Dana Canedy's Essay: The Boy Who Found Guilty

Over the past decades, the United States has seen steady and significant decreases in the national crime rate. However, that is not to say the U.S. is not still experiencing violent and heinous crimes. For instance, teen related murder, something of which only a few years ago seemed to be fairly uncommon but appear now to be on the rise. If one were to inquire about teen murders, they would find no deficiency on the internet or in the newspapers of such stories. Which gives way to the question of what is to be done with them and how to ensure that justice is served to all parties involved. Something that needs to be taken into consideration is the fact that these adolescents are not children nor are they truly adults. However, in many cases,

For instance, Nathaniel Brazill, a fourteen-year-old who killed his ‘favorite’ teacher, Barry Grunow, without expressing significant signs of remorse. One may ask themselves, what could possibly make someone so distressed that they go and kill their supposed ‘favorite’ teacher? In the article “Boy Who Killed Teacher Is Found Guilty of Murder” by Dana Canedy covers just that: Nathaniel was suspended from school after throwing some water balloons, later he returned with a .25-caliber handgun and shot Mr. Grunow after the teacher refused to let him into his classroom to say goodbye for the summer to two girls. Although this is truly a heinous crime, Nathaniel, as evidence shows, is not able to make adequate decisions that a normal, healthy person would make. Thus his case should not be treated as if he a sensible person who can see the far reaching consequences of his actions, however, nor should he be free from any repercussions. But, rather than initially focusing on caging him up, there should needs to be extensive examinations so to determine if rehabilitation is an option, but if proven that he is too far gone with rehabilitation not being an option then he should be placed in a cage and left to