You know what? I don't know what it means for the victim to "press charges." Is it a term for whether or not the victim is cooperative?

I was 11 once. And I knew the consequences of throwing a 2 lb rock at somebody.

The kids was 11? Oh, that's too old for that nonsense. I think my mother was 4 or 5.

Is it a term for whether or not the victim is cooperative?

no, it means that the victim intitates the legal proceeding. there are certain cases when the victim does not have to.

Yeah, when I was a kid, one of my buddies threw a rock at a girl, and missed by twenty feet, breaking a window instead. Since I was there, and I was the oldest (I was probably 11 at the time), I was the one who got in trouble.

Something similar happened to dh, but he was older, and the kid who did throw the rock wasn't throwing rocks at a girl.

I'm not saying 11 year olds are grownups, but they know what happens when you hit someone.

I think they know it hurts, which is the whole idea. I don't think they're aware of how badly it can hurt someone.

Heh.

The cussing is certainly what made us noteworthy to the neighbors, though.

My dad has a friend who always introduces him as "that boy who hit me in the head with a shovel." When they were TWO.

I was 11 once. And I knew the consequences of throwing a 2 lb rock at somebody.

I very much doubt that I did. I'm trying to imagine what 2 lbs feels like in my hand, and I don't think it's enough heft for me to really think "I could hurt someone with this". Even assuming that I thought throwing something at someone would result in me hitting them.

I didn't read the article, though, so I can't apply my hypothetical case to the actual.

The rock gashed the boy's forehead — requiring stitches — and the girl spent five days in Fresno's juvenile hall and a month under house arrest after police said she resisted arrest and scratched an officer's arm.

Maybe these officers are assholes, I don't know, but it would appear they detained her for more than just the rock.

Is it a term for whether or not the victim is cooperative?

Dude, you so don't get to ask that question. You need to be answering it.

I would have gotten my ass so whupped if I'd been her that I'd just have stood there and taken the balloon attack (while trying desperately to devise something less brutal in retribution).

Again, I don't think it's felonious, but it just wasn't right.

Also not right : "Steve, don't eat it!"

Even older kids can be shockingly short-sighted. A friend's little brother went to the ER for many stitches after a bike accident, which it turns out was caused by five boys (my two brothers and and him and his 2 brothers) inventing a game. The game went like this: they each took turns riding a bike as fast as they could on a gravel driveway, while the rest of the boys threw rocks at the spokes of the wheels to stop him. The oldest boy in this scenario was 14 and the youngest 10.