I’ve been hearing bits and pieces of the bizarre story of two 12 year old girls in Waukesha, WI who somehow came to the conclusion it was a good idea to kill one of their peers.  The girls have been charged as adults under a legal regulation that is pretty bizarre in its own right.  By charging these girls as adults we eliminate the need to answer a whole bunch of questions about how these children came to the decision to kill another person.

That’s not to say there wont be plenty of talk and speculation about this horrible case but the primary responsibility for illuminating the circumstances of this case will be in the hands of prosecutors and defense attorneys.  I’m sure the speculation about this situation will fill hours of talk show time and blog pages (guilty)  without adding a great deal of understanding to how these children could get so very confused that they would be moved toward murder by following a fictional character in a game.

It is a luxury to be able to sit on the sidelines and watch this drama unfold as if it were a fictional story.  If these children were thought of as children in this situation we would be forced to face the harsh realities of how very challenging it is to be a child and to raise children in this very complicated world.  Charging these children as adults allows us to avoid the reality of this situation and treat these girls  as if they were fictional characters in a game or on TV.