Police Investigating Acts of Graffiti at Wantagh Schools

EJB June 6, 2012 at 11:57 am

Good to see that the police are doing something with this. Maybe a little more vigilance when vandalism and congregating was going on could have prevented some of these actions.

Lorraine DeVita June 6, 2012 at 12:18 pm

Maybe courses should be offered to ALL parents of kids in MS and HS REGARDLESS of where they live on parenting skills and responsibilities- this isnt just a wantagh issue it is an issue across long island . Just because kids are in Ms or Hs doesnt mean the responsibilities,established boundries ,vigilance and much needed consequences should be ignored or lessened by parents. . If nothing else parental oversight is needed MORE at these ages. Personally the PARENTS should be made to pay restitution and the rug rats should be made to clean the mess up ALONG SIDE their parents, regardless of who they are or where they live.

Fran Bruno June 7, 2012 at 12:57 pm

I'm with you Lorraine. There are way to many tags showing up around Wantagh. Give those kids a scrub brush and a dose of humiliation. Hit them with the highest fine allowable. An example needs to be set here. Fran M

Lorraine DeVita June 7, 2012 at 03:02 pm

Fran, I think its only fair that the irresponsible parents of these idiots be given a dose of humiliation also by handing them a scrub brush so they can join their darling delinquints in the clean up.. Apparently these parents can not answer the question " its 10 pm ...do you know where your kids are?"

mom of nine boys June 7, 2012 at 04:07 pm

boys will be boys, how easy we forget..... remember the constitution , INNOCENT
UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY......punishment and consequences, yes. defining them as bad kids, iddiots etc. sounds to me like you need to do a self assessment.

t1956d June 7, 2012 at 05:39 pm

I've been practing law for over 25 years. Please show me in the Constitution where it says "innocent until proven guilty". The phrase is an inaccurate layman's expression concerning the State's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. A jury does not find a criminal defendant "innocent" it finds him/her "not guilty". There is a difference.
As far as "boys will be boys" goes - true enough for coming home with torn jeans or a scraped knee but we are talking about the defacing of property. The worst thing adults can do for kids is to make excuses for them

luvmykids June 7, 2012 at 05:42 pm

Regardless of what has been done, I feel it is very unfair to judge the parents of these children....we all know there are very responsible parents out there that have children that get into some type of trouble and don't make good choices. It's not ALWAYS the parents' fault.

aeb21252 June 7, 2012 at 05:58 pm

boys will be boys is a very misogynistic way to justify any behavior that a boy does. t1956d is correct, it justifies coming home covered in mud, but not vandalism.

Lorraine DeVita June 7, 2012 at 06:45 pm

@momofnineboys:
indivudals defacing schools or ANY property should be categorzied as rocket scientists? The term idiot stands in my book sorry.It was and is an idiotic choice. I KNEW where My kids were at ALL times..defacing property was not one of their top 100 things to do in their life ..and If they even considered doing something so idiotic they knew their ass was grass and they wouldnt see the light of day for a while. . Boys will be boys? lets just say if the parents knew where the hell their kids were and held them accountable for their actions and made were sure the consequences equaled the transgresion then the probabilty is these types "BOYs will be boys" incidents would be less frequent. @luvmykids- Its the parents fault if their kid is roaming around town at nite,, no one knows what they are doing or where they are . HANGING out roaming the neighborhood at all hours leads to stupid acts. So yes its the parents fault. maybe i have some odd parenting philospohy but If either of my kids told me they were going to HANG out with friends i would ask who what where when and WHY.& VERIFY . and tell them they can HANG here instead. and i would stay up until each kids parents picked them up they werent allowed to walk home by themselves. there was a time limit 10 pm pick up your kid. If you cant do what you want to do IN my house or back yard then you shouldnt be doing it at all..sorry, but thats how i was raised and how i raised my kids..

