My reaction to learning that the parents of young mass shooters had been charged was "its about time we started holding parents accountable!" Having volunteered and worked with, so-called, "at-risk" teenagers for fifty years, my reaction was so strong, it compelled me to step back and try to think it through. I have reached no conclusions.

On one hand, we don't have the tools to hold white parents accountable. When it comes to freedom, no one is freer than a parent. Parents are free to treat their children any way they please. No one has the right to tell a parent what they can and cannot do, with or to, their own children. People who work in children's services can spend so many years trying to protect an abused child, the child is grown up.

How does a society hold parents accountable? Do we use the law, the threat of prison, or simple remove a child from their home? 391,000 children currently in the foster care system, tells us that no one wants to take care of someone else's child.