Warning: Old Coot Alert! Old Coot Alert!
What I see in a lot of children and teenagers today is a definite lack of parental control, teaching, and example. They say and do the most outrageous, tasteless, and wrong things, and when the law gets involved (which it should and will in this case), they think that if they just say "OMFG, it was just a joke", and everything should be ok. As someone who had to witness on television the 2nd plane hit the other World Trade tower, I don't think there is anything funny about terrorist comments. (Side note, the fact that a 14-year old even knows what OMFG means is rather sad.)
But then, they have their parents behaving in their presence like children..."you should make people move so that we can sit together. I was too busy to check-in from home and get seats together. And, no I will not accept seats together in the back of the plane. They must be in the first 5 rows of coach." "What do you mean the plane has already left. We were just in the bar getting a drink. You were supposed to wait." "The agent told me to see you (the flight attendant) about an upgrade to First Class." (And then, when I told him that only the agent could upgrade him and he went storming back up to the gate, he told the agent's supervisor that I told him to tell them to upgrade him to First Class.)
I was raised on the compromise method..."Jim, son, let's make a deal. When we get on the train (or bus) today, you behave yourself and I won't kill you. Does that sound fair?" I realize that in this day and age, if you jerked up a child and swatted them on the butt, you would probably be arrested for child abuse, but we knew that retribution would be swift and sure if we did not behave. And, if I had pulled a 1950's version of this stupid child's trick, I'm not sure I would have survived long enough to be interviewed by the FBI. LOL