posted on June 2, 2008 10:56:52 PM
This is a good idea and I hope it works and changes the path for the young people involved.
From bad to verse: Vandals get classroom penance
By JOHN CURRAN, Associated Press Writer Mon Jun 2, 3:36 PM ET
MIDDLEBURY, Vt. - Call it poetic justice: More than two dozen young people who broke into Robert Frost's former home for a beer party and trashed the place are being required to take classes in his poetry as part of their punishment.
Using "The Road Not Taken" and another poem as jumping-off points, Frost biographer Jay Parini hopes to show the vandals the error of their ways — and the redemptive power of poetry.
"I guess I was thinking that if these teens had a better understanding of who Robert Frost was and his contribution to our society, that they would be more respectful of other people's property in the future and would also learn something from the experience," said prosecutor John Quinn.
The vandalism occurred at the Homer Noble Farm in Ripton, where Frost spent more than 20 summers before his death in 1963. Now owned by Middlebury College, the unheated farmhouse on a dead-end road is used occasionally by the college and is open in the warmer months.
On Dec. 28, a 17-year-old former Middlebury College employee decided to hold a party and gave a friend $100 to buy beer. Word spread. Up to 50 people descended on the farm, the revelry turning destructive after a chair broke and someone threw it into the fireplace.
When it was over, windows, antique furniture and china had been broken, fire extinguishers discharged, and carpeting soiled with vomit and urine. Empty beer cans and drug paraphernalia were left behind. The damage was put at $10,600.
Twenty-eight people — all but two of them teenagers — were charged, mostly with trespassing.
About 25 ultimately entered pleas — or were accepted into a program that allows them to wipe their records clean — provided they underwent the Frost instruction. Some will also have to pay for some of the damage, and most were ordered to perform community service in addition to the classroom sessions. The man who bought the beer is the only one who went to jail; he got three days behind bars.
Parini, 60, a Middlebury College professor who has stayed at the house before, was eager to oblige when Quinn asked him to teach the classes. He donated his time for the two sessions.
On Wednesday, 11 turned out for the first, with Parini giving line-by-line interpretations of "The Road Not Taken" and "Out, Out-," seizing on parts with particular relevance to draw parallels to their case.
"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood," he thundered, reciting the opening line of the first poem, which he called symbolic of the need to make choices in life.
"This is where Frost is relevant. This is the irony of this whole thing. You come to a path in the woods where you can say, `Shall I go to this party and get drunk out of my mind?'" he said. "Everything in life is choices."
Even the setting had parallels, he said: "Believe me, if you're a teenager, you're always in the damned woods. Literally, you're in the woods — probably too much you're in the woods. And metaphorically you're in the woods, in your life. Look at you here, in court diversion! If that isn't `in the woods,' what the hell is `in the woods'? You're in the woods!"
Dressed casually, one with his skateboard propped up against his desk, the young people listened to Parini and answered questions when he pressed. Then a court official asked them to describe how their arrests and the publicity affected them.
"I was worried about my family," said one boy, whose name was withheld because the so-called diversion program in which took part is confidential. "I'll be carrying on the family name and all that. And with this kind of thing tied to me, it doesn't look very good."
Another said: "After this, I'm thinking about staying out of trouble, because this is my last chance."
"My parents' business in town was affected," said a girl.
When the session ended, the vandals were offered snacks — apple cider, muffins, sliced fruit — but none partook. They went straight for the door, several declining comment as they walked out of the building. The next session is Tuesday.
"It's a lesson learned, that's for sure," said one of them, 22-year-old Ryan Kenyon, whose grandmother worked as hairdresser in the 1960s and knew Frost. "It did bring some insight. People do many things that they don't realize the consequences of. It shined a light, at least to me."
posted on June 3, 2008 09:53:35 AM
I'd like to see them have to clean up the whole place, mend broken items, etc. And then go home, get some of their own prized possessions, and throw them on a fire. I have NO sympathy for vandals.
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posted on June 3, 2008 12:50:12 PM
I think it's a good idea, but what bothers me is
Some will also have to pay for some of the damage, and most were ordered to perform community service in addition to the classroom sessions.
In addition to the classes, they should have to pay for all the damages in addition to fines that could be used for repairs on the house. I also think they ought to have to keep a clean record for a period of time, say until they graduate from college, before their records are expunged.
Im with Adele, vandals bring out my most vindictive side.
posted on June 3, 2008 01:18:44 PM
The only thing that I dislike is the punishment by a sort of cumpulsory association with Frost's poem, "The Road Not Taken".
I don't believe that it was Frost's intention to moralize about the choice of roads taken but the poem as interpreted by the article seems to indicate that.
posted on June 4, 2008 12:10:42 AM
For those of you who share my disgust with vandals here's a good one....in Minnesota a guy was ticketed and forced to restore his own wetlands after a bunch of drunken buddies drove their big macho trucks through the wetlands destroying it.
I think the disgusting pigs who trashed the Robert Frost home got off way too easy! Definitely each one should pay the full cost of restoration and serve jail time. I think a poetry class was definitely "lost" on these neanderthals.
Why not a FREE class for law abiding decent citizens?????
posted on June 4, 2008 07:32:07 AM
Helen, hopefully the vandals aren't led to believe that it was Frost's intention to moralize when he wrote the poem and perhaps this will be pointed out to them during the course of the program. The article didn't mention any responsibility taken by the parents or if they are involved in the classroom sessions.
Whenever we had our shops broken into or vandalized we noticed the lack of concern by most parents of the kids involved. It wasn't often that we had a parent come into our shop and try to take responsibility for the actions of their child though a couple of times a parent would come in and deny that their kid was involved and insist he was only with the others and didn't do anything as "he's not that kind of boy". In one town where I started my first shop the boys involved in the break-in were all under 13 years old. I was surprised to receive an envelope months later with small payments from each of them along with handwritten letters of apology.
I believe in giving young offenders a second chance because I think most can be successful in life if they can get on the right track. That means taking responsibility for any damage done and having to pay restitution from allowance money or earnings from a job but it never seems to happen that way. Parents can sometimes quickly pay for the damage and the kid doesn't learn anything.
In Canada there is always controversy over 'young offenders' as they seem to get away with all kinds of vandalism and even murder. We lived in one town where there was a good youth counselor who steered many kids in the right direction but unfortunately the government didn't recognize the value of his job and it was axed when there was the next round of budget cuts.
