Life sentence. Are our kids losing a grip on reality?
@owlwings (43910)
Cambridge, England
September 7, 2007 11:55am CST
This story involves two sisters, 14 and 16. In an argument, the younger goes to get a knife and runs her sister through. I wonder if she had any real conception of what a knife does! Are our kids (and us, too) living in a world that is divorced from reality?
What can or should be do about it? Should we forbid violent films/movies and TV which I am convinced are at the root of this attitude? What do you think?
Here is the story (or the end of it):
'A 14-year-old girl who stabbed her sister with a carving knife in a row over boys and clothes has been jailed for three and a half years.
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The girl had admitted killing her sister at their home in Halifax, West Yorkshire, but denied murder.
After a week-long trial, the jury at Bradford Crown Court convicted her of manslaughter by way of provocation.
Dressed all in black, the teenager dabbed at her eyes with a tissue as judge Mr Justice McKinnon sentenced her to prison.
He told her that she "did a terrible thing taking up that carving knife and using it to deadly effect".
During the trial the girl told the court she "just wanted to scare" her sister but she was "proper angry and upset".
"I'm sorry and I love her and I want her back," she said.
The pair had started fighting after the defendant told her sister her boyfriend, who had a part-time job in a supermarket, "wouldn't amount to much".
Their mother said she tried to intervene before her youngest daughter grabbed a carving knife from the kitchen and stabbed her sister in the back.
In a statement read outside court, the mother said she was heartbroken at the loss of her "beautiful daughter".
She added: "I feel my youngest daughter should be at home with her family around to help grieve the deep loss she feels for her sister.
"We feel she will live with this for the rest of her life and I think that is punishment enough as that is like a life sentence in itself." '
4 people like this
6 responses
@nannacroc (4049)
•
7 Sep 07
I do think the various forms of media have a lot to answer for, but so do the parents. The children are seeing violence in films, on the internet and playing violent computer games and the parents are not spending time with them. A girl of 14 should have been aware of the damage a knife can do but society is rapidly going downhill and no-one is allowed to discipline children. We seem to have to protect them from everything and it is making them less aware of how things work in the real world. It's very sad that this girl had to lose her sister to bring reality home to her, I don't agree with the mother, while it would be good for the girl to have family around her while she grieves, she has to be punished or other young people will be given the wrong message.
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
8 Sep 07
At this age, these youngsters shouldn't even have a grip on reality. You don't get a grip on reality until you've made informned choices and are getting right into living your life. Like if you're right into your studies towards your chosen career or married with a child or two or starting your own business.
I think kids are growing up too quickly. I think they are given too much in the way of material things (from a young age) and too little in the way of attention from parents and family time. There is too much tv, too much other media, too much responsbility, too much freedom, too little discipline, too little standards and values, too little time spent with the family.
@pumpkinjam (8769)
• United Kingdom
12 Sep 07
Well, first of all, I would want to know why a 14 year old didn't know that stabbing her sister might kill her. Second, while there might be films, tv, games, etc which depict such violence, it is up to parents to ensure the children are aware of the difference between reality and fiction. That girl murdered her sister. Should every murderer be freed if they feel remorse? Of course not so why should it be different for her? Only 3 and a half years.
Also, the mum can not have tried very hard to intervene. Is this her own guilt coming out? She allowed one daughter to kill another and now she has none.
Sure, the girls loss might be "punishment enough" but I'm sure other murderers (or manslaughter or whatever) have been "punished enough" by knowing what they have done.
I do think there must be something wrong nowadays. I mean, my kids (well, my older child) watches scary films and my 14 year old nephew plays violent computer games but they both know they are not real. I think this is where the problem lies, children spend so much time with computers, tvs, etc. rather than with human beings, particularly their parents, that they actually seem to start believing that to be reality.
@babykay (2131)
• Ireland
8 Sep 07
That is a very strange story. What kind of a house is it where one picks up a knife and stabs someone? Perhaps it is a lesson to us all to try teach our kids that violence is not a good solution. The thing I find strange about it is that the mother could just forgive her daughter for killing her other daughter...That girl will feel bad for the rest of her life for killing her own sister. I hope she gets the help she needs so that shhe is no longer a threat to others. Somehow I think she will make a very dangerous adult.
2 people like this
@nmhschic2004 (1238)
• United States
8 Sep 07
I agree, this is terribly sad. I dont understand why she would even think about picking a knife up. That thought shouldnt have even crossed her mind. I dont think it would make much of a difference if we forbid our children from watching or playing anything violent. If they didnt do it at home they would probably just end up doing it at a friends house. I feel bad that this family has to go through this. But this sister is going to have to live with this for the rest of her life.
2 people like this
@t00tleyt00 (8)
• United States
8 Sep 07
I don't believe that they're losing "grip on reality" because they were never taught reality. and i'm sure that mother could do more than she did. and i don't blame tv,video games or music like most do. they chose it out of free will. the REAL ROOT of the problem lies within their households. parents don't show the proper ways to deal with such. in todays reality parents are just care takers who give a roof with food and spending money as well as other crap that these kids don't need. they don't teach value of family,people and things to these "kids" of theirs. they may have made them,but they sure don't raising them.
