the youtube element is the only thing that makes this abnormal. My DH has sent out mass teacher alerts to plans similar to this one he finds out about through a student who gets scared and tells him that an attack is planned, or through confiscating notes about it. They've had two this year that they've managed to contain, one that happened off-campus that they didn't know about.  

I hate to bring race into it, but am I correct in assuming the girls in this case are white? I will check after I post, but beat downs for "talking smack" are nothing new for girls, especially in lower-income areas, and with gangs, etc.

As for online activity, while Lily's only 2, DH already has a comprehensive plan for everything including key-stroke recording, password-access to pages, etc. I plan on checking any sort of personal postings once a day, and possibly having e-mail set ups where everything is filtered through my personal e-mail first, then I decide if it gets passed to DD. The internet is not to be messed with, IMO. When my bro and his girlfriend broke up, she was obsessively checking his personals postings on yahoo and plenty o fish, and DH took her computer(at her request) and programed it so that when she types in those sites, a message pops up that says "You are better than this! Go for a walk!" and does not allow access to the sites. it's nifty!

The only computer where my kids can get online is in my full view in the kitchen.

My DD (14) has email and AIM but I have the password to her account.  She does not have Facebook or MySpace.

My DS (almost 11) has email, but he can only email our family: sister, dad and me.

My DH is a software engineer.  Our kids are very tech savvy and have not been "left behind" by our tighter control.  They get some additional freedom each year and we have a lot of talks about what is acceptable online.  I trust them- but I watch them.

I agree the internet is a factor but not the cause of this behavior.

Somehow, these kids are lacking in emotion or empathy or caring for other people.  They are like little sociopaths.  How did this happen?

I don't know.

Just read the one story and sorry, but no wonder these kids are practically killing another kid and not taking responsibility (btw Clifford is the attacker):

"They didn't show the video from the beginning," Clifford said. "They didn't say that she threatened me. They just show the parts where they're calling her a hero, which she's not, and it makes me look bad."

Her parents are outraged and are considering suing YouTube.

"I'm not happy with this," Clifford's mother Jackie Clifford said. "I think there should be some kind of law, some kind of guidelines, especially when you're involving children. They are promoting kids fighting. That's all they're doing,

So your daughter is FILMED ATTACKING ANOTHER STUDENT and your response is to get mad at the place that posted the fight? You blame THE WEBSITE?!? Nope, sorry, I'll be judgmental here and say the lack of responsibility you're showing RIGHT NOW is evidence of your shitty parenting skills in passing on responsibility to your daughter. God alive, that shit makes me crazy.

I mean honestly, if it we my kid? I pray to God my response would be "my husband and I are incredibly disappointed by behavior our daughter exhibited. We have not raised her to be this way, but obviously there is we need to address this problem and while we love and support our daughter, she will face consequences for her role in this incident. We also would like to extend our deepest sympathies to (victim) and her parents, we will do everything in our power to correct this situation."

what we will do for 15 minutes of fame. I feel sick.

That the girls won't take responsibility is no surprise when you read that mother's statement. She blames the internet??!! What in the world happened accountability?!

The parents are the ones here that really shock me.

the mother of the girl accused of luring the victim to the house seemed to suggest the victim shared part of the blame. Apparently she had "trash-talked" her attackers on MySpace and she "shouldn't have written those things if she didn't have the nerve to back it up."

Does anyone else have the strong suspicion this mother is a 12 year old boy?

She's certainly acting like one. If the mother acts that way, I'm not surprised how the kids turned out.

Every time something like this happens, we hear, "SUE YouTube!" or "Get rid of YouTube!"  Really smart -- blame the inanimate object.

Before long, this will get through heads, hopefully.  When enough of these hoodlums get many years in prison -- won't others see what happens?  Obviously, in this case, these teenagers didn't even know they couldn't go to the beach or cheerleader practice.  (Believable, with parents like they had.)  The kids AND their parents should get a clue.  And, if not, the kids can spend the next 20 years in prison, and the parents can spend 20 years visiting them.

I have no pity for them.

while not nearly as horrendous, this reminds me of an incident right next door to me in affluent Orinda. a group of girls attacked my neighbor's daughter after she came upon them in the dark of night seriously vandalizing her property.  it started out with simple tee pee but escalating with pornographic messages and pictures placed all over her yard. however, to me this wasn't the most disturbing part...

i happened upon the scene by accident as the group of 8 girls were flushed out of the hills around our homes.  what shocked me was despite several adults asking questions like, "who are you", none of them would answer a question.  i was shocked to the point of asking who the hell they thought they were by not responding.  

the police showed up, yet wouldn't do a thing as they are so intimidated by parents in this community. the icing on the cake?  not a single frickin parent called or demanded that their little lovely apologize.  the candles on the cake? when my neighbors contacted the parents?  each and every parent was rude and refused to discuss, forget about an apology.

i would have had my kid by the scruff of the neck at the doorstep pleading for forgiveness. something is VERY different and it begins with the parents.

