Pete, the boys told police they "accidentally knocked over a gravestone. They told police they saw how easy it was to knock over one stone and started knocking over more stones, he said." They knew it was wrong. They just didn't realize why. It's not like throwing a rock and breaking a window. Yes, it's destruction, but the gravestones don't hold the importance to a child that they do to an adult who may have lost a relative who's remains were buried there.

The crazy thing we have to remember is that there are Juvenile Laws that need to be upheld. And it seems to me that Juvenile Law encourages juvenile delinquents to place blame rather than accept it. It encourages delinquents to scream "unfair". What it DOESN'T do, which frustrates me to no end, is hold the parents responsible for neglecting to raise their children to respect authority and/or show respect to their elders. The children obviously knew what they were doing was wrong, but why were the children out "late Sunday night." Why are the parents not being charged with neglect as well as the children with vandalism and destruction of property?

With the Juvenile Detention Center's success rates (haha), I am concerned about the state of affairs. When are we going to stand up and say enough is enough with the delinquents getting very little consequences and start holding the parents responsible for the actions of their delinquent children? I do not mean have the parents pay the fines that their precious ones collect tickets for; I mean holding them responsible for passive teaching. Require parenting classes; require counseling; require social services check ins to ensure the parents know where their kids are and what they are up to, etc.

Yes, there are times when one child gives the parents total grief and the rest of the family acts responsibly; however, it is STILL the parent's responsibility to step up to the plate and get the help the child needs to become a productive member of society.

Daggum, Napalm, you done set the record straight, you did.

Seriously, your posts concern and frighten me on several levels. If you are in my neighborhood, please let me know first - I will make sure to post signs in my yard saying "Don't burn my house down" and "Don't kick my dog." I wouldn't want you to think that's okay, ya know, because there wasn't a sign.

*grumble/sigh*

By the looks of Napalm's posts, he/she did not learn anything in school either.

I totally disagree with punishing parents. A parent can raise 5 kids well, but 1 will do bad things despite that upbringing. The proper punishment is forcing them to do all the work of moving them to and from the shed for starters.

I too think these little imbeciles should be held directly to account for their crime.

While fixing each and every gravestone by hand, after school, they can learn much about respect and about tools and craftmanship.

They are lucky to not be my children.

The grandparents and aunts and uncles should go to jail as well. As a matter of fact anyone related to these criminals should face severe punishment.........Sure......
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If they are the ones raising these kids instead of the parents then yes they should. The parents obviously failed in showing them how to behave outside and probably never disciplined them. Now they do what ever they want without regard to anyone else.

The grandparents and aunts and uncles should go to jail as well. As a matter of fact anyone related to these criminals should face severe punishment.........Sure......

The kids AND their parents need to be held accountable for this.

it is clear they need supervision,their parents, should be right along side them, helping repair the damage and paying for the damage. a little jail time wont hurt either!

Perhaps a funeral home in town would let them work off some community service with them. THAT might make 'em think. Learn a little respect for those recently passed.

If it were up to me to decide their punishment, I would make the 10 year old write personalized apology letters (and no, not "form" letters) to the occupant of each desecrated grave and make the other two boys seperately attend 100 funerals or visitations (preferably, open-casket). Perhaps this will give them some well needed perspective about death and personal loss.

Lots of good comments here. Hey Gazette staff, this one is begging for a follow-up story!!

Maybe they should put those kids to work digging graves at each of the cemeteries until the cost of the vandalism is paid off.

Stop correcting a person's mistake and then make your own! Good grief. As for the STORY, I wish someone on the Gazette staff would do a piece on past vandals around the area and find out what consequences resulted from those incidents. It would be interesting to know if all were held accountable and if restitution was required and if it was PAID. Do we just let them all "slip through the cracks" like multiple offense drunk drivers? Perhaps another small town somewhere (even in another state) came up with a really good solution when it happened to them.

