Teach Your Children Well

As the investigation into the stabbing incident involving three 12-year old girls in Waukesha continues, it will be interesting to see how much of the spotlight falls upon the parents of the alleged attackers.  12-year olds by nature are not homicidal maniacs and they don't spend months plotting ways to kill their friends in order to appease fictional on-line characters.

An article in the on-line edition of The Daily Mail may provide us some insight into the home life of one of the alleged attackers.  The reporter went through the social media profiles of the parents of the 12-year old and found them to be members of the "Goth" lifestyle.  The father seems particularly wrapped up in it--selecting an on-line name paying homage his favorite death metal band--DeadBoy--and using email addresses of "ILOVEEVIL" and "ILOVEEVIL666".  The girl's mother also enjoys decorative skulls and pictures of cemeteries.  The parents also appear to have known about their daughter's obsession with the character "Slenderman" and may have encouraged it--again posting pictures that she had drawn of the "monster" that preys upon little kids. 

No one is saying that the parents of this troubled little girl were raising her to be in some Satanic cult or were teaching her that she needed to be attempting murders to curry favor with fake monsters.  I'm also not suggesting that there be a government crackdown on the love and fascination with "The Dark Side".  But there does come a point in a person's life where they just have to grow up.  Being "Goth" is fine if you are a 15-year old with no friends and you feel like the rest of the world hates you and that you just wish that everyone else would be as miserable as you are.  And thinking that scary stories are cool and that evil lurks around every corner is fun around Halloween.  But to live it every day when you are in your thirties and your forties--that's just pathetic.  And to pass that along to your child--who doesn't have the mental capacity to always recognize the dividing line between reality and fiction--that is just irresponsible.

The attorney for the girl accused in the stabbing is already building a mental illness defense--which may be absolutely correct.  But let's not allow the parents who created the culture of death, "evil" and living in a fantasy world in which this girl was forced to live not go without some of the blame here as well.  The old adage is still correct, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.