[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by Pairadocs

Of course it's inconsistent ! But there are a number of factors that effect the "inconsistency". You and I may not agree with these, but never the less they exist. Among them are: The parents of "wandering" teens in large cities are often VERY difficult to locate believe it or not. Uninvolved parents often report unlisted and non working phones number of school administrations, and OFTEN even report non existent, or outdated, addresses. Add to this that young men and women involved in the gang lifestyle do NOT attend school on a regular basis, so locating the parents is not as easy as in the Michigan case. Yes, the Michigan couple was "hiding" in some sense, but both worked and had a CLEAR trail for authorities to track down, they had a valid home address, the father had a fire arm permit, they had working phone numbers, their son WAS registered with a legal name and address and did attend school on a regular basis, and so on. Tracking down teens who do NOT fit this profile is not easy, not at all. Add to that, it's been decades since, as a society, we held school attendance and constant vigilance as a PRIMARY goal. Mandatory 12 years of schooling is only a suggestion in our present culture, and there certainly are no sworn truant officers that my mother AND grandmother told me about being so fearful of, they never even considered "skipping" out of even a single class when they were in school ! Their parents were easy to locate, as were all parents in our city of about 130,000. Yes, the enforcement is inconsistent and the problem will continue most likely, until we the people STOP blaming everything on "the politicians" or the "federal government", and make safety of our youth, and make parents responsible for their (minor) children's behavior as it once was in our culture, and still is in a number of cultures. It's just not a priority in ours at present. I will add, as I watched the entire trial on TV, then the sentencing, I thought, IF they would hold a few more parents responsible int he future, would the "tide begin to change", would our population LIKE the idea and begin to demand it ? ??

Thanks. I agree with what you said. But, the inconsistency in this case is so blatant that I consider it a travesty. These parents were sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison for something that almost every other parent who does the same thing are not even charged. They should have had a better lawyer.