What is wrong with the world today?

My mother in law sent us an email about what happened to a close family friend and fellow parishioner - at the church Mike and I got married at-over the New Year weekend... read this and tell me if you are not disgusted with teenagers today. Its hard for me to believe that kids today are so stupid and disrespectful.

Subject: Prayer for the Palladino Family
Dear CSS Friends:

I would like you to know about a crime that happened against my family and ask you to pray (especially for my children). San Carlos is a "small town" in many ways, so perhaps you have already heard some things. I do not need to be private about this and don't mind if you tell anyone else. Believe me, we've been plenty "exposed" already as you'll see as you read on.

After Christmas we were all away on vacation in Reno, Nevada. My husband's family has an old victorian house there where the family gathers for vacations. We left on Monday, Dec 29. On Tue, Dec 30 our daughter's (now former) best friend since kindergarten and another girl (both ninth graders like Anne Marie) broke into our home to "case the joint" in preparation for a big New Year's Eve party they planned to have here while we were away. On Wed, New Year's Eve, the second girl was dropped off at my home along with two other girls (one from our church) with that mom thinking that they had been invited to spend the night. The mom doesn't know us or our daughter and never called, never even watched them walk to the door, just dropped them and left. The girls went around to my backyard and crawled in a window. Then some other girls, including my daughter's best friend (former) and they set up for the party by taking down my family portraits and paintings and hiding my son's video game system. A friend of theirs arrived with alcohol and they paid him.

Then people started to show up and within a half hour to forty minutes (about 9:30 pm) the party was so loud and out of hand that a neighbor called the police.The police came to my home with all these young teens (the majority of them 9th grade girls) who were drunk and smoking cigarettes and pot and simply kicked them out, shut the doors and left.

A couple hours later, some of the kids broke back into my home and slept all night long. They wrote on several walls including slurs on my daughter's wall and on a special sign that my son had salvaged from the former "Palladino" Restaurant in Belmont which was in their big room upstairs, they wrote on furniture and put out cigarettes on furniture and tables, slept in all our beds (there was a used condom by the side of my little 10 year old son's bed), they went through my jewelry and stole all my rings, and stole and damaged other items.

We came home on New Year's Day, cutting our vacation off early after we heard what had happened (we were tipped off by none other than the "best friend" who is behind all this). Our home smelled like a casino. There had been beer cans dropped on the floor and pools of beer everwhere, cigarrette butts all over. A big mess.

The damage and stolen property could have been much worse and that is not our main concern. Really, if someone had broken into our home and stoken things it would have felt much better than what actually happened. The biggest damage here is psycological. The kids have been crying. My husband has been crying (and he never cries) because he can't stand thinking of our little ones being afraid to come into our home, sleep in their beds or go the bathroom without stressing out and the thought of what our daughter is having to endure and will endure at school is overwhelming. It's been really devestating.

We've been speaking to the main kids involved. Some have come forward, some have yet to come forward. The parents of the main girls involved have offered to pay for damages and repairs. We have notified the Carlmont high school principal (most of the kids that were here go to that school). We are still not sure if we are going to press charges. Even if we don't the case will go to the juvenille detective next for an investigation and restitution. These kids that we know of are all listed in the police report and if any of them are caught doing anything in the next year this case will automatically go to trial (or at least that's what I'm told). Yes, a couple of the kids at least were from St. Charles.

Now I am sick with a cold, so I will not be at class on Thurs, but I want you all to know from me what happened. Denise had planned on giving the lecture this week anyway, so that's a blessing. We have guest speaker coming to do a brief presentation as well.

Please feel free to pass this info on to others in the class that I don't have an email address for or who don't have email. I know you will all be praying and if you ever pass by 2300 St. Francis Way in San Carlos maybe you can keep an eye out. :)

Hugs and love from your sister in Christ,
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I hope that the family decides to press charges. If someone did that to my house I would press charges so fast that they won't know what hit them.