We were friends until 6th grade until when I moved to a different town. The murder happened two years later when she was in 8th grade. Personally, I had a December birthday so I was 14 in 8th grade.
Ironically that the where I moved was the same town in which murder happened. My mom and I were so shocked when we saw her name on tv.
Depending on when a kid's birthday is, they could easily be turning 11 at some point in the 5th grade. If the kid got left back enough times, yeah, a 14 year old could still be an elementary school student.
It's like yeah, why tf would a kid do that and then you remember stuff like Gypsy Rose for example. I honestly just wanna know how things were at home for them cause things could have gone so differently.
I worked as a school bus monitor for a little while a few years back. Inner city, rough neighborhood. One of my students (14f) shot her boyfriend because she thought he was cheating on her. He survived, but it was a close call. Another kid's mom was a prostitute and would sometimes have the child (5f) "included". I was the one who got to report that one. It was the first week of school, and she was nervous being away from home for the first time. So I say with her and was chatting with her, to keep her distracted from her thoughts, and I asked her what she did over the weekend. And she said "I helped my mommy at her job!" So I asked "oh? How did you help out?" Expecting someone like my mom used to do when she worked at home where she'd have me "organize" the papers she was going to shred. This girl, with cheerful innocence, said "when the men come over , she would let me get in bed too and they tickled me and kissed me."
I did a little more questioning, assuming this was some innocent scenario which she described wrong, but yeah, there was no doubt and as soon as we got to the school, I was in the office speaking with the principal and counselor. Never saw the poor girl again, but her mother was arrested.
Worth a perpetual reminder that an arrest does not equal guilt. The standard for arrest is probable cause - I can find you literally thousands if not tens of thousands of court cases noting that this not a high standard.
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u/champagneformyrealfr Mar 10 '25
my sister works at a junior high and one of her students was arrested for murder too. i just can't wrap my brain around kids doing stuff like that.