Sexting Hysteria Leads to 13-Year-Old Hope Witsell's Suicide

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It was logical, well-presented. Good, valid points on all fronts. Same sort of thing is going on in S.Hadley, hysterical DA trying to ruin 6 kids ' lives over normal kid stuff. Public opinion in S.Hadley seems to be to ruin the kids, and the DA probably has the whole court system there primed and ready to railroad these kids through a kangaroo court. Logic doesn't seem to be available or possible there in S.Hadley, not with a good old-fashioned hanging in the works. Six at once. Woo hoo, pop some corn.

Funny that I was going to post about how this is the result of overzealous conservative attitudes, then I read the comment stating it was a leftist problem. Really, the situation is that as people become older, they seem to lose touch with reality.

The parents were rough but I don't think being grounded has ever driven someone to suicide . I point the finger at the administrators with the zero tolerance crap ignoring the violation of that zero tolerance policy by other students . Those kids should have been suspended .

This is a sad thing a young girl, who made a mistake, felt compelled to take her life because of stupid adults! As adults it is our job to educate, support , yes sometimes punish, and guide children . When she sent the picture it was silly on her part, not criminal, not school related. Her parents should have first stopped the school, if that meant getting a lawyer then do it. The school should have never been involved in the process; until other kids started to make her life miserable then they should have taken action, fast and very hard. She should have been given some counseling to help her deal with the process; here is the tricky part, by both a professional and by the parents. Yes she should not have sent the picture at that age; it is for parents to instill in her the idea that she isn't ready. It sounds like the parents had a knee jerk reaction, they failed to face a fact of life; she was a 13 year old which meant that she had hormones popping like firecrackers on Chinese New Year, all kids that age do; Deal With It Parents! Stop saying "she" was wrong, "she" was a kid, "ADULTS" must start to take an active part in their children's lives and defend them against themselves and others. This was a real teaching moment that no one took advantage of, not the parents, school, or friends. Not even the required, "school counselor" seems to have stepped up and said, "everybody stop and let's make a plan to help her, not vilify her." Texting, and sexting , is a fact of this time in society , you can not threaten, punish, or ignore it away, you need to learn to teach and monitor it into responsible actions so that kids know that it is not a thing to take lightly. It is a shame that the child felt so alone that she saw no future but death, it is a tragedy that the adults "must" and "should" have to live with the fact that they not only failed her but helped push her to that point. Talk to your kids, learn from this so that you can help the next one that does it, and there will be more sexting from kids to know how you feel and what they should do; talk not threaten.

I have to question if the writer from the "Reason Foundation" actually read the linked news story before posting this opinion. It is quite clear that while the parents may have laid down some harsh discipline , they also made a number of exceptions including allowing her to go to an out of town event. In addition, the suspension was scheduled to start during the next school year, so the girl was not cut off from school prior to her suicide .

While it seems like "zero tolerance" and an overreaction may have contributed to this child's suicide, it is ignorant and insensitive for the author to blame the actions of the school or the parents. Bullying was a huge factor also. But the truth is, children get punished. Children get bullied. Children get suspended . Most of them do not commit suicide. It is quite clear that the Reason Foundation's atheist agenda is at work here, and the intent is really only to blame the child's parents because they were identified as Christians . It consistently amazes me how people and groups who proclaim reason in all their arguments, usually fail to exercise much of it themselves.

and comprehend what I wrote? You people need to work on your comprehension skills. My point, that the reason no one could deal with this situation in a reasonable method, was do to "zero-tolerance" policies implimented within our schools by liberals. With zero tolerance, kids can't make mistakes. Because when they do, they get expelled from school as that is the only punishment available. We see it everyday, kids get expelled for drawing a picture of a gun, for wrestling with their buddy, for sharing aspirin with a friend, etc. Of course sexting is a problem, but when a young person, who appears to be a decent kid, makes a mistake, they get the bomb dropped on them. There is no give, schools, controlled by liberals, have decided they can not handle individual situations, hence zero-tolerance for all issues. My point is that reasonable adults, and there appeared to be far too few involved with this young person, could have handled this situation with reason. But that is not an option.

Put a well intentioned idiot in charge and bad things happen. In our evolution as a nation we do one thing with excellence. We don't learn.

For some strange reason, control is more important than allowing things to work.

When my son was about eight or nine he road the bus to school and back. One day on the way to school another boy on the bus pulled out a bullet he had found on the ground somewhere and showed it to my son. My son was holding it and looking at it when they arrived at school. The other kid got off the bus, so my son put it in his pocket, intending to give it back to him on the ride home. During recess he showed it to a few friends. Someone told the aid on the playground. I got a call from the assistant principle saying that my son (who had never been in trouble in school in his life and was an A student) was in her office for carrying a weapon. I nearly fell out of my chair. "A weapon? What kind of weapon?" (He had a pocket knife but I'd made it very clear to him he was never to take it to school and I knew he understood.) "He has a bullet, mam." "A bullet? A bullet is a weapon by itself." "Yes, mam, I looked it up on our manual. Some kinds of bullets are capable of blowing up if hit hard enough with a rock or something." Wow. So luckily, they did have some sense and knew they were dealing with a good kid who just made a mistake and he got two days of before school suspension. We talked about it and he understood and it was no big deal. But it could have been! It worried me there for a minute!! So if rules are made they have to be reasonable and flexible when dealing with children , IMHO.

That's what this comes down to. If we weren't so uptight about seeing the human body, and didn't associate nakedness only with sexual activity or temptations, none of this would have happened. What harm does seeing a woman's breasts, even a young woman's, do to anybody concerned?

Some studies suggest that young people who grow up in naturist households are much less ashamed of their bodies and tend to wait longer to engage in sex , and to make healthier choices about it. (I'd give you the sources if I had time, but they're not hard to find.) There's lots of talk about legalizing drugs ; maybe we should legalize nudity.