Parents in hazing case need therapy, not legal assistance

Parents in hazing case needtherapy, not legal assistance
EDITOR:
The recent hazing incident in Northbrook is on the news again. This time it's the parents and lawyers who are making the news. Some parents are fighting the school for expelling their daughter for 10 days. Is 10 days enough? After seeing those videos, I'm not sure.
I do believe that all involved, both the senior and junior girls, and the boys who stood around doing nothing should receive therapy sessions. Have we become a nation of people willing to stand on the sidelines and allow this type of thing to continue to happen, and then pretend they are only teenagers acting in a normal matter?
Could what happened in Northbrook happen in other areas in our country? I'm afraid the answer is maybe.
We need to take a hard look at our behavior, at the way we raise our children. Not everyone, I know, is doing a bad job. It just seems that way when you watch the video of this hazing that went way over the line.
The first time I saw it, I wondered, "How could this happen?" Do the girls who paid to participate want to belong so much and have such low self-esteem they would allow anyone to do these things? Unfortunately, it seems the answer is yes.
The few students who managed to not follow the crowd when the hazing crossed the line are to be commended, but they were too few.
I don't know what the answer is, but changes need to be made now in Northbrook and possibly in every school district. The first one is for parents to make their children accountable for their actions, good and bad. If you make a bad choice, then you live with the punishment.
Instead of hiring lawyers, those parents need therapists for their daughters and themselves.
DARLENE TORDAY
Berlin Center
Springer deserves a chanceto show he's a contender
EDITOR:
It's unfortunate that the message being spread by Jerry Springer as he travels the state of Ohio contemplating a Senate run is being tainted by his show.
The show can be outrageous, and what is happening to our economy is also outrageous. Springer spoke of the damage being done to our state and our nation by the economic policies of the leadership in both D.C. and Columbus. If someone doesn't like the show, they don't have to watch, but we can't turn off the economic havoc that Bush and Taft have brought upon us.
Our state is broke, more young people between the ages of 21 and 34 leave Ohio than any other state, and the school funding is still a mess. Nationally we are right back into the debt of the '80s, job losses are in the millions, and the stock market is in the dumper. All in a matter of a few years.
A recent letter writer chastised the local Democratic Party for having Springer speak at a dinner, but as the Bill Bennett scenario has shown, those who profess to be perfect are often not. The writer opines that our area has suffered so much because of one-party political rule but not surprisingly omits the damage caused by one-party rule in Columbus. One can't have it both ways. He has a theory. The citizens of our state see the facts.
Jerry Springer has had a rags-to-riches life. Most of his family was exterminated in the Holocaust. Now he is a multimillionaire, which makes his message even more relevant in that he knows firsthand how the economic policies are favoring him and not the common citizen in this country.
For those who dismiss Springer as a candidate, one only has to recall that a bad B-movie actor who co-starred with a chimp was elected president. As history repeats itself once again and we suffer through the same failed economic policies we endured under Reagan, perhaps we should listen to someone like Springer with an open mind.
TIM O'HARA
Youngstown
XThe writer is second vice-chairman of the Mahoning County Democratic Party.