"I know it doesn't look good. I've never seen him enraged, I've never seen him upset. He's a 12-year-old who is generally quite scared."

So, he was probably a victim of the abuse of others, no one cared, so he took matters in his own hands, now HE is being punished.

This is an age old story of abused turned abuser.

Hey, if others can make assumptions, so can I.

Nightwng2000

NW2K Software

http://www.facebook.com/nightwing2000

Nightwng2000 is now admin to the group "Parents For Education, Not Legislation" on MySpace as http://groups.myspace.com/pfenl

"braining another boy with a pool cue"

Can someone clarify what this means? My first interpretation was that he killed another boy with a pool cue by bashing his head in, but that can't be right. I doubt that they'd grant him bail for a wii if he killed another child..

Edit: Ahh, read the accompanying article.. Apparently it says he just hit the other boy over the head.

On a side note, this kid seems out of control. Toss him in juvie, take his stuff, and make him go through therapy. If he's still misbehaving when he turns 18, toss him in jail. Some kids are beyond help, unfortunately, and I'd rather get them out of society than let them run rampant and cause issues for normal, law abiding citizens.

From the article:

"The boy's first run-in with the law was last February when he allegedly used a rock-filled sock to smash the door windows of his elementary school. Days later, he chased a classmate and punched him several times in the face.
Police released him on an undertaking but it wasn't long before he was in trouble again, this time for breaching a court order he not attend his school. He is accused of breaching that order at least three times.
"It's almost as if he's taunting the school," said Crown attorney Susan Baragar.
In August, he allegedly hit another boy over the head with a pool cue. His latest arrest was Oct. 16 when he allegedly attacked a male student and female teacher at his new school following a game of dodge ball."

Smashing the windows and not going to school, while "rebellious," isn't too far from the average stupid kid. I've broken windows in abandoned buildings before, and have egged houses and spray painted stuff and the like, hell once I even shot a bottle rocket through the drive-thru window of a fast food place. I turned out alright, I no longer do that stuff, it was just a boyish part of growing up.

As for the first assault...yeah I'd say that's pretty damn uncalled for, so I can see putting him in juvy for that. Hitting the kid with a pool cue, if unprovoked, I'd say is also a fair charge. Same with attacking a kid over a game of dodge ball. But, we have to take into account that he's only in 6th grade. In 3rd or 4th or 5th grade, I freaked out over a problem on a math test that I got right but the grader said I got wrong, ran out of the classroom, and punched a pregnant teacher that tried to stop me. I got in several fights in those years for reasons such as having my gameboy taken by another kid. He threatened to delete my Pokemon save file, so I started punching him. The mind of a kid that age isn't as stable as what you or I may think it would be, since we're already grown up.

Hell, in 5th grade I ran out of the classroom because of an N64 game that we were playing during recess (too snowy to go outside that day). You know when you turn on a console, and have an analog stick pressed to a direction, it'll stay messed up until you unplug the controller or restart the console? We had Mario Kart 64, and that same thing happened to my controller. I lost, meaning I was supposed to give my controller up, but I argued that the controller was messed up. They didn't believe me, and the kid behind me (who I hated) kept saying it was his turn. I had about 10 kids ganged up on me, yelling/making fun of me, and I snapped. I ran out of the classroom and towards the main road nearby before a teacher caught me. Had I have been raised in a different household, I may not have chose "flight," I might've chose "fight" instead. And this is only 1 year younger than the kid in the article.

It's hard to imagine, I know, but kids up to 7th or 8th grade are really prone to snapping and hitting people. I'm not sure if this is the case with the kid in the article, but it is a possibility that should be looked into. It may not have been malice, it may have been just him losing his temper. The vandalism is also not very bad, as he is a good 4 years younger than when most kids do that kind of stuff (usually spray-painting or throwing-dog-shit-at-stuff, but still).

-Optimum est pati quod emendare non possis-It is best to endure what you cannot change-

Hey, same thing happens in other countries too and they still punish the boy by taking away his videogames.

What would have happened if he had no videogames?