
Just having sweet pure dates at that age was beyond passionate and stressful. I don’t know how I survived then - these new rules of amorality are deadly.
He made his choices and he is responsible for his actions. And he was a minor. The school authorities are responsible for their actions too ... unless you have some snowflake exception that you grant them.
“In teen’s brains, the connections between the emotional part of the brain and the decision-making center are still developing—and not necessarily at the same rate. That’s why when teens experience overwhelming emotional input, they can’t explain later what they were thinking. They weren’t thinking as much as they were feeling.”
And that has nothing at all to do with the law.
Corey was 16 and could have been charged with a state jail felony just as if he were 36 years old.
Corey was responsible for his actions just as we hold other people of Corey’s age accountable when they are accused of crimes.
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