No Quarter

I learned at lunch yesterday that yet another young mother killed her baby soon after birth. Yes, that's what we're talking about at lunch after church. Great isn't it?

The Qweenbean said I need to pick lighter conversation fare. First of all, no. Secondofly I didn't pick the fare, the fare was thrust upon me.

In any case, the conversation turned to whether the young killer should be tried as an adult. The conversation went that way, because we've been asked to take it that way and I am, often enough, an obedient little cog.

If you don't care to know these things stop reading. If you need to be told that... I don't know what to say about that.

So back in April, a little girl in Texas gave birth to a baby at school, crammed its mouth with paper and drowned it in the toilet before being discovered. Like I said, that was back in April. I hadn't heard about it. I also would likely not have heard about the discussion to try her as an adult had it not come up yesterday. But now it has and of course, being the loudmouth I am, I have to write something about it and expose you to it in the process.

I'm not sure if the attempt to declare her an adult is officially intended to send a strong message to other eighth graders thinking about drowning their infants or more as an optimistic (Texas, remember) attempt to bypass the prohibition on executing minors. I tend to think it's for another purpose all together.

I suppose when we treat, or here try a child like an adult it's because we want to indicate the gravity of the situation and demonstrate that we expect someone will be held to account and by that we often mean treated in kind. This is a pretty horrible thing and the reptile in me wants some type of revenge. Not correction or justice. Revenge. And if revenge has to be targeted, what's easier to target than the girl responsible for it all? And what better way to demonstrate we say she is responsible than to declare her legally able to bear the responsibility for this act and punish her accordingly? I suppose I'm assuming others would think like me.

But maybe it's not about revenge at all.

Imagine how many adults- the people that are supposed to know better, the people that are supposed to be responsible- had to drop the ball for this to have happened. Imagine what it would take for an eighth grade girl to deliver a baby at school. Imagine what things must be like for her to have gotten pregnant at 13. Imagine what conditions must exist for a 13 year old to be having sex. Of course she made her own choices- it feels like I have to write that- but the range of possible choices were laid before her by others. The world that was possible for her was crafted by adults. So in a way, considering her actions it is fitting that adults would now be debating if she has done enough to warrant entry into their world.