If these guys are suspended, will Jezebel then post a "Teen guys suspended for DARING to empathize with rapists of a 16 year old girl"?

I think you're right, but I also think that the whole question to ask what marriage should look like is ridiculous because the one constant about the answer to that question is that it will NEVER turn out like what you expect.

I think also that deeper understanding is important, but sometimes, that understanding in the media equals acceptance for many. The shooter needs to be condemned, and his actions deserve to be condemned as evil. If this is still a gray area for teens, perhaps what's heresy is not realizing that "understanding why" a…

Criminalized? That's a drastic word. This student was suspended.

I know someone with a severe anxiety disorder. Someone offers her a present for free, and she's hysterical. She had to move, she thinks she's dying (literally). She checks herself into the psychiatric ward for all sorts of imagined bodily issues that make her believe she is going to die. She can't leave her…

This is an amazing comment.

My ultrasound technician was shocked when I refused to look at the screen or take home the DVD they made of the session. I really just didn't want it, for various reasons.

Hahahaha! That's hilarious.

I'm Jewish and I think baby showers are pretentious and gauche. It's a weird unveiling of gifts designed to make everyone spend too much money on stupid stuff. I've seen showers where someone got 2 or 3 strollers and cakes made of real diapers that you would never ever use because they're generic crap that leak.

I NEED A CLEANING PARTY IN MY LIFE.

Or the Bronx. So city names that start with B?

Exactly. I kept looking for the article that proved a connection versus mild speculation.

Understanding implies agreeing that that particular course of action was a valid choice for the predicament. If you don't understand how someone could behave in such a way, it's an implication for disagreeing with that course of action as valid.

I'm curious as to how you changed this particular juvenile offender's opinion in your teachable moment. And I'd love to have been a fly on the wall in that particular group.

Interesting points.

I never called the student evil. I said that it's not acceptable to emphasize with evil actions. And that if you do, if you come to school with a confederate flag or a poem that uses offensive racist terms, you will be suspended, because in the words of Gawker, "Thatz not okay."

I know you were being sarcastic, but I actually do agree with the suspension. We'll just have to agree to disagree.

Yep. We should alienate and isolate people who agree with deplorable behaviors. The teachers and administration do not owe anyone, let alone a bratty student, compassion and understanding for her acceptance and "enlightened" understanding of mowing down little children and teachers.

I completely disagree with you. Suspension sends the right message = namely, that girl hasn't been expelled. Her grades haven't suffered. She has been told, in very specific terms of a specific punishment (whether or not she doesn't mind missing school is another thing), that emphasizing with evil actions is not…

I really agree with this. Whether or not we all could have stopped the Sandy Hook shooter from becoming who he was is another question for another day, and I suspect the true answer makes people very uneasy, but we don't know the truth about that.