Well said! A couple of trite but true things come to mind: "you can't judge a book by its cover" and "no harm, no foul". I went to high school with a young man who always wore camo and an odd sort of utility belt. He went on to serve for many years with the Marines. I hope Chris gets the chance to make amends, and get on with the business of learning. This appears to be a misstep on the path of learning and growing. Who can say they have not made a bad choice along the way?

Is there a law prohibiting anyone from wearing fatigues or a gas mask? I see plenty of persons wearing fatigues downtown. We assume they are servicemen and women. I see many service men and women in fatigues dropping their kids off at our elementary schools. Do we call the police on them? So it must be the gas mask, separate from the fatigues. So is there a law outlawing the wearing of gas masks? Was there a violation of the school dress code? If so that would be the closest thing to a violation here. But does that deserve jail time or a conviction?

Clearly the kid has no sense of appropriateness. But is there a law against that? I'm concerned more about the mental status of his parents and their lack of supervision of their student.

In these days of regular mass murder incidents on school campuses around the country, incidents like this are terrorism, not pranks. If this young man cannot appreciate the difference, some prison time will teach him. (Portion removed.)

The person who made this comment obviously has no clue as to what actually happened, generally advisable to know what you are talking about before opening one's mouth:


In these days of regular mass murder incidents on school campuses around the country, incidents like this are terrorism, not pranks. If this young man cannot appreciate the difference, some prison time will teach him. (Portion removed.)

I agree that the comment about prison time teaching a lesson is inappropriate and naive. I wonder if the commentor who said it can honestly and truthfully say he/she has never had a lapse of judgement, made a joke that offended people or been insensitive. I agree with Anthony Moor, that "we can't let our collective emotions about an unimaginable tragedy, sparked by an ongoing national disgrace, trample fairness and reason." It is better to teach young people to learn from their mistakes than block their paths to successful futures where they can become contributors to society.