Where are the parents?

Here's a recent story of 13 year-old girls behaving badly. And yet, like me, you may feel compelled to ask, "Where were the parents?"
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Police: Girl given beer, shot with Taser at sleepover

'Numerous' charges possible after 13-year-old's report


09:37 PM CDT on Monday, March 19, 2007
By DEBRA DENNIS / The Dallas Morning News
debdennis@dallasnews.com

Grapevine police are investigating reports that a 13-year-old girl was assaulted with a Taser, given alcohol and bound with duct tape during a sleepover at a friend's house.

Potential criminal charges are "numerous," but none has been filed as the investigation continues, said Sgt. Bob Murphy, a spokesman for the Grapevine Police Department.

The girl, a middle school student, was assaulted Friday at a home in the 4100 block of Harvest Glen Court, police said.

The girl was also given an unknown type of pill, police said.

The 13-year-old and other teens at the house were allowed to drink from a small keg of beer, police said.

Adults were at the home at the time, Sgt. Murphy said.

"Somebody provided the alcohol and allowed it to be used," Sgt. Murphy said.

The 13-year-old apparently became drunk, loud and out of control.

According to a search warrant affidavit, a group of juveniles bound the girl's hands and legs with duct tape.

They also used duct tape to cover her mouth.

The girl was dragged down a flight of stairs by her legs and assaulted multiple times with the Taser, police said.

"She has marks on her," Sgt. Murphy said. "There were some obvious abrasions."

The girl cried and begged the teens to stop, the affidavit stated.

About midnight, the girl called her father to pick her up. Her parents reported the incident to police Saturday.

Police executed a search warrant at the home later that day and recovered a Taser and duct tape.

Hand-held Tasers are available at gun shops. They shoot an electric shock sufficient to incapacitate a person.

"It's like an animal prod," Sgt. Murphy said.

Police said they reported the incident to Child Protective Services.

However, Marissa Gonzales, a spokeswoman for CPS, could not confirm whether the agency is investigating.

Why do we push our kids?

I enjoy watching my kids enjoy their extracurricular activities. Nothing like seeing one of your own kick a soccer ball into the goal or run a football into the endzone. It's at these moments when my wife and I turn to each other and announce, "Yeah, he's/she's got my athletic ability!" And yet...

And yet it seems so many of us parents take the after school sports thing way too far. I've stood on the sidelines with other dads who race away from the post-game snack to steer their child off to yet another activity. Shouldn't we all place limits or boundaries on how much we allow our kids to involve themselves in... (fill in the blank.)

I know here in Texas, for example, we take cheerleading way too seriously. A story broke in the Dallas area this week that a local school board is going to intervene in the way cheerleaders are chosen.

Dallas Morning News Headline:
Parent furor simmers over cheerleader selection
For the second time in two weeks, Carroll school board members will tackle the increasingly thorny issue of how the high school varsity cheerleading squad should be formed.

Seems some parents were hopping mad when their girls did not make the squad. Does this type of demand reflect our changing culture? As parents shouldn't we be more concerned about how our children are learning to read, write, and do arithmetic? I guess we feel if our kids don't get a head start in sports...activities...clubs...hobbies, whatever, that they will somehow get left behind in adulthood.

Will they?

Spring Break 2006

Started spring break today by doing yard work. You know your officially not in college anymore when you spend the opening day of spring break getting the oil changed and taking the kids to get Slurpies at 7-11.But, it is time for March Madness, and it was great to see the Kansas Jayhawks beat the University of Texas Longhorns to win the Big 12 Basketball Tournament. Let the March Madness begin!
I'm currently finishing my third book, and I believe this one will be the best yet. Titled: Congratulations, You've Got 'Tweens! It will be coming out with Kregel Publications in time for Christmas.