OK I'm not one to wax nostalgic about the past or even say that I was all that great of a kid.  However, the attitudes of these parents are disgusting.

To a far, far, lesser extent I am dealing with some attitude on the part of one of my private students.  She is an only child and her mom and grandma in particular are raising her to believe that the world revolves around her.   They are constantly changing lesson times and making demands upon me that I never would have placed on any of my private music teachers.  Lately they have been trying to dictate lesson times.  I have 3 kids under 5.  My life does not revolve around this student!  I actually received an e-mail today from mom (who should know better) asking that we have lessons no earlier than 2:30 or 3:00 in the pm during break from school as her daughter is not a morning person and takes a few hours to be sociable.  Huh?  She's leaving school by then when it is in session.  Give me a break.

of when they were first teaching in Kenora in the early sixties and there was a car accident where a group of teens were killed - including the driver.  It was obvious that they'd all been drinking but the mother of the driver was adamant that her son would never do that.   My mother says at that point she vowed to never have that kind of blind belief in her children.  It meant that we got accused of lots of things we weren't doing...

As for these teens I really hope they do time.  No community service crap...they need to see what real tough girls look like.

Around 5:30 this morning, my BF lost his wallet.  He realized it at 5:45.  When he got a chance to call the credit card companies, tons of charges had already been made.  All things a rather young person would make -- itunes (or whatever it's called), etc. -- and a gas fill-up ($80!) along with a car wash.  AND then 4 OTHER people used the same card for the same things.  They must have found the wallet, used it, and then gave it to their friends to use.

Now, to me, this would seem a slam-dunk to find the thieves.  Esp. when they charged itunes, etc.  But he even called the gas stations and the employee could tell him what the car looked like (but just barely --"an SUV").  And they knew it was a male and a female.  They actually came inside to use the bathroom.  They had no fear, no worry.  Why?  They knew nothing would happen to them.  And when my BF called the police, they just sighed and said, "Come down and fill out a complaint."  When he asked if they were going to pick up the person, they said no.  I'm not surprised.  I asked if he couldn't look at the gas station's cameras, which are pretty damn good) to get a license plate number.  But no -- privileged information and he would have to get a lawyer, and subpoena the station to even look at the film.

And you wonder why these kids do this?  They have great chances of never having to answer for it.

And another thing -- as I said, when my BF called the bank, he learned that the debit cards had been used many times (in just 3 hours).  I asked him if he was responsible for those bills.  He said NO, the banks would cover them.  Fine.  But then WHY, if this is no big deal to banks, do they charge a fortune to you if you write a check and the funds aren't there, even if you have money in your savings account, which is attached to your checking account, and will be used to cover the check?

This happened in Davis, a college town.  Young People + College Town + SUV + Gas station in a part of town where many college kids live = what does that tell you?  No, not a court of law, but common sense.

do I want to downplay this incident.  I think it's horrific and I hope that these kids do serious prison time.  

Still, I think it's so wrong to charge teens as adults.  They aren't adults.  Change the penalties for certain horrific crimes if need be, but don't charge kids as adults.  I've never heard of the reverse happening--an especially bright and sensitive kid being granted the right to vote at 14, for instance.  I feel that teens in general are a persecuted group--I wonder if that has any connection to what a painful time it was for most of us?  Ariel Gore and daughter Maia Swift's Whatever Mom tackles this:

The hype about teen crime has done little for public safety.  Instead, it's contributed to a society in which young people are now held to higher standards than adults apply to themselves:  Their constitutional rights are ignored; youth culture is targeted for censorship; and when teens do commit crimes they are not only increasingly tried as adults, they're given harsher punishments than grown-ups.  Offenders against children often receive the most lenient sentences.

I don't believe that this incident is portentous in any way.  Some human beings commit horrific acts.  They always have and always will, regardless of media, environment, loving families, political climates...all we can do as individuals is take care of each other as best we can.  

It made a huge impression on me when I read Laura Ingalls Wilder's Farmer Boy as a child.  A group of students had beaten a teacher to death with no consequences at all--they were still in school.  Violence isn't new, and neither is blaming our modern world and whatever is currently in vogue.  In ten or twenty years, the peers of the teens involved in this incident will click their tongues and talk about "kids these days" and blame some current trend.  As it is, was, and ever will be.