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Guest column

What looks cool can turn bad so quickly

By RIKKI LENCIONI
Published December 16, 2005

I'm 15 years old, and news of the student killed at King High School really gave me a reality check.

A couple of months ago, at a party, some friends of mine were jumped by a gang for sticking up for a girl that the gang was harassing. The gang members knocked one boy to the ground and started kicking and punching him.

When the boy's friend came over and asked the guys to stop beating up his friend, they sucker-punched him and started kicking him, too.

In the end, one boy's hand was messed up and he was bleeding everywhere. The other kid who had tried to help had a concussion, his teeth were all knocked around in his mouth, and he had blood covering his entire front.

All of this for trying to help.

Over the next week at school, people were all talking about what had happened. No one really knew who did it, but a couple of the boys who had jumped my friends were arrested. There were others who weren't.

A lot of people thought this was so cool, though. They thought it was amazing that some boys were beaten up. I even heard some of them saying they were going to jump my friends again!

I was at the party, and a lot of people had wanted to jump in. Until the article about the student at King, I'd never realized just how dangerous it is to even be near that situation - and I had put myself there!

What if the guys had brought guns? Innocent people were already beaten up. What if others were shot? Killed? All because everyone thought it was so cool to watch and start all the drama.

We're naive and ignorant. What we see our role models do and say is what we think we should do. Fighting is "cool" and acting "hard" is cool. I don't think people see how uncool it is, though, until someone gets hurt or killed. I just hate seeing it be too late, and the ones who don't deserve it are the victims.

The boy from King had a future. He was a good guy and a good student, and he wasn't even involved in watching the fight. Is that fair? No. Was his life worth the fact that someone had to act "hard" and pull out a gun? No. Is his family's pain and loss worth any of it? No.

My experience was lucky. I thank God no one pulled out a gun and that my friends just suffered some bruises and $700 of dental work. That's better than costing them their lives.

We all agree it was stupid and wasn't worth it. I just wish everyone else would get the wakeup call before someone else gets hurt or killed because of gang violence. None of it is worth anyone's life - especially those who are innocent bystanders.

Being "cool" and fighting isn't worth your life, and watching the fight isn't worth your life either. Don't put yourselves in that situation. It just isn't worth it.

I really think our role models and the things that influence us such as our television shows, music and games should stop telling us that it's okay to act this way.

Rikki Lencioni of Cheval is a freshman at Sickles High School.

[Last modified December 15, 2005, 10:04:04]