"My boy was halfway to Eagle Scout"

1) Yes, the kid has problems. Yes, it's hard-core to waive his case to adult court. But, when I was fourteen, I had a real good handle on the concept that that it was not a particularly good thing to take a classroom of my fellow students hostage, and stage a "Columbine-like" shooting. And I was by no means unusual among my classmates. As far as the problems go, that's why they made sanity hearings - if he has mental problems, that'll come out when the court-appointed pshrink has his innings with our young defendant.

2) OTOH, the parents are doing what I'd expect any decent set of parents to do. Quote: "We don't dismiss what he did - we know there's a penalty to be paid." Quote (juxtaposed): "[But] I think 20 years is a little extreme for what he has done." On The Gripping Hand, however, I have to part company with the mother - given the atrocity the young man had in mind, twenty years may not be enough.

3) As to the quote from the mother that ended the news report (the Eagle Scout line I recapped in the title of this rant): his standing with the Boy Scouts of America is nice, and may speak to mental illness or other sudden degradation of faculties, but it's ultimately irrelevant. My folks moved to the big city before I got past Tenderfoot (Crossroads of America Council, BSA), BUT, IIRC, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, and mass murder are egregious violations of the Creed (to say the least!). I have a feeling that if his Troop convened a Court of Honor, they'd boot him out of the Scouts so fast, it'd take his asshole six weeks to catch up to him...

Agreed that the parents reaction is not out of the ordinary...unless I was CERTAIN my kid was about to become a fucking asshole, I'd probably try to defend them.

Of course... having a loaded gun and a backpack full of Instant Clusterfuck in A Bag goes a bit beyong "he was reaching out for help."

I suppose it will depend on what exactly the kid gets sentanced for. He threatened a girl with a knife, but didn't actually do anything he was planning. And why is this being lumped under "Terrorism"? I smell Moral Panic being used to sell the story.