---

@sir_arthur_strebe-grebling wrote:

---

 

 

This case is only having so much publicity because of who the victim was, and that shouldn't determine the sentence. If he had killed a member of an opposing gang, as most teenage murderers do, it wouldn't be headline news.

---

I'm not sure that the publicity has determined the sentence.  Another young man was jailed for life down in the South yesterday, with a minimum of 20 yrs to be served, for stabbing his girlfriend multiple times in a park.  He was drunk and drugged at the time, but that was no defence, though it does provide a partial explanation.

Teens are volatile beings and most violent crime is committed by under 26 yr olds, the age at which hormones stabilise and the male brain is fully developed.   I'm not excusing this boy's actions, but many teens have violent fantasies.  We live in a world where acting these out is made quite easy.  (How did he take a weapon into school in the first place?)

Teachers are vulnerable.  They are in a position of authority, but without any real teeth.  They work alone, for the most part, surrounded by temperamentally unstable teens, some of whom may bear a grudge.   Attacks are frequent, though murders are, mercifully, rare.