Rodriguez on Jonesboro School Killings

Re “The Jonesboro Tragedy: Consequences Teach a Chilling Truth,” Opinion, March 29: We are hearing everywhere that cruelty of children should not be surprising for countless reasons.

Richard Rodriguez, with uncharacteristic clarity, tells us how easy it is to blame and find fault in others: the media, gangs, urban violence infecting rural life, etc. None of which offers greater insights on how two Jonesboro boys, 11 and 13, were able to make war on their classmates.

That no one knew what they were doing--and thus were unable to stop them--is the terrible lesson to be learned. Why were they away from school? Is there no program in Jonesboro to keep children focused on organized play? Are we as a society too absorbed with our “healthy economy” and with balancing the budget while the social, emotional, intellectual and cultural needs of our children are systemically neglected? Where are the mental health components of a healthy community?

More frightening yet: Are we so divided along class, racial, ethnic, political and religious lines that we cannot save ourselves or our children?

FRANK M. SIFUENTES

Los Angeles

*

It’s a great tragedy in our country when young children (teenagers) who commit such a violent crime are sentenced, in my opinion, with a slap on the wrist. The case of the two boys in Jonesboro accused of murdering four girls and one schoolteacher March 24 is just unforgivable.

These boys had a plan and knew what they were doing. They should be charged as adults for these crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment. Unfortunately, our laws regarding juvenile crimes are minimal. In my opinion, that is not justice. The laws must be changed.

JOANN BROWNE

Manhattan Beach

*

It was not our violent culture or the media that viciously gunned down and killed five innocent people in an Arkansas schoolyard. It was two troubled boys with unfettered access to an arsenal of weapons. It’s the guns, stupid.

KENDRA PRAVETTONI

Los Angeles

*

How many vegan children--raised to believe that “thou shalt not kill” applies to all living beings capable of feeling pain--have ever shot another human being? If you teach a child that it’s not only OK to maim and murder animals for fun but also unpatriotic and ungodly not to, what do you expect? Encouraging children to be violent toward other sentient creatures is the worst form of child abuse.

CHRISTINE WATT

Irvine