Boy’s Sentence

* Re “Boy, 14, Gets Life Term in Wrestling Killing,” March 10:

There is a reason we don’t let kids drive until they are 16; buy cigarettes, vote or go to war until they are 18; or drink alcohol legally until they are 21. There’s a reason why we don’t approve of premarital sex or teen parenting. And there is a reason why we want young people to stay in school until they are 18 and even have laws that limit the number of hours minors can work. We don’t believe children and adolescents have the same maturity of judgment, emotional development or reasoning to make serious life-and-death decisions, and even some common everyday decisions, as adults. That is why we have developed laws and practices to protect them.

How is it, then, that when a 12-year-old commits a horrendous and unthinkable act such as that committed in Florida, we can so easily ascribe adult reasoning, maturity and motivation and assign adult punishments? How does this move us toward a more compassionate and civil society? If anything, such desperate acts on the part of adults to deal with problems that completely overwhelm them are little different than the acts for which some of these young people are being charged.

SANDY SLADEN

Orange

*

I’m a very compassionate schoolteacher, but I agree with the court’s decision regarding Lionel Tate. His acts were not the playful acts of a child. It was a heinous crime on an innocent child. And for the mother to say “But how do you send your son to jail for just playing?”--I suspect that this is the way she must have raised her child, by giving excuses for his actions and not dealing with it. This happens in so many families. Good behavior and discipline start in the home from the child’s early growing years. The school system cannot do everything.

ANNABELLA NICE

Canoga Park

*

Some share of the blame must go to Vince McMahon for creating folk heroes out of his World Wresting Federation family of bullies, thugs and bimbos. Watching the likes of The Rock and Hulk Hogan body-slam each other to the ground and never get hurt, how could there be an inkling of doubt that young Lionel Tate, the son of a Florida highway patrol officer, was merely mimicking his heroes when he accidentally killed his 6-year-old playmate? Broadcast standards and the public’s airwaves have been traded away for greater corporate earnings and, until the nation stops watching, programs like “WWF Smackdown!” will continue to have a negative and sometimes tragic impact on our nation’s youth.

TOBY KEELER

Topanga