Lorraine DeVita June 7, 2012 at 07:16 pm

and yes the few times they tried they got caught and paid the price for not following the rules. No kid as in angel... lol.. ask me about the LAWN ornament "party" my son had while my husband and i were away on vacation thinking he was responsible at 20yrs old to stay home during his summer break alone ... what a lovely surprise we had coming home to 100 assorted lawn ornaments from dozens of plastic flamingos to a life size cement deer in my back yard surrounded by gnomes and lawn jockeys.. complete with a urinating cherub which they managed to hook up so it was functional..
Ask me how the police LAUGHED when i called told them come take HIM and the lawn ornaments .. Ask me how i made EACH member of fraternity his come back here take "their" respective lawn ornament with them and return to their rightful owner.

Lorraine DeVita June 7, 2012 at 07:22 pm

and yes the life size deer managed to make its way home to CT. safe and sound.

luvmykids June 7, 2012 at 08:05 pm

for the most part we all do the BEST we can with our children..we are not perfect, neither are our children..not that this makes what these kids did right..getting back to the parents...what I am trying to say is if we don't know them, let's not judge.... only because we all know kids are very capable of sneaking around.....

Lorraine DeVita June 8, 2012 at 01:42 am

luivmy kids, your right i dont know them and for all intent purposes this could be a first time scenario which should be dealt with swiftly ,severly and with consequences.. but what i DO know is this TYPE of incident is becoming more of a norm and will only going get worse as the close of school approaches. MS and HS kids roaming around well past 10pm . My question is for all parents of these kids what do you THINK your kids are doing out and about @11-12 pm or later? why arent you concerned or even aware your kid isnt home.? sneaking around is one thing and is usualy a one or two time instance and yes ALL kids will try to get away with it .and when there are no consequnces or the consequences arent followed thru with , they they will continue to do what they want with no fear of repercussion..leading to instances such as this.. . its fast becoming the NORM , kids arent home, parents arent AWARE or concerned and are OK with the whole "hanging out" thing then yes i blame the parents for NOT BEING parents. kids need boundries, and rules and sometimes its easy to abdicate responsibily simply because it IS EASIER.. KIDs arent EASY at ANY AGE..sometimes the older they are the more vigiliant the parents need to be..to protect them from their own inate teenage "stupidity."

luvmykids June 8, 2012 at 02:15 am

Lorraine....hopefully the parents ARE dealing with it in a positive manner so that these kids will not be "repeat offenders"..I always like to think (as I have said before) that most parents ARE good and do the best they can and no matter how good their parenting skills are, things can still happen..I totally agree with the being out roaming the streets late at night..it only brings trouble..and with the way the world is today, God knows we have more than enough going on.......also..I know for a fact that it doesn't matter what time they are out until in some instances...I was coming out of Marshalls a few months ago and noticed a girl vomiting on the side of the building when I was getting into my car..when i asked what was wrong, I saw her run to the other side of the building..I drove around to make sure everything was ok..and what do you know??? a bunch of kids hanging out DRINKING..it wasn't even 9:00 p.m....and yes, I called the police...... : )

EJB June 8, 2012 at 01:00 pm

I don't think that the intent is to condemn all parents - BUT there is a problem when the parents are the ones that bring the kids, at night, to drop them off at the school properties. We have seen this on many occasions.

Lorraine DeVita June 8, 2012 at 02:40 pm

Luvmy kids I am speaking in general - and yes i agree time has no bearing on the idiocy of the teenage mind. My problem is the "excuses" made by both adults and the police "their only kids, their bored there is nothing for them to do no place for them go , what am i supposed to do and the ever popular " my kid would never...".
.I may sound like some dragonian task master but if your involved in your kids lives, know who their friends are, set guidlines and follow through on consequences then the ODDs are there would be fewer incidents where the kids themselves will be paying dearly for their acts of stupidity. truth be told teenagers NEED parenting and oversight far more then we realize.. When their little we vigilantly protect them from others, we make sure they are safe and know where they are at all times, when their teenagers we need to be equaly as vigilant and involved to protect them from themselves. every kid at some point is going to make a dumb choice. thats a given, we need as parents to insure that those inevitable dumb choices are made within a limited scope.. If you dont know WHERE you kid is the possibility of them making " REALLY DUMB, possibly dangerous,possibly illegal stupid idiotic " choices is far greater then them making those typically "dumb ,kids will be kids teenage " choices in a controlled supervised enviroment. yes that is generalized..