Law enforcement, school officials should have acted earlier to help student

Tue, 08/15/2006 - 4:44pm
By: Letters to the ...

I am writing to express my outrage at the handling of the Robin Kittrell case. This situation was truly a tragedy, one that possibly could have been averted.

If [Whitewater High School Principal] Greg Stillions and others had cared more for the growth, development and success of the children at his school than for glory and headline-grabbing, this child might well have been saved from engaging in what he will surely look back at as the stupidest move of his life.

Instead, Stillions and law enforcement allowed the crime to occur, and look like heroes for saving the school. A true hero would have saved the child as well.

Robin Kittrell is only 17 years old. He is a child that will be treated as an adult by the criminal justice system.

As we are all aware, youth at this age are going through a crossroads into adulthood, and they are not always capable of engaging in reasonable behavior.

I don’t know Robin Kittrell and I don’t know his family. However, I do know from years of experience that sometimes good kids do bad things. Our jobs as parents, school officials, teachers, counselors, law enforcement, and the community as a whole is to help shepherd these youth into fruitful and productive adult lives.

We as adults are charged with a duty to these children, to do all within our power to help them grow and learn. The school authorities in particular are charged with this duty. We entrust our children to them with that understanding.

School resource officers are called school resource officers because they are meant to be a resource for our children, to assist in guiding our children down the correct path. Not to lay in wait, hoping for an attention-grabbing bust.

When the school authorities first became aware that Robin was planning to bring weapons to school (in June according to quotes attributed to Mr. Stillions in the newspaper), they could have acted to prevent this act from occurring.

They could have brought the problem to the attention of Robin’s parents, and given them the opportunity to get help for him.

A young man contemplating a stupid move can be turned to take a different path. With foreknowledge, Robin’s parents could have sought professional help for him, and he could be facing a bright future instead of one behind bars in an adult prison.

There are many outstanding educators here in Fayette County. That is why many of us choose to live here. I hope that I can trust that if my son were to develop a problem coping with the transitions that teenagers face, a teacher, a guidance counselor, a principal, or the school resource officer would see fit to bring me in and let me know, rather than wait for him to mess up so they can bust him.

Finally, I would like to say this to Robin and his parents: Don’t give up hope in your life. You are so young. Even if you do end up serving time in prison, you will be young when you are released. You still have the power to make something of your life, and I hope that you find the strength to do so. I hope the community will not fail you a second time, and you find the guidance that you will need to succeed eventually in your life.

Catherine Sanderson
Peachtree City, Ga.
Sanderson is an attorney in private practice in Fayetteville.

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Submitted by did not know on Sat, 08/19/2006 - 3:57pm.

When they heard in June that this kid was gonna bring guns to school, why didn't someone call his parents? I would have. Sometimes it doesn't make you the most popular person alive, but as a parent and a person with any compasion for a misguided child, they should have. I have only lived in Fayette county since 2000, but I see a ..lot...wrong with the system here. By not warning the parents...before..this happened and giving them a chance to help this boy, the people that knew about this are guilty of being neglectful and help seal this childs fate. I have seen a lot I disagree with here as to the treatment of kids. The top of my list is the police chiefs..CALLING THE NEWSPAPERS!!! and giving the names and details about minors in small cases! That is disgusting! The idea of the police should be to try to help turn these kids around, but it's not. I also don't think much of the courts and judges here either. Half of them here have the IQ of an earthworm!
If I live to be 1000 years old, I will never forget my 12 year old & his friends going to the pool one day in the early summer. They had seen kids in the pool the day before n wanted to go swimming. I got there a few minutes after them only to find 2 policemen with their billy clubs drawn in one hand and my bloody child in the other! The police were screaming they were taking the kids to "juvi" as they put it. When I got everyone to calm down so I could get to the bottom of what was going on, it seems, the kids used the combination and went into a pool we pay dues to. The nutty woman next to the pool saw them, {the pool it turns out didn't open for another day or two}, ran down the hill screaming at them at the top of her lungs and ran them out. Being bashful, non confrontational children they ran into the swamp behind the pool. After scaring them out of their wits, she called the police on them! The swamp is dangerous and when the police got there instead of calling to the kids to come out, they chased them deeper into the swamp! The kids, one a distance runner,when seeing it was a policeman, and a 300 lb + one at that, stopped running and turned and walked back to him. The police said some very ugly things to the children in the swamp.
Lucky for us the people at "juvie" had more smarts than the police and wouldn't take the kids. The police pressed charges against the kids for 'obstruction of justice' and we had to get a lawyer and go to court. The judge sided with the police that the kids knew they were police and that the distance runner didn't stop, but was Outrun by porky policeman! The kids got 3 months probation. It hurt my child badley that he went to court and told the truth and the judge didn't believe him, so much so, that it contributed to him going to live with his father in Alabama!
There is something very sick in this county when it comes to kids and it isn't all the kids!

