12-Year-Old Sentenced To Foster Care For Carjacking

[The Straight Story]

12-Year-Old Sentenced To Foster Care For Carjacking

POSTED: 6:58 am EST January 19, 2006

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- A Kansas boy has been sentenced to a year in foster care for carjacking a vehicle when he was eleven and driving it to school.

The boy, who is now 12, also was ordered to pay $300 in damages and perform 20 hours of community service.

Officials in Kansas City, Kansas, said the carjacking happened last August at a convenience store. Three children were waiting inside a vehicle while their mother shopped.

Prosecutors said the boy told them he had a gun and ordered them to get out. The boy was arrested the next day after he was seen driving to school.

http://www.local6.com/news/6237780/detail.html

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. Foster care is a *punishment*?

Does that make the tens of thousands of hard working, compassionate foster parents nothing more than jailors?

Lovely.

[Skittles]

2. maybe hard working, compassionate parents is what he needs

eom

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. You punish the parents by putting their kids in foster care

You do not punish the children by putting them in foster care. That is a gross perversion of what the foster care system is supposed to be: placing children who are in the custody of the state with caring families. If the 12 year old is being punished, he should be in a detention facility or jail, not with foster parents.

[noonwitch]

5. There are differences between the systems

I've worked in both the delinquency and foster care systems in Michigan. There are foster homes for delinquent kids-the foster parents are trained to deal with the kids' needs, and the agency is usually associated with a residential program that also treats delinquents. Then there are agencies/state programs who do foster care for abused and neglected kids. Both types are called "foster homes".

A 12 year old is a very young offender, and he didn't rape or kill anyone, despite the serious nature of his offense. There are likely other circumstances not mentioned-he could be intellectually low-functioning, or have some other issue that would make him vulnerable to predators in a residential program or training school. If he is a slow kid, he could have been acting on the orders of another-gang leaders love slow kids, because they can get them to do their dirty work for them, all they have to do is beat the kid up a couple of times to scare him first.

[TechBear_Seattle]

7. Ah, thanks for the clarification

From my own experience, "foster care" is the state program for kids in state custody becaue of abuse, neglect or other parental issues. I was not aware that it could also be a reasonably safe form of detention; that sort of thing I approve of.

[Skittles]

10. maybe it is not considered punishment

maybe he needs to be away from his parents

[rman]

9. Nah, kids love to be taken away from their parents

Reading the article one would come away with the impression the kid had no parents. Peculiar.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

3. I don't get it

I can see it termed as his parents' rights were terminated and he was put in foster care, but "sentenced"?

Are these particular foster parents boot camp instructors or something?

ODD.

[surge84]

6. Great

This really doesn't suprise me.

[newyawker99]

11. Hi surge84!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Fleshdancer]

8. Please tell me there's more to this story

I clicked the link but there aren't enough details. I just can't fathom a child being sentenced to foster care for just this. There aren't any details about his family if any.

:wtf: