Where kids are just like grownups

It’s Wednesday, so let’s mix it up.

This is Sunshine Week, when media types focus on whether local governments are responsive to the public information needs of their citizens.

A Sunshine question from out of the blue: Why are the names and photos of kids charged with crimes a public record, just like adults?

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Yet, as I’ll explain momentarily, the same rules don’t apply to court. That means for minors, we know of the arrest but not the outcome.

Let’s walk through it.

For years, minors charged with crimes were shielded from public ridicule. Arresting agencies didn’t release the names of minors unless the crime was heinous enough for the kid to face charges in adult court, like a homicide. I recall a few of those instances.

The law changed, I want to say, about 25 years ago, to make public the names of anyone charged with a felony, regardless of age. Doesn’t matter whether the matter ends up in adult court or juvenile court.

It’s a significant difference. Juvenile court is open to the public, but the records are sealed.

So, here’s how it looks in real life:

A few weeks back, the sheriff’s office issued a press release with the names of four individuals charged with armed robbery and grand theft. Three of the four were under 18. The sheriff’s office featured the arrest on its Facebook page, complete with photos of the four suspects, their names, and ages. (I blurred the photos and names.)

The Chronicle ran a story from the press release, complete with photos, names, and ages of all four.

And…that’s the last official word we’ll hear about three of these defendants. I double-checked Tuesday, and sure enough, the adult’s court record is public, but the others are not.

That bugs me about this law. The names of kids arrested for felonies are public record, but there’s no official way to report the outcome. What’s the point of releasing names if the disclosure law stops there? 

If your answer is that kids are out of control these days and this is the best way to get their attention, I’d say fine. Prove it. Is this a deterrent? If a teenager sees a friend’s name on Facebook charged with a felony with hundreds of ugly comments, does that stop him from a life of crime?

I had a great conversation with someone about this the other day. My friend is a mom of school-aged children who says kids have little awareness of right and wrong. Punishment is foreign to them. Some joke about it.

Behavior is a major issue in the schools. I’d like to be a fly on the wall during expulsion hearings, where School Board members hold the fate of kids in their hands. They hope the decision — whether it be expulsion or an alternative — gets the message across.

Look. I’m not defending bratty kids who think it’s OK to steal or harm others. And for those boys arrested in the armed robbery, let’s hope this is their last trip to lockup. 

I’ll end with this. The newsroom was giddy when the new law took effect years ago, allowing us to print the names of kids charged with felonies. We knew readers would eat it up.

I was a managing editor at the time, meaning I helped to direct news coverage. I got a call one Friday night from a Citrus Springs woman. Her grandson was charged with arson. He and some buddies were lighting up porta-potties at construction job sites.

The woman explained the boy was living with her to escape an early life of trouble. She acknowledged the punishment deserved for arson but begged me to keep his name out of the newspaper to shield him from embarrassment. The kid was 14.

I kept up with that “public’s right to know” jargon that’s drilled into our journalism heads, but she point-blank asked me: Why? Why did the public need to know that her middle-school grandson did something stupid?

I didn’t have an answer. The following Monday, we revised the policy. From that point on, with few exceptions, we didn’t print the names of criminal kids unless they were charged as an adult. I guess that practice no longer exists at the newspaper.

It’s a toss-up. Kids need to be held accountable, so they understand the true nature of right vs. wrong. On the other hand, they’re kids. We generally don’t expect teenagers to behave like grownups.

Just something to chew on midweek.

Have a great Wednesday, friends.

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