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TRUANT DAMSELS IN DISTRESS
Published On 02-28-2009 , 10:39 PM
Ah, the young damsels, the ones who decided a day at Paseo Colorado trumped a day in their respective classrooms, weren't, in my opinion, lured anywhere. I knew this when the first news reports claimed it to be how the girls wound up with two adult men at an empty house on Idaho Street in Northwest Pasadena.
Lured? These 14-year-old African-American truants were hip enough to abandon the education their forefathers (and mothers) marched, petitioned and died for. So should the public believe they were so unsophisticated they didn't know what the males might be up to?
My daughter Pia isn't very happy with my approach to this issue. She thinks my depiction of the girls is letting the lecherous guys off the hook.
"Mom," she exclaimed, "these were old men in their 40s and the girls are just that: girls." Pia tried to hang me out to dry for not seeing the girls as just little kids who made a mistake.
Turns out my kid knew the old men from her high school days but she doesn't seem to know anything about how so many of our young girls have decided to live their lives.
Paseo Colorado, like malls across America, is known to be a hangout for pick-ups. Notice our damsels didn't cut class and visit one of our local museums.
Updated news reports now say the girls went willingly. Climbing into the car with some men they didn't know is not quite as innocent as my surprisingly naive daughter wants us to believe.
"Those girls are just little kids," Pia kept interjecting into our conversation that remained friendly but that got kind of heated at times.
Yeah, maybe this was the very first time the teenagers had missed school for the day. And, yeah, maybe the bunch of them decided to ditch school that day because they hadn't studied enough for their third-period history exam.
And just maybe they really were lured by the old men with a promise of Cliff Notes or a cheat sheet for their history test.
Now maybe these girls were wearing loose-fitting clothes that covered their bodies, some bobby socks and a pair of saddle oxfords.
Maybe they were wearing their hair in ponytails using rubber bands to hold them in place.
Ah, I can seem them now sitting outside at one of the nice eateries there at Paseo and sipping a soft drink and reaching into tattered backpacks to get out their history books. Wow, what a study session to behold.
"Well, what were they doing at the mall?" I asked my 40-something daughter.
"Do you realize these girls were drugged and raped?" Pia asked me in exasperation.
I don't have the best of memories but I do remember Tawana Brawley from back in the `80s. She's the young damsel who claimed to have been raped and tortured by NYC police officers over a four-day period. Her story was eventually proven to be a lie she concocted in an attempt to cover up not getting home when she was supposed to.
I could be dead wrong on this column. But I've seen too many teenage damsels who dress like ladies of the night and play the part like they've had years of dress rehearsals.
This blog can be found in our columns section where you can print a copy or e-mail to someone
http://talkaboutparenting.org/pages/articles.php
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Comment
| | 1. | OUCH...Shirlee.
The truth hurts..
Hank
- by Hank Wilfong, 03-01-2009, 9:31 AM
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