Thursday, February 22, 2007

Perspective of a stepmother

"All Nathan Moore says he wanted to do was smoke pot and get drunk with his friends. Killing Rex Baum was never part of the plan that day in 2004. "It all started off as a game," Moore said. The 15-year-old and his friends were taunting the homeless man -- throwing sticks and leaves -- after having a couple of beers with him."

"Ihrcke smeared his own feces on Baum's face before cutting him with a knife "to see if he was alive," Moore said. After destroying Baum's camp, the boys left the homeless man -- head wedged in his own grill -- under a piece of plastic where they hoped the "animals would eat" him. Then, Moore says, they took off to grab a bite at McDonald's."

"They bragged about it around town. Police picked them up and they described what happened. Ihrcke told police that killing "the bum" reminded him of playing a violent video game, a police report shows."
-Ashley Fantz, CNN

"It is the job of a parent to teach their children certain rules. Obviously the rules themselves and the emphasis each family places on them will vary, but there are certain universal constants that these parents obviously failed to pass on."

"What kind of crazy fuck takes poop from his butt and rubs it on someone? I’ll tell you right now I’ve never seen that in Grand Theft Auto. These kids were twelve kinds of nuts and that’s a fact. Their parents either made them nuts or weren’t paying attention while they went nuts on their own."
-Gabe, Penny Arcade

It happens to be that one of the "parents" of this violent and disturbed kid, actually is a avid reader of Penny Arcade and decided to send them a response. It's a tragic story, but I think it's good for once to get the perspective from someone that actually knows how things was, and not all twisted trying to be sensational. I recommend you to read it through (full link at the bottom of the post).

"The boy’s father and I have been together for almost seven years, and I had what I guess could be called a “stepmother” relationship with the kid. To say that living with this kid was hell would be a complete understatement."

"He was constantly in trouble in school, with the cops, with us, with his mother, and with anyone else who was an authority figure. Not a week went by that the school or the cops wouldn’t call us for something. His attitude was basically “fuck you, I don’t have to listen to you” said with a shrug.

We tried absolutely everything we could think of to get him to behave like a normal human being… we tried groundings, negative reinforcement / punishment, positive reinforcement, counseling, and anything and everything the counselors suggested. We tried to get him interested and involved in extracurricular activities, like hockey, drama, music, art, anything, but he got himself kicked out of every group he was in with his “make me” attitude.

When we would ground him, we took away everything. No TV, no computer, no phone, no leaving the house, no snacks or junk food…. Everything. When he was grounded, he was only allowed to sit in his room and read or draw. He was actually a pretty good artist, and we tried to encourage him to spend his time working with his talent. He would just sit there and take it… the groundings had absolutely no affect on him at all. Most of the time, he didn’t even remember why he was being grounded.

At the end of it, we would ask him if it was worth it to have everything taken away in exchange for what he did… he usually just shrugged. He could be grounded for weeks, or a month at a time, and then the very next day would do something to get back in trouble again."
-Anonymous stepmother, Penny Arcade

CNN - Teen 'sport killings' of homeless on the rise
Penny Arcade - Here we go again
Penny Arcade - A rare opportunity

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