Juvie For A 10-Year-Old

According to FoxNews.com, two males brought weapons onto their school campus with a plot to kill a classmate. One student brought a knife, the other a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol with a full ammunition clip, court records stated.

Here's the really horrible part: these two males are aged 10 and 11 years old. They are students at Fort Colville Elementary School in Washington St. and were arrested on February 7th. A fourth-grade student witnessed one of the boys playing with a knife on the school bus and, thankfully, had the presence of mind to notify a school employee.

Washington's criminal justice system maintains that kids under the age of 12 aren't capable of understanding that they are committing crimes, or even planning to commit crimes. However, a judge can allow prosecutors to pursue a defendant as young as 8, but only if the prosecutors can prove the youths acknowledge the difference between right and wrong.

After researching, I came to the conclusion that the vast majority of child psychologists hold to Jean Piaget's Developmental Psychology Theory. Piaget's theory states that a child begins to recognize the difference between what is wrong/right/immoral/moral by age 7. And, judging by a mankind's ability to constantly grow, change and adapt, one might assume that a human never truly finishes that process. It is a development that never ends. However, should you ask any averagely intelligent 10 year old what happens when shot with a gun, they would be hard pressed to answer in a non-similar fashion: pain, and possibly death.

Per the police reports, the boys have been charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, tampering with a witness, and conspiracy to possess a firearm. When questioned by police officers the boys gave details to their plot: remove the girl from the school while one boy stabbed her and the other kept any bystanders at bay. They also mentioned possibly harming half a dozen other students.