Our children are 'self-destructing'

I was reading The Acorn last night and I came to a stark realization. There were back-to-back articles about violence directed at our children by our children: The article in which two 8-year-old Lupin Hill students were accused of sexual assault and the article on my daughter's car being vandalized with death threats at Agoura High School.

Parents of LVUSD students and the whole community, we must wake up and act. Our children are self-destructing.

How many drug overdoses have tragically ended many wonderful young lives in the past couple years? Not to mention the lives of children in the community taken by their own hand.

Our car that was smeared with words of hate and violence is owned by my daughter, Jessica, an AHS graduate, who is currently living in a Muslim country as a UCLA exchange student. She told me the other day when she learned of the extensive damage to her car, "Mom, it is way more peaceful here than it is in Agoura, where I grew up."

What is wrong with this picture? We all speak of how the Middle East has issues--let us all look in our own backyards and across our dinner tables. How is your family doing today?
Shelley Riggs
Agoura Hills