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Teen Texting in Margate leads to violence
• Is it time yet to take cell phones away from kids?
Saturday,
March 28, 2009
One Margate teen texted another Wednesday about how angry he was at his girlfriend and needed to find an outlet. The next day, just minutes before critically injuring another Margate teen by bashing him over the head with a skateboard, the teen texted the same friend implying little more than he found the outlet he was looking for--but wasn’t specific about it, said an eyewitness to the account.
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The injured teen arrived at the hospital in serious condition while witnesses were questioned by police. One witness told MargateNews.net she couldn’t believe it happened. Up until the defining blow with the skateboard she knew the two of them as friends, but is now “totally freaked” and is going to stay close to home for a while.
More and more, texting and teen violence seem to go hand in hand in South Florida—from the two-day texting campaign of Teah Wimberly that led to the fatal shooting of Dillard classmate Amanda Collete, to Wayne Treacy texting friends saying he was going to kill Josie Lou Ratley just prior to senselessly beating the 15-year-old teen into a coma—texting among juveniles is fast becoming society’s worst nightmare.
What to do about it
“My kid doesn’t need a cell phone and doesn’t need to waste his time texting,” said mom and Margate merchant at the city's Green Market Sunday.
Her teenage son agreed. “I don’t need to text. I’ve got other things to do.”
You may recall the buzz awhile back: cell phone providers making family plans more affordable, convincing parents that if their teens had cell phones they would feel safer, more secure and would be better equipped in times of crisis or emergency.
Fast forward from those times not too long ago. The same cell phones we were told would create a safety net for our families took a left turn somewhere. Teens now text while driving, they text during class, they text during dinner and, sadly enough, twice in one day I patronized Margate businesses where teen cashiers were texting instead of tending to customers, which shows now that bad texting habits have penetrated our workforce.
It’s time to stop talking about the dangers of teen texting and do something about them. Sure the ‘ban on texting while driving’ bill is advancing in the Florida Senate, but to rely on government to fix what is essentially a matter of discipline and respect in the home is to continually slap band aids on sores that will never heal.
Parents may want to strongly consider the problems they could solve with bullying, bad grades and teen violence by taking cell phones away from their children.
Reader Opinion
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