Submitted by Concerned Citizen on Fri, 08/18/2006 - 8:26pm.

This lady would have the Columbine murders over for dinner for a chance to bill their parents. Robin knew it would be wrong to bring those guns to school, thats why he hid them. The principal should not have to tell Robin that it's wrong, nor should the resource officer, its widely known by first graders that guns don't belong at school. And the handcuffs? Harmless, I'm sure. Save the psychobabble for your clients, this is Fayette County and we advocate RESPONSIBILITY for one's actions. NEWSFLASH: defense attorney Catherine Sanderson sticks up for downtrodden falsely accused............Shocker.

Submitted by fcteacher on Wed, 08/16/2006 - 6:05pm.

to prevent it and it happened anyway? Another time? Another day? Everyone appears to agree on the fact that Robin is very, very smart.

Submitted by 30YearResident on Wed, 08/16/2006 - 4:34pm.

Students use to carry their deer rifles to school in the back window of their trucks after either going into the woods before class started or heading to the woods after class was over...

And, when we use to have rifle teams at school and guys would keep them in their wall lockers.

Folks have just gotten too paranoid over firearms and "zero tolerence". Once the facts are presented, I'd really hate to see this kid suffer big-boy jail if it turns out there was no intent.

I was bullied all thru elementary and Jr. High, so know a bit about what he might have been going thru mentally. Too bad the school didn't take action before it got to a boiling point.

mapleleaf's picture
Submitted by mapleleaf on Wed, 08/16/2006 - 3:07pm.

Catherine Sanderson's letter is a thoughtful one, and we need to read more of these in our Fayette newspapers.

Reflecting on the report that the student had so many guns, ammunition, and other weird objects in the trunk of his car, I have wondered about the role of his parents in all of this. How did they raise this young man? Didn’t they know about the guns and knives, and where they were?

In my opinion, our criminal justice system is primitive and, to put it bluntly, sick. A lot of people who find themselves in its grip have experienced a serious lapse in judgment, brought on by the pressures of a society in which it is more and more difficult to function.

Take drug use as an example. People who use illegal drugs all too often have succumbed to peer pressure, or are seeking release from the pressures of daily living. Then they get addicted. Are they evil? Heck, no! They are sick. So it is good that we are now getting drug courts that seek to help them out, if they will only cooperate, instead of inflicting medieval misery upon them by locking them up.

What we do about sexual predators is another example of our society’s medieval attitudes. Observe that sex is used to sell just about everything in our society (especially beer), and that all kinds of pills (Viagra, Cialis, Levitra, etc.) are advertised to help people have more sex. So why don’t we have pills to have less sex? That’s what we need to put oversexed people on. It would make more sense than putting them in jail!

