Two Teens Charged In Beating Of Classmate

The Baltimore Sun via SunSpot.net ^ | November 14, 2001 | Del Quentin Wilber and Liz Bowie, Sun Staff

[GeekDejure]

Two Northern High School students have been charged in the near-fatal beating of a classmate Friday that police said sprang from a dispute between two gangs.

The two 15-year-old boys were identified yesterday as Steven McCullough, a ninth-grader who lives in the 4200 block of Belmar Ave., and Sean Cox, a 10th-grader who lives in the 6100 block of Alta Ave. Both were arrested at their homes late Monday and charged as adults with attempted murder and assault.

[Hodar]

It's my humble opinion that youth are incapable of understanding compassion. Children are cruel to each other, and usually equate politeness with weakness. The politeness they show others may be from fear, but only rarely love. For example, children who mouth back to their parents. Do they love them (well, probably) ... do they fear them (obviously not).

So, if compassion, like wisdom comes with age and maturity, behaviors comparable to compassion need to be instilled. If the youth only understand strength and fear, perhaps that needs to be replaced in their lives. I feared my teachers, for I KNEW that they would, could and repeatedly did beat kids who were out of line. The kids have no reason to fear any adult, for if an adult attempts even the most minor of disciplinary actions, he may be fired, or imprisioned. Now, the same liberals who have removed discipline from the classrooms wonder why compassion has left too.

Ask yourself, has the liberal-led action to remove personal responsibility and discipline from our schools made them a better place? Do the schools turn out a better product today than they did 20 (50, 75 or 100)years ago?

[Nonstatist]

I thought they closed Northern High School, and were bussing kids over to Parkville High. Not that that would help the situation, just that it would "spread it around", out into the County, where it can be somebody else's problem. You know, the usual remedy.

[fourdeuce82d]

"It's my humble opinion that youth are incapable of understanding compassion"

No offense, but I think that's cr*p. I went to a boarding school, started in eight grade. Even as a 13 yr old I and others had some sense of compassion towards others. Sometimes the in clique would pick on the outies- but there was also a sense that a) man, we were pretty mean b) we should try to be nice to the kid and make him feel better. We sure as hell never beat anybody up, let alone smashed a bat over their heads.

These kids, like all kids, have to capacity to feel compassion- they have not been taught to use it.

[fourdeuce82d]

"As a memeber of generation X and a product of the public school system,"

maybe it's a generational thing. If what you & hodar are saying is true, it marks a change from my experience.

[mommadooo3]

Today's schools turn out very CHEAP imitations of what was coming out of school systems 50, 75, 100 yrs ago. But then again, back then, they also KNEW the meaning of a LOT of things.

This kid that got the crap kicked out of him...another gang member? The article makes it sound like he was just a wanna-be, hung around with the bad-asses. Maybe instead of blaming the school, the parents should be looking at their methods of child training. Perhaps they should have kept the kid from hanging out with such trash....it DOES have a tendency to leave its smell on another. If there's a kid hanging out, 'nothing more', with a gang who's known to be caught up in the unseemly things in life/shootings, etc, COMMON SENSE will tell you that a bullet, or whatever, does NOT stop to ask if it's hitting a gang-member OR a 'just hanging out'er.

[10mm]

One attacker smashed a baseball bat over his head, breaking it in half, police said.

I'm surprised he survived at all with his head broken in half.

[Eaker]

That was a good catch!!

;<)

Eaker

[biblewonk]

One of many reasons that we homeschool our 8 kids.