Quote "Theyre obviously not to bright."
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Whos not TOO bright?

SarahB1... I agree with part of your statement.. Being as young as they are,, they could do more damage to the stones (if they put them to work repairing them)But an ESSAY ( not just a paragraph or 2 either) on who these people were, and who are their decedents would be great punishment for them,,and make sure the info they collect is correct,,, also make them pay for the labor to getting them fixed...(not do the labor)

There are certain pranks that You expect from kids, but this is not one of them, this is just wrong any way You look at it. As Pete said, these kids will have this on their chests the rest of their lives, they just dont realize it right now. Theres one thing that is fairly certain, karma has a way of teaching Us lessons, disrespect for the dead is sure to bring about some kind of lesson.

Have them go apologize to the families of the people whose gravemarkers they vandalized, if they are around. If they had to look the families in the eye and tell them that they did it and why, I think it would do more for them than any other punishment they could get.

"I think these punks will be working filthy, menial jobs all of their lives anyways. Theyre obviously not to bright." - Yeah. People who work filthy, menial jobs are "not to bright." Heh. That's classic. :)

an they want to close the detention center down, i bet they didnt even spend one night there,an i agree with the cardtrader,for the next 10 years make them go out on that date of destruction,an,every weekend make them go out there and do work at these cemetaries,an by the time a child is ten years old they know the difference between right and wrong,maybe one wouldnt be so lenient if it were your family members headstone destroyed,call me harsh,an so be it, but these kids knew exactly what they were doing an knew there would be no consequences,this is the juvenile justice systems fault as well,for not punishing kids,one day in detention,and saying "dont do that again" is not enough.these boys need dire consequenses or they will re-offend.

Terrible.

Hope these boys like the sound of restitution for the next 10 years.. lol Stupid things kids do these days..

I think these three vandals ought to have to go to the cemetary every year for the next 10 years on the date of there destruction and help clean and make repairs in the cemetary they helped destroy as punishment for what they have done. That may teach them more than anything about what they have done .

Why were these kids out that late? This is as much the parents' fault. I can't see any reason for kids that young to be out late on a Sunday night. They obviously weren't coming home from anything productive if they were hiding from cars. They definitely knew they were doing something they shouldn't have been. I hope the parents are held accountable for, if nothing else, dereliction of duty.

I think the boys should be put to work helping repair the gravestones. I would also suggest that they be required to do a little research on each of the deceased whose grave was vandalized. Even just enough information to write a paragraph or two might help the boys understand that what they did was a crime that causes grief in the community. I agree that we should not write off these kids but, rather, help them grow from their mistakes.

Maybe the kids could learn how to fix the stones and other vandalized stuff around town. The parents should spend some quality time doing it too.

ABSOLUTLY disgusting!

I would proudly volunteer to help repair as my parents, my grandparents, my greatparents as most of my family is buried in Edgerton dating back more than 175 years. I to hope the parents of these children make them pay for this.

I fully agree with all of you..maybe the 10 yr old doesn't realize what he/she has done..but 12 & 14? They should know by now the difference between right & wrong. Parents should be handed the total bill for repairs & the three should do menial community service.

I agree that this is horrible; but they are 10, 12, and 14 years old. I'm sure they don't have any concept of what the gravestones represent. I am certainly not in favor of them destroying property and I certainly would support their needing to work off in the form of community service until the debt is paid.

However, I hope that society has enough will power to encourage these kids to learn their lesson and do better and make better decisions from now on. Let's not write them off as failures just yet.

100 gravestones with a repair cost of $300-400 each is a pretty busy day for this gang of delinquents. I hope the parents get the bill, and put these kids to work at any kind of filthy, menial job available until it’s paid off. It’s too bad the county doesn’t have some sort of work for compensation program exactly for situations like this. Kids do things because they know there are no consequences. If there were some really nasty consequences associated with this kind of behaviour, we’d have a lot less of it.