THE recent arrest of veteran LAPD Detective Stephanie Lazarus for the 1986 murder of Sherri Rasmussen on the surface doesn't have anything to do with parenting.

But these days, in just about every hot news story that hits the airwaves and printed pages, there exists a golden opportunity to preach the gospel to the kids we're in charge of raising, and this cold-case story offers up a whole lot of conversation.

As a youngster, when my parents confronted me for one of my many wrongful deeds, they frequently felt compelled to start their too-long lecture with, "You probably thought you'd gotten away with murder - but not in this house!"

I hadn't pulled a trigger or bludgeoned anyone to death, as Lazarus is accused of doing, but my folks were busy establishing notice that deeds don't go undetected and while all of the evidence may not have been available to them at the time of my misstep, time would prove to be the condemning factor.

"Ugh, she's a sicko," remarked my teenager as we watched news coverage of Lazarus appearing in court wearing her orange jail suit.

"Why would she do something so mean and, yeah, she thought she got away with it," said my teenager, who wasn't looking for an answer and who was probably hoping I wouldn't offer up some conversation on murdering one's romantic rival.

While it appears there are many factors contributing to Lazarus allegedly getting away with murdering her ex-boyfriend's wife,
Sherri, the story also has many lessons worth preaching about. But for me, the sermon is this: Time is the condemning factor, but jealousy and rivalry both offer the opportunity for serious discussion.

Cheating on the history exam may not be detected when the test is taken, but what did the student get away with when it came to knowing the subject matter?

Parents work to help their children recognize there is so much more to the game than winning, more to the class than having the grade they didn't earn and, as authorities allege in the case of Detective Lazarus, a better way to life than killing off the competition.

Remember Tonya Harding, the figure skater who in 1994 conspired, just before the Olympic Winter Games, to have someone injure skater Nancy Kerrigan so she couldn't compete? Harding got her comeuppance when she was banned for life by The U.S. Figure Skating Association.

Jealousy and rivalry seem to be imbedded in this column no matter how hard I stress the lesson of time being the condemning factor.

I admit both can cause anti-social actions, but, parents, when it comes to delivering the important lesson of "do wrong and you'll be caught in the long run," we're preaching about more than these two factors.

Cheating on the history exam has little to do with either of these. In my book, they have more to do with the desire to do wrong and get away with it.

I think it helps our young people understand more than just the difference between right and wrong when we promise them they aren't going to get away with murder in our house or in the broader society.

link to full story on this cold-case arrest.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090610/ap_on_re_us/us_detective_killing

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