This business of blaming everything on “evil” is simply leftover religious superstition. Autistic children, whom our society is beginning to understand and help, used to be thought of as possessed by the devil. We have far too many citizens still in the grip of all this nonsense, and our criminal justice system is an archaic reflection of our superstitious heritage about evil, the devil, and all the explanations that ignorant people would make up to cope with phenomena they could not understand.

We understand mental illness a whole lot better now, and we need to adapt our justice system to the new realities. I fear this case is about to illustrate once again how primitive and barbaric our current justice system really is.


bad_ptc's picture
Submitted by bad_ptc on Sat, 08/19/2006 - 7:48pm.

The best cure for this disease is made of either lead or lead covered with copper. It is somewhere around .452 inches in diameter, weighs around 11.5 grams, and travels at some 1,650+/- feet/second.

If placed directly between the eyes the offender is cured is less than 1/100 of a second.

The average cost for the “cure” is about 27 cents per dose.


Submitted by did not know on Sat, 08/19/2006 - 8:57pm.

get under the comments on the kid from Whitewater?

Git Real's picture
Submitted by Git Real on Sat, 08/19/2006 - 8:42pm.

Look at the guy they got in Thailand for the Ramsey case. This guy is whacked out and he might not have even committed the molestation and murder. But if he didn't I'd bet your life that he molested kids in Thailand. Freaks like that don't just move to Thailand to teach.

I will agree with the ladies on one thing. It's a disease and that disease is called Evil. And there's only one way to deal with evil. Kill it off. At the very least whack their pee pee's off.

It's shameful that I am having to teach my daughters that if anyone grabs them to fight, bite, scream & claw the predator at all costs so they will stand a better chance of surviving and being rescued.


bad_ptc's picture
Submitted by bad_ptc on Sat, 08/19/2006 - 7:43pm.

I have asked this before and have not yet received an answer.

Where exactly were the weapons found?

The earlier news article in this paper said” After the knife was found on Kittrell, officials decided to search his car and that’s when the guns were found in a large case in the car, officials said.” Article
http://www.thecitizen.com/node/9233

Please post your information that the weapons were in the trunk.


Submitted by did not know on Sat, 08/19/2006 - 8:33pm.

'that Robin Kittrell said he brought weapons to Whitewater to help authorities in case of a Columbine-style attack, the 1999 student shooting at a Colorado high school that took more than a dozen lives.

Some classmates say the explanation is not that far-fetched.

Seniors Michelle Cooper and Charlene Siemen, who said they were friendly with Kittrell, said rumors ran rampant over the summer that another student intended to bomb the school.

Siemen said she was so nervous about a possible attack she almost didn't go to Whitewater's open house a few days before the start of school. She thinks it's possible Kittrell believed the rumors, too, and really would have helped during a crisis.

"I kind of believe that because he was a nice kid," Siemen said. "Every day, we sat at lunch with him and if somebody didn't have money for lunch, he'd give them money."'

That is really scary...if this kid heard that it could be possible he brought the guns to school for just the reason the girl describes. If he was that naive, it is possible. But, why if the rumors were so strong, did the school not check out the other kid?

I think the whole thing could have been handled better. I also must say I do not agree at all with adults keeping that many guns around the house. I have seen it more than once here in Georgia and to me, it is an invitation for something bad to happen. I don't understand the facination with weapons.

Submitted by did not know on Sat, 08/19/2006 - 8:51pm.

If that child grew up in a house with too many guns, for whatever reason, and then was picked on at school by whoever the other kids were afraid of was going to bomb the school, then with his own naive reasoning decided he was gonna help if there was trouble. That would really be sad. It sounds like there is nothing in this child's past to say he was anything but a shy kid who made a really was off base in how to help. Who was this other kid? Why were such rumors floating around the school not checked out?

Git Real's picture
Submitted by Git Real on Sun, 08/20/2006 - 7:11am.

If that child grew up in a house with too many guns, for whatever reason, and......

Would you please clarify for me how many is too many guns for a household?


Submitted by Eliza on Sat, 08/19/2006 - 7:22pm.

