Keri, I’d be curious to know where you get the idea that sodomizing someone was “probably” thought by the perpetrators to be a prank? I have no firm opinion on minors being tried as adults, but I’m sure that most of us have heard the citation of evidence that juveniles who hurt animals are more likely than those who don’t to grow up to hurt people. I tend to think that maybe this isn’t a whole lot different. For whatever reason these boys committed this act — it was a “prank,” or they were just malicious — this is a pretty big deal, and quite possibly indicative of a much deeper pathology.

for sure, they need to be tried as adults… behavior like this will only continue into their actually adulthood… get them now before they do it again!

What. The. Hell. Seriously, Keri? A prank? They probably thought repeatedly sodomizing a child with a hockey stick and a broom was A PRANK?? That is no prank and they damn well know it. It is RAPE and if they spend the rest of their lives in prison I won’t shed any tears for them. They gang-raped another child. I just can’t begin to wrap my head around why you would think they figured it was just a harmless prank, tee-hee, kids will be kids.

There is also a HUGE difference between a “decision you made when you were 14″ such as shoplifting a pack of gum and something you did over and over and over, for months on end. That isn’t a decision, that’s sustained pathological behavior. That’s the sort of behavior that should earn them a lifetime stay in a place where they won’t be able to hurt any other children.

Now I have to go lay down for awhile. A prank, indeed.

If these attacks occurred in school, for months, in the presence of witnesses, I’d say these two boys aren’t the only ones who should be tried for the crimes. I cannot believe that teachers – particularly the gym teacher – were completely unaware that anal rape-by-stick was taking place repeatedly in the effing *locker room*.

Try the juvenile perps as adults, and try the witnesses and teachers who should reasonably be believed to have had some knowledge of the attacks as accomplices/aiding-abetting. Jesus Christ.

Throw away the key. We have enough rapists running around free. Would anyone be so willing to be lenient if the victim was a elderly woman or a little girl?

My thoughts exactly Ali. Or indeed, any girl. If the victim had been a girl would it have been a prank? Sexual assault is the exact term. That poor kid. I hope that the ones who were silent on this reflect on what their silence cost that kid.

Wow, this entire situation is completely horrifying, and it turns my stomach just to think about it.

But… They’re still 14. Counseling might get somewhere with them. Rehabilitation might be possible. Are we so willing to give up on human beings, on adolescents, just because what they did disturbs us so much? That’s an impulse for revenge, and it has no place in juvenile justice. There’s a reason kids aren’t tried as adults: they have fewer resources for decision-making, and a much greater capacity to change. This should be handled as a very serious offense, obviously, but that doesn’t have to mean “try them as adults.”

Zanne, maybe they could babysit your kids. These kids are sexual molesters, and rehabilitation is not likely as most molesters go on to do it again once freed. And Keri, you should be ashamed of yourself, what if this was your child???? Really.

“…..what they probably thought was a locker room prank.”

Jesus. You can’t be serious.

Ramming a broomstick or hockey stick up a screaming boy’s anus while they hold him down is a prank?

They didn’t think it was a prank any more than their screaming and struggling victim.

“After revealing the attacks, his four accused attackers each gave written statements to the school, in which they all confessed to sexually assaulting the victim.”

Probably hoping for some undeserved leniency.

“Yes, they were stupid and cruel and vicious.”

Just cruel and vicious.

“Does the fact that they did this at 14 mean they’re any more likely to do it again when they’re 21?”

Yes:

They didn’t wait ’til they were 18 to commit rape again, and again, and……….”The teens are accused of repeatedly sodomizing the victim with a broomstick and hockey stick. The assaults continued for two months.”

They’d still be doing it to him or someone else if they hadn’t been charged.

“I don’t know the answer.”

Wise up and read what they did again and again. The victims screams didn’t cost them a second thought. Letting them away with it is asking for more of the same.

They are already serial rapists and gang rapists, and you think they should get a slap on the wrist?