A thread at Common Sense Political Thought contains a ridiculous argument for lowering the age of consent to 12.
I pointed out that teenagers are notorious for their bad decision-making skills and pointed to this story in the local paper as an example.
Police were still seeking details late Friday about how a 14-year-old Arlington girl was fatally shot during a party.
Diana A. Womack, 17, was in the Arlington Jail facing manslaughter charges in connection with the death of Tessa Abbott, said Lt. Blake Miller, a police spokesman. Bail was set at $25,000. Police told the victim's mother, Becky Abbott, that the shooting was accidental, she said.
Abbott said she does not know Womack and had not spoken with two girls who she believes were with her daughter during the shooting and late Friday afternoon. Abbott said she still felt numb.
Her husband, Marlon Abbott, said, "When we went to bed about 10 p.m., she was here."
Arlington police said the shooting occurred just before 1 a.m. at a duplex in the 2500 block of Hollandale Circle in east Arlington, just south of the General Motors Assembly Plant.
When officers arrived, Tessa Abbott was on the ground outside the duplex. She died at 12:52 a.m. from a gunshot wound in the left shoulder, the Tarrant County medical examiner's office reported.
Miller said several teens and young adults were gathered at the duplex.
He said it appeared that no parents were present.
Miller said that alcohol was involved and that at some point people started handling a handgun. It fired, Miller said...
Becky Abbott said her family moved to southwest Arlington last weekend. Tessa Abbott was to start ninth grade at Arlington's Martin High School in the fall.
Marlon Abbott said he and his wife were awakened by police at 5:30 a.m.
Becky Abbott said she didn't know how her daughter got to the Hollandale address, which is almost 13 miles from her house. The party was more of a gathering of friends, she said.
She said she didn't know all her daughter's friends or whether she had left their home before in the middle of the night.
"You know how teenagers are," she said.
I'm having some issues with my teenage daughter right now, who thinks we are stupid and "hates" to stay with us during her scheduled visitation. At least, that's what she tells her friends. It isn't how she behaves when she is with us. So, either she is an incredible actress or she is talking trash with her friends.
From what I've observed, there's much more of this teenage insolence these days than I remember when I was growing up (and more in my generation than my father's). My father has a sign hanging in his garage that says:
ATTENTION TEENAGERS!
Tired of being hassled by your stupid parents?
ACT IMMEDIATELY!
Move out - Get a job - Pay your own bills
START NOW WHILE YOU STILL KNOW EVERYTHING
When I was younger, I snickered at the sign, but now that I have a teenager, I see its wisdom even clearer.
A 14-year-old sneaks out of her parents' house, goes to a party with older teens, and ends up dead because someone played with a gun. The parents aren't sure if this was the first time the girl sneaked out.
It's easy to blame the parents. I see their culpability. But I've talked to enough parents who have been through the teen-sneaking-out thing to know that there are times when the child has determined to do something and it has nothing to do with the parent's supervisory skills.
Is the answer to this sort of thing like the commenter at CSPT suggests, to simply lower the age of consent? What happens when children consent then regret their choices? Are we, as parents and a society, to simply accept their choices without any complaint?
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