Let me just vent for a second, as the father of an eleven year old, a nine year old and a six year old. They are the greatest kiddos I've ever seen and I'm proud to call them my own. The boys constantly get compliments on their behavior, their manners, their patience, and their ability to follow instructions. If we go more than a week without someone complimenting them I'm shocked.
With that said, if my 11yo took a vehicle and tried to drive around town, sure I'd want him to understand the extreme seriousness of his actions and possibly leave him in police custody a little longer than is necessary. However, charging him with ANYTHING is rediculous! That's not how you give a child a fair shake at life and learning from mistakes, in my opinion. I've obviously failed him as a parent and it's not only as much my responsiblity as it is his, it's my failure in kind. The law should be jumping up and down and I, his guardian, his father, his parent, should bear the brunt of his actions on some level. Fine me, sue me, make me pay for repairs... absolutely. Him, he's 11yo and no one was injured thankfully. Get real.
The first question that would come into my mind is, what was he running from? Is my ex-wife not treating him right at home, so he wanted to run away? Kiddo's that young don't just come up with a plan of action and act on it without a "good" reason or a horrible upbringing.
Add to this particular story... if the child loaded her siblings up, where were the grandparents? They obviously weren't watching ANY of the children. That's neglegent at best. If the kids were already in the car, did they also leave the keys and in an attempt to keep from getting into trouble report the keys "stolen"? And why were the kids left in the car without supervision?
I don't think it's a matter of locking things up but we as parents and granparents (or any family member) cannot have multiple failures like this and then hold the child responsible for OUR failure. What we're teaching a child is, "I can fail you a few times in a short time frame and when you do something wrong, its you and only you who's getting in trouble". Back in the day, a parent would apologize and offer to pay for anything broken. Then they would come up with some way of taking it out of your hide. For a long time. With lots of pain. Sweating you every chance they got. Making you also work off any debt. Did I mention pain? Yeah lots of it.
I don't know, it just seems wrong to charge her with anything too serious and multiple charges is just flat not the right way to handle it, given there was no malicious intent.
