Posted by Christine, a resident of the Danville neighborhood, on Nov 14, 2008 at 9:11 am

A Danville 15-year-old driving a stolen car? What is wrong with the youth of today? I am sure that kid has everything he needs and probably everything he wants (maybe that is the problem). We need to go back to the day when a village raised the kids, maybe there wouldn't be as many problems!

Posted by Jeff, a resident of the Alamo neighborhood, on Nov 14, 2008 at 11:07 am

I absolutely believe that the teenager in question made an extremely large mistake; however, how many of us who are now in our 40's & 50's who may have teens ourselves, may have done some things we look back on and wonder what in the world we were thinking? If you couple the age with alcohol, you unfortunately get a recipe for ugly things to happen. While I believe he needs to learn a lesson and be held accountalbe for his actions, I'm not convinced that locking him up and throwing away the key is the answer. Perhaps this is an oppotunity to change the thinking and decision making process through many hours of hard work to pay for the damages incurred to all who were affected by his lapse in judgement.

Posted by Tony B., a resident of the Danville neighborhood, on Nov 14, 2008 at 11:15 am

Danville and environs are deemed an affluent area, however; that doesn't diminish the need for parental control and involvement. A large proportion of area parents are too wrapped-up in their own "little world", trying to keep-up-with-the-Jones's mentality, gathering as much material-and monetary wealth, as they can. The unfortunate side-effect of this type of mindset is the fact that these parents' have raised, for the most part, ungrateful, spoiled rich kids. No wonder when you mention to an out-of-towner that you live in Danville, the first thing they echo is: " Oh. you must be one of those spoilt children!" Sad, but very true.

Posted by Dawn, a resident of the Danville neighborhood, on Nov 14, 2008 at 2:53 pm

It doesn't take a village to raise a child, it takes a parent; two generally. That's what is wrong with this town, this state and this country in general. Both parents are off to work with no one left to actually raise the kids...maybe the nanny is on duty in some cases, but still it's not the same as a parent. This kid had to do something this extreme to get his parents attention. If the parents don't get involved with their child right now, there will be more of this to come. He should be punished, but not locked up. Teens haven't developed the neural connections in their brains to understand the consequences of their actions. He should have massive amounts of community services heaped on him and with it - the parents should be made to participate. This would provide both of them with time to reflect.

Posted by John, a resident of the Danville neighborhood, on Nov 16, 2008 at 11:44 am

Wow, my guess is his parents voted YES on prop 8...

...and thought that typical families raised better kids.

Posted by Tim, a resident of the Alamo neighborhood, on Nov 18, 2008 at 12:14 pm

John:

That's a pretty dumb thing to say. How does the story have ANYTHING to do with Proposition 8?