To What Standard Of Responsibility Should Parents Be Held? (Trees And Things)

postillion: Re: why jail?

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:52:51 EST

Let us imagine that instead of giving her son the keys to the car, the mother gave him a loaded gun, for which neither he nor she had a permit, and he then took the gun and went out and killed someone for looking at him funny.

This is a very diff

skeptic: why jail?

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:44:30 EST

Well, the son did kill someone, however accidentally, and the mother did make it possible for the son to do that, by giving him the keys when he was not legally permitted to drive unsupervised. In general, when people do things that are illegal, we i

Shy Elf: Send that Ham Sandwich to Jail

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 07:09:00 EST

Indict a ham sandwich with a stiff charge in order to force a plea bargain of being eaten for lunch, get unexpected press coverage, feel that you can't back down because of the press coverage, and then seriously try to send the ham sandwich to jail.

It'

MayorBob: Re: Teeny-boppers, peer pressure and a car?

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 06:08:54 EST

According to the main, and most current link (charged a mother with second degree manslaughter), Shawn Ledesma was charged with vehicular homicide. I think the questions here are, how much of a penalty should the mother bear for a lack of good judgme

postillion: Teeny-boppers, peer pressure and a car?

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 01:46:41 EST

When I clicked on the articles about the accident ("charged a mother with second degree manslaughter" and "auto accident occurred last September"), the details somehow made the whole story seem quite different to me.

First: it seems that the driver got

JimmyHavok: parental responsibility

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:08:36 EST

I have to agree that a parent who gives his non-legal child the keys to the car has to be held responsible in some way for what happens. I am not sure that felony manslaughter is the proper way, though. Liability for damages and second-degree m

ivyafire: Re: To What Standard Of Responsibility...

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:28:45 EST

There has to be a place to draw the line. What happens to the parent with an uncontrollable teen with a fuck you attitude who does something just to get the parent fined?

We're such hypocrites about whether or not kids are adults. We

skeeter1: Re: To What Standard Of Responsibility...

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:15:26 EST

"She gave him the keys. This is a mother. She should have known better."

Well, if she should have known that he shouldn't have been driving by himself, and at night no less, maybe she should have some culpability.

OTOH, I'm not one