Why punish the mother?

In the Aug. 31 Spokesman-Review, an article ran in the Northwest section about the mother of a boy from Port Orchard, Washington, sentenced to 14 months behind bars because her son took her friend’s gun to school in a backpack. The gun subsequently accidentally went off, severely injuring a little girl.

While this is a needless tragedy of immense proportions, I see no common sense sentencing the mother to time behind bars. And though she was required to have no guns because of a previous conviction, it was not a gun in her personal possession or one which she owned. She had no knowledge of her son taking the gun and was not responsible in any acute way.

Her son reportedly took the gun because he was afraid of other students. Perhaps our precious tax dollars would be better spent looking into the boy’s claim of fear and making a remedy in that regard, instead of pointlessly sending his mother to jail. This is guilt the son will live with the rest of his life, the infliction of this onus on his own mother.

What actual purpose does this serve, except perhaps the puffing of the judge’s ego?

Becky McPherson

Valley, Wash.