I also agree with Ms Sanderson. Of course once the young man brought the weapons onto the campus, he certainly should have been arrested. But I can't help but believe that some kind of intervention would have been possible and appropriate before that happened.

Eyinvest, I agree with much that you say also; however, sexual perverts are not just "oversexed". The crimes that most of them commit are crimes of hatred and violence and have very little to do with anything like normal sexuality. Perhaps it will be possible someday to control them and many other criminals with medication - but I think that day is a long way off. Ask someone who is struggling with mental/emotional problems about their search for good medication that doesn't come with intolerable side affects - and I am talking about people who WANT to change, not criminals.

Voice of Fayette Future's picture
Submitted by Voice of Fayett... on Wed, 08/16/2006 - 3:51pm.

TWO ISSUES HERE: MERCY FOR KITTRELL AND THE PURPOSE OF THE SYSTEM

I would agree with the statement by Catherine Sanderson that FCBOE and the Sheriff’s deputies were wrong. She sounded like a good mother, too. I agree. They could have called the parents. You don’t need a warrant to call them up.

As to Eyeinvest’s diversion into pervert defense, my reaction is profane and violent. If you were a man standing in front of me you would feel the brunt of my rage. You say “What we do about sexual predators is another example of our society’s medieval attitudes.. why don’t we have pills to have less sex? …It would make more sense than putting them in jail!”

Eyeinvest is probably a member of NAMBLA, or a pedophile lawyer. Eyeinvest is part of that group that thinks that sexual predators have a “mental illness” and that like alcoholics they need treatment and not jail time. EDITED and warned -- You should know better -- one more and you're outta here. (Cal, the censor)

No we are not blaming it on “evil”; we are blaming it on YOU and forcing YOU to take responsibility. Kittrell is perhaps worthy of mercy but pedophiles are not, simply because of their incurability, their recidivism and the heinous nature of who they hurt and how they do it.

My 13 year old niece has been suicidal this past year. We finally found out why. She was molested in day care, staying silent for all these years, suffering in anguish because of the predator’s threat to kill her family. For 8 years, her parents have gone to the ends of the earth to understand why a happy 5 year has progressed from depression to suicide attempts.

Bottom line--- an overzealous sloppy effort on the Kittrell case fueled by a hunger for media coverage. But hopefully the system will treat Kittrell fairly and mercifully (if he deserves). But don’t stretch that into coddling pedophiles. The first job of that whole courthouse crowd is to protect the public and not comfort the pedophiles.


mapleleaf's picture
Submitted by mapleleaf on Sat, 08/19/2006 - 8:58am.

Would you care to comment on pedophile priests while you’re at it? We might as well flush out all your anger.

All I simply said is that (1) we have mentally fragile people among us, (2) our society’s emphasis on sex is not helping them one bit, and (3) a vindictive justice system which fails to focus on prevention and rehabilitation and simply throws people in jail after the fact is primitive, barbaric and needs fixing.

Your anger may well cause you to do something you’ll regret one day. Then there’ll be a lawyer to plead your case who will ask the court to consider that you are a sick person who will be helped more by medical treatment than by being left to rot in jail with other misfits. (I understand Prozac can help control anger.)

By the way, have you ever considered that today’s abusers might themselves have been abused when they were younger?


Git Real's picture
Submitted by Git Real on Sat, 08/19/2006 - 5:24pm.

Is someone going to take this gal on or is the Lion going to have to come unglued on this stupidity?


PTC Guy's picture
Submitted by PTC Guy on Sat, 08/19/2006 - 5:54pm.

I don't know.

These types that think they can cure everyone are pretty hopeless.

Repeat rates on pedophiles are through the ceiling. But they still say fix them instead of put them away.

The don't recognize the concept of evil in people. It is always a disease or caused by someone else or society.
-----------------------------
Keeping it real and to the core of the issue, not the peripherals.


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