DAMAGING PRESS | MENTAL HEALTH

Stomp on the 14-Year-Old Girl’s Heart, Future, and Make Her Life Worse — Good Job

The reporter chose a story over a minor’s life

Lay off our kids.

Two things happened to me when I stumbled across a story on Newsbreak and Insider.

First, I stopped breathing for a second.

Then, came the squeeze — a tight grip on my heart with flashbacks to the past.

The story, with a few minor adjustments in the details, was my story.

My daughter’s story.

A horrible time in our lives, not easily forgotten.

But, a decade has elapsed and yesterday I was offered a silver lining to that dark period.

A “cup is half full” moment I never expected landed at my feet.

The short blurb of a story highlighted a teenage girl who stole her grandmother’s money. The girl was reported handing out cash to friends and strangers at her school.

Authorities were called and she now faces felony charges.

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office told KDFW that it is unclear why the girl stole the money, which was half of her grandmother’s life savings, or why she chose to distribute it. — Insider

Here’s the thing.

Several things, actually, that are sickening about this story.

Of course, the Sheriff’s Office is unclear as to why the girl stole the money.

The girl may be just as unclear.

Felony charges?

14 years old.

I know nothing about this particular girl in Marion County, Florida.

I make no judgment. Maybe she’s a dirty rotten thief with no soul. Maybe she isn’t.

Maybe she’s just a kid who struggles.

Maybe, just maybe, her brain misfires social cues, and acceptable behaviors, and regrets her choice to steal her grandmother’s life savings.

Maybe, just maybe, she was crying out for help.

She is just a kid.

Granted, I viewed this story through my lens.

The report smacked of a young girl desperate for attention, good or bad. The story was a page from my journal, had I documented our past.

I do know what happened to my daughter, our family, and her future as a result of the same behaviors.

I speak to a blend of two incidents, neither of which boded well.

• At 12 years old, my daughter stole her grandmother’s traveling money and gave it out to various classmates and acquaintances at school.
• At 14 years old, that same daughter of mine faced felony charges for a school incident that involved two other students, 16 and 18 years old.

These behaviors, by the girl in Marion County as well as my daughter, clearly indicate that something is awry.

An investigation, questions, and fact-gathering are necessary.

Of course, the Sheriff’s Office is unclear as to why the girl stole the money.

How could they know?

It was reported as soon as it happened.

Which begs the obvious question.

Why was this reported — a story available to the public, online? Even though they didn’t use her name, everyone around her knows what happened.

Was the reporter so desperate that they needed a story about a minor who most likely suffers from mental health, or behavioral issues?

I know, because I lived it, that if this girl is suffering from mental health challenges, the report will now follow her and haunt her.

Kids will abuse her even more, parents will look at her as someone they don’t want their kids to hang out with, and authority figures, even teachers, will react with different eyes.

Ostracize the ostracized.

I know why my daughter stole her grandmother’s money and gave it out to other kids. I also know why she agreed to hold onto an 18-year-old boy’s pilfered controlled prescription from his 16-year-old girlfriend.

All in the name of true friends forever.

My daughter was in intensive therapy.

Her brain is in constant flux from a personality disorder that battles PDD, otherwise known as Aspergers Syndrome.

Her disorders muddy up the waters of clear, conscious, thoughts.

At the dreaded decision-making moment, my daughter had no grasp of the ensuing consequences.

To quote her therapist, “she can’t see the steps out.”

All Cognitive Behavioral Therapy was overshadowed by the promises of bonding for life.

Pinky swear.

My daughter is impulsive to this day and still has glitches though she has come far in her wellness journey. The one constant interference in making good judgment calls is friendship.

She craves friends.

A decade later, my daughter still desires acceptance.

She has shoplifted for the promise of gaining a best friend. She has violated rules, laws, and authority in general, to ensure a new best buddy.

Mental illness holds the reins.

Shame on the reporters for picking up and publishing a story about a minor. No answers have been obtained.

No thought was given to how this minor will be affected in the days or years that follow.

If the Sheriff’s Office proceeds with felony charges, and the girl has a history of psychiatric care or proves to require it, shame on them, too.

It cost our family thousands of dollars to defend my daughter — 14 years old at the time — and have the felony charges dropped.

The judge, thankfully, possessed the wherewithal to understand the facts before him regarding mental illness and spectrum disorders.

The silver lining to our story?

It didn’t make the press.

My daughter had enough challenges, and enough exposure which added to her anxiety and lowered her self-esteem, because grape vines reach far. Peer pressure is brutal; bullying is real.

I can only imagine how much harder it could have been.

To the girl under scrutiny: I am sorry. You’re not alone.

To her parents: I am sorry. You’re also not alone.

To the reporter: Shame on you.

Lay off our kids.

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