A black principal, four white teens and the 'senior prank' that became a hate crime

[sir pball]

21. I understand the visceral, vengeful response

But would throwing them in prison for years, where they'll most likely learn to hate, then dumping them on the street with no chance for anything besides a hardscrabble, menial existence of trivial labor and resentment serve anyone, them or society, for the best? Especially relatively youthful offenders like this...unless you believe people just can't change. Hopefully they do; if not, well, I doubt this is the only time they'll face hate crime charges.

I'm not saying they should be let off with "pay for the damage, help feed the homeless, and say you're sorry" like I did for my youthful misadventures (to be clear what they did is NOT a misadventure), but on the other hand in the long term I'm fine with any ambitions like college or the military they may have had being taken away, but not leaving them with nothing left to lose. I'm sure Seth up there wouldn't have had HVAC tech as his first career choice.