Even though this is a quirky piece of news from Foxnews.com, I think it has a message about our society. An 11 year old Pennsylvania boy has been charged with killing his father's pregnant fiancé. He was in a county jail, but then was sent back to a juvenile facility. The judge ruled that it was in the boy's best interest to be in a juvenile center, even though he has been charged as an adult. He's accused of shooting 26-year-old Kenzie Marie Houk in the head, killing her and her unborn baby boy. Houk's mother said this boy had been threatening his dad's fiancé for a while. Now, what makes it quirky--he's 11 years old, it's his dad's knocked-up girlfriend...you know, it's got all of the salacious parts in it--that he shot her in the head (she's pregnant...you know, it's really dramatic). But it also points out something very important. Now, it is not usual for kids to murder the new love in one of their parent's lives when there is a divorce. That's very
unusual
; it doesn't happen every day, especially with a kid this young. But what
does
happen to kids when parents divorce or go off with other people, have more kids, shack up, maybe marry, maybe not, is that with all the chaos they start not doing well in school, they start experimenting with sex, drugs and alcohol. They get in trouble with gangs, they get very depressed, and they get into accidents which are really attempts at suicide. In other words, they act out in all kinds of ways, they show tremendous rage or turn completely inwards. We get lots of calls from people annoyed about how their kids are behaving after they're divorced and re-married and getting on with their lives. "
Why aren't the kids just conforming? Dammit.
" So this is a very unusual circumstance. But his pain and motivation is out there every day as you take away the kid's foundation, as you make him compete with other people's kids, new kids...whatever. And my guess? You're going to see more murders, or attempted murders from kids in these situations. Why? Because this goes all over the media and gives kids ideas. They go on the internet, they get ideas, and their little brains that are totally unformed yet...little ideas that are bad sound good when other people have done it. And they get in the paper and they get on the internet and they get on television. I suspect you'll see more of this. Up to now, you've mostly seen just self abuse. Self abuse, meaning everything as simple as not washing, not having friends anymore, not working hard in school...to self-mutilation, to addictions, to promiscuity, to illegal activities. This is a big notch up, don't you think? Especially when it all comes from the same place: chaos.
