Jan. 9, 2026 7 AM PT
To the editor: Charles “Andy” Williams, a 15-year-old on the time, was sentenced in 2001 as an grownup for 2 killings (“Shooter who killed 2, injured 13 in notorious SoCal school rampage could now go free,” Jan. 7). This was even though California has had a juvenile justice system since 1903.
The definition of a juvenile has largely been anybody underneath 18. The theory of the juvenile system was that the thoughts of a juvenile was nonetheless growing and rehabilitation made extra sense than imprisonment. Nonetheless, a motion developed in the 1980s and 1990s to deal with juvenile offenders responsible of significant crimes as adults, though they weren’t.
It isn’t {that a} 15-year-old assassin is extra mature than a 15-year-old shoplifter. It’s that society wished to punish the teenage law-breakers extra severely within the perception that it could discourage juvenile crime. The idea of juvenile “superpredators” got here into vogue.
So, Williams was among the many many younger offenders who’ve taken weapons to shoot up a college. The legal guidelines haven’t discouraged these crimes. College shootings proceed unabated. As with Williams, the perpetrators are mostly troubled younger males with entry to weapons. It doesn’t appear as if attempting a youngster as an grownup has completed a lot to guard the general public.
Erica Hahn, Monrovia
