In Massachusetts, four teenagers from Framingham High School were arrested on Monday after they were caught smoking marijuana behind the school. The teens are four boys, ages 14, 16, and two 15-year-olds. They were charged with marijuana possession and released to their parents custody. According to the school official that…
In Holyoke, a 14-year-old boy was convicted of starting the 9-alarm fire that burned down the Parsons Paper Mill building earlier this summer. The teenager will be placed in state care until he turns 18. This is the maximum sentence allowed for juveniles in Massachusetts. According to Holyoke Fire Chief…
New York Giants running back Ahmad Bradshaw is completing a 30-day sentence in jail for violating the conditions of his probation related to an undisclosed offense from when he was a juvenile. Last month, Bradshaw voluntarily turned himself in at a Virginia jail, and his release is slated to take…
In Massachusetts, Northampton Fire Chief Edgar Lesko and his wife Deborah have pled not guilty to four counts of furnishing alcohol to a minor. The couple is accused of letting several underage teenagers drink alcohol in their home last summer. One of the teens, David Homan, 19, died when the…
The Boston criminal defense team of a Massachusetts high school student accused of stabbing a classmate to death in a bathroom at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High in Sudbury wants the charges against the boy dropped because he has Asperger syndrome (AS). The defense says that a grand jury were improperly ordered…
US States are reconsidering and, in certain instances, retooling juvenile sentencing laws in regards to whether it makes sense to charge juveniles as adults. Not only are there less incidents of juvenile crimes now than 20 years ago, but some states are responding to new information about the adolescent brain,…
Mychal Bell, the 17-year-old accused of hitting a white classmate in the famous “Jena Six” case pled guilty yesterday to assaulting Justin Barker. Bell and five other black teenagers were charged with attempted murder for beating Barker last December. Bell had initially been convicted as an adult by an all-white…
Police in Boston want parents to allow detectives to enter their children’s bedrooms without a warrant to look for guns. The new program, targeting high-crime areas and set to begin in a couple of weeks, is already raising questions in Massachusetts about civil liberties. Police officers assigned to Boston area…
Police in Massachusetts say that they plan to charge a number of Templeton middle school kids in the brutal attack of an 11-year-old autistic boy. The boy, who has a form of autism known as Asperger’s Syndrome, was beaten last month after he got off his school bus. The juvenile…
Recent statistics provided by the Massachusetts Department of Education show that from 2005-2006, 4,750 reported acts of violence occurred among middle school students. Crimes committed included robbery, sexual assault, violent threats, drug offenses, tobacco offenses, alcohol offenses, and sexual harassment. The report says that 383 weapons were discovered. Recent crimes…