Kids Do the Darndest Things
I work in an environment where I am exposed to stories involving young people that an average person would probably find too sick and absurd to believe. I feel compelled to share these stories for many reasons that I don’t have a problem with sharing. First, our society needs to acknowledge that it is made up of all kinds of people. Sometimes we are so naiive when we focus on our racial, religious, political and financial differences. Of course, it’s understandable considering that we are visual creatures. Unfortunately, we leave ourselves absolutely VULNERABLE when we ignore the fact that there are thousands of potentially dangerous people around us. Their indifference for our safety and well-being transcends race, age, status, gender, and education. An unstable person can be a relative, neighbor, manager, coworker, coach, teacher, student, minister, parishoner, doctor, nurse, judge, lawyer, police officer, politician, and, well sadly, the list goes on. You know them as being someone who says or does the meanest, most unproductive or inappropriate, harmful, and sometimes deadly things. They are HURTING people, but we are so busy trying to move away from and protect ourselves from people who don’t look or sound like us that their destructive actions, unless extreme, go unhindered. Don’t get me wrong, some shaky men and women are more hazardous than others depending on their ability to mask their true nature. The reason why young people’s stories need to be exposed is because they have not yet mastered the ability to misrepresent themselves. When a storm is brewing in a child’s life, there is no denying it. If we reach out to them before their skewed ways become too ingrained, then perhaps we can prevent them from becoming adults who commit irreparable damage. Dangerous children, like adults, can wreak a great deal of emotional and physical havoc. How much longer can you and I afford to look the other way? Read on before you decide. In November, a young boy told me about a teenage boy who had a fourteen year old girl “jumped” (brutally beaten) by six girls, because she refused to have sex with him. They beat her until she fell to the ground and then they stomped and kicked her while the boy and his friends watched from a nearby location. In January, I met a sixteen year old girl who was brutally attacked by a pregnant teenage girl and her adult friends, because the victim’s cousin was dating the pregnant girl’s boyfriend. The victim was also cut across her face with a knife by one of the adults. The violent mother-to-be even had a whole page on a very popular online space dedicated to how she was going to kill all the girls who were pregnant by her boyfriend and their friends if she couldn’t get to the girls. Last June, I met a nineteen year old who was chased on the freeway by a car full of teenage girls. Both cars reached speeds over 100mph until the young woman lost control of her car and it flipped several times. Luckily, she was wearing her seatbelt and she survived the accident. When the pursuers called their friends to tell the tale, there were many young people at their high school who felt that the young lady deserved to almost lose her life. In June 2006, a young lady contacted me to tell me that she had been chased and struck by a car being driven by several young women, who she had just finished fighting. Her recovery was long and hard, but she survived the vehicular assault. These are a few stories that don’t make the news, but they happened nonetheless. Now, you may be thinking to yourself, none of the young people in my community behave this way, so my loved ones and I are perfectly safe. Well, now I take you to the stories that make the news. Teens have been killing their parents and siblings, because they had a disagreement. Young people have been killing their classmates, because they don’t fit in. Young boyfriends have been killing their girlfriends and their family members, because they can’t handle a breakup. The adults in these grieving communities truly believed that they and their sons and daughters were completely safe from harm. Didn’t their neighbors look like them and live like them? Who can blame them for assuming that they should know what to expect from those with whom they have so much in common? I say again that malevolence doesn’t have a face. It just needs to be exposed and tackled wherever and whenever its found. Why not start with the young?
