I want to go on record as saying that this story is not about video games. Yes, a dispute over a Nintendo DS broke out and it resulted in a young girl being thrown from a school bus, but that, ladies and gentlemen, is not the issue here.
Hit the jump for the cold hard truth (aka stuff you already know).
From the link:
A 9 year old was thrown out of the back of her moving school bus after a struggle with another student on their trip home. Soon after the 9 year old pulled the DS Lite from her book bag it was taken by a 13 year old boy who ran to the back of the bus with it. When the girl tried to retrieve it the two began struggling for it in the back seat.
Reports released by the Pima County School Superintendent in Arizona said the older child was being beaten in the face repeatedly and felt his only escape was to open the buses rear emergency door and jump out. The child instead shoved the young girl out of the door with the bus traveling at approximately 15 mph. The girl was bruised and scraped up but had no major injures from the fall.
Yeah, it’s truly a shame that these kids escalated that conflict so far, but I have to say it doesn’t sound too far off from what my friends and I did as kids. I remember one camping trip where a friend — a person who supposedly liked me — broke a fiberglass canoe paddle over my back in an effort to kill a spider. Sure, it hurt, and I had a huge bruise and a cracked collarbone, but kids heal quickly. I’m not saying she should have been thrown from the bus or that the boy doesn’t deserve punishment, but in the end kids are stupid. They make mistakes. It’s an evolutionary trait that teaches them how not to be stupid in the future and it’s worked for humanity for a few millenia so far.
I’m sure some politician is going to want to pin this whole thing on video games, but please if that happens in your local area break a canoe paddle over his spine. Politicians rarely heal as quickly as I did at 13.
