The stories you want. The opinions that matter.
No, thanks
Tag: parents
Parents Apologize After Students Arrested In Alleged Mass-Shooting Plot

Parents Apologize After Students Arrested In Alleged Mass-Shooting Plot

By Joseph Serna and Veronica Rocha, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — The parents of two South Pasadena teens charged with plotting a mass shooting at their school apologized Wednesday to the community for their sons’ alleged behavior.

“My wife and I would like to apologize to the whole community, every student, every parent every faculty,” the stepfather of one of the teens told NBC4 outside the juvenile court. “We do not condone (that) kind of behavior.”

The charges come after police launched an investigation last week after receiving information that the two suspects had shared their plans with another teen, who they then threatened to kill, prosecutors said.

The father of the second boy charged in the case released a statement to the media after the court appearance, which was not open to the public:

“We were greatly saddened and disappointed of the allegations. We would like to apologize to the community of South Pasadena. We would like to thank the person who stepped forward, who had the courage, to advise the authorities and thank South Pasadena Police Department for their professionalism and their kindness to us during this difficult issue.”

The family requested that the media not use their name.

South Pasadena Police Chief Art Miller said at a news conference Tuesday that the boys had a “very specific plan on how they were going to carry out their sick mission.”

“As they put it, they just wanted to kill as many people as possible,” Miller said. There was no target date for the alleged attack plan, he said.

The boys, who were arrested Monday, had researched weaponry, explosives, and methods for disarming people, and “very coldheartedly” discussed their plans with each other online, he said.

The teens also told investigators they were willing to die in a shootout with police, Miller said.

On Monday, police served search warrants at the boys’ home. No weapons were found, officials said. The FBI was assisting with the ongoing forensics investigation.

South Pasadena High School, which has about 1,500 students, resumed classes Thursday. The school’s principal, Janet Anderson, sent parents and employees an email late Tuesday saying that the school would see an increased police presence as students return from summer break.

“That presence is for reassurance and security and not due to any ongoing threat,” she wrote.

Photo: Rob Bixby via Flickr

Interested in national news? Sign up for our daily email newsletter!

Parents Of Isla Vista Shooter: We Are Crying Out In Pain For Victims, Families

Parents Of Isla Vista Shooter: We Are Crying Out In Pain For Victims, Families

By Joseph Serna, Los Angeles Times

The parents of Isla Vista killer Elliott Rodger say it has been “hell on earth” knowing that their son caused the tragedy that took the lives of six University of California Santa Barbara students last week and that they remain heartbroken.

“We are crying out in pain for the victims and their families. It breaks our hearts on a level that we didn’t think was possible,” Peter and Chin Rodger said in a statement disseminated by family friend Simon Astaire. “The feeling of knowing that it was our son’s actions that caused this tragedy can only be described as hell on earth.”

The statement is the most in-depth public communication from the couple since the immediate aftermath of the rampage on Friday night, when their 22-year-old son sped through the streets of the seaside college town of Isla Vista running down bicyclists and shooting at pedestrians and convenience store customers.

The attack killed three and wounded 13 others. Police later found the bodies of Elliot Rodger’s three roommates in his apartment. They had been stabbed to death.

The six victims were: Christopher Michaels-Martinez, 20; Weihan “David” Wang, 20; Cheng Yuan “James” Hong, 20; Veronika Weiss, 19; Katie Cooper, 22; and George Chen, 19.

Rodger shot himself as police closed in after he crashed his car during the attack.

In a series of videos Rodger posted to YouTube before the massacre, the Santa Barbara City College student described himself as a virgin who had never been kissed and had no friends and blamed his isolation on society in general and women in particular.

In an interview with CNN, Astaire recalled his encounters with the young man, whom he described as “unbearably reserved, self-contained.”

“He seemed to merge into the walls,” Astaire said. “He seemed the loneliest person in the world.”

Astaire said Rodger’s parents hope to help ensure a similar attack can never happen again.

“It is now our responsibility to do everything we can to help avoid this happening to any other family — not only to avoid any more innocence destroyed, but also to identify and deal with the mental issues that drove our son to do what he did,” they said in the statement.

The violence has lawmakers in Sacramento revisiting the state’s gun-control laws, including provisions to screen for those with mental health issues.

Rodger had been seeing therapists since he was a child and had been prescribed psychotropic drugs. Regardless, he was able to legally purchase three handguns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

Sheriff’s department officials said he had more than 400 rounds in his car at the time of last weekend’s shooting.

Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times/MCT

Foreign-Born Parents Not Mooching Off Social Security System

Q: I am sick and tired of all these people who bring their parents over here from foreign countries and then immediately put them on their Social Security account. No wonder Social Security is going broke! I personally know two couples in my neighborhood who get Social Security. They brought their parents up from Mexico and now they are mooching monthly checks off the Social Security system. You can’t tell me this isn’t an outrage!

A: It might be an outrage if it were true. But it’s not. Either you’re lying about these two couples you “personally know,” or you’ve picked up on some xenophobic neighborhood gossip and fallen for another in the long line of urban myths about Social Security.

Let’s say you’re getting Social Security checks. And let’s say you have some parents living overseas. And let’s say you bring them here to live with you. And then, finally, let’s say you want them to get dependent parent’s benefits on your Social Security account. Do you know what you would have to do first?

Die! Social Security benefits to dependent parents are paid only on the account of a Social Security taxpayer who has died.

So, as for these two couples of whom you speak who brought their parents up from Mexico to get Social Security benefits — unless one or both members of the couple are dead, it simply can’t be true.

But let’s get back to you. Let’s say you conveniently thought you would simply die just so that your parents could get Social Security benefits on your record. It’s not quite that simple. They would have to jump through several other eligibility hoops before the government checks would start rolling in.

Here’s just one of them: Your parents would have to prove that you were supporting them before you died. So, unless you were sending half your paycheck to your parents before you died to pay their rent and buy their groceries, they simply couldn’t qualify for benefits on your record.

In the United States, there are only about 2,000 people getting monthly Social Security checks as a parent on a deceased adult child’s Social Security record. That’s 2,000 people out of about 50 million Social Security beneficiaries. So even those people legally getting parents’ benefits aren’t exactly bankrupting the system!

Q: I sure wish you would get off your kick of dealing with so many of Social Security’s political issues. I think you’re at your best when you stick to the basics and just answer people’s questions about Social Security. And here’s one for you: I am about to turn 62 and plan to file for my Social Security. But I am also a widow and could be eligible for my husband’s Social Security. I went to my Social Security office, and they said they couldn’t help me without an appointment. They told me to use their website and file my claim there. What do you say?

A: At times, I know that it may seem like I overemphasize the political and policy side of Social Security. I’ve spent the last 40 years either working for the Social Security Administration or writing this column. And in all that time, I’ve never seen so much pernicious propaganda about the program.

I really think it has a lot to do with the anti-government sentiment that prevails in this country. People will latch onto anything they read or hear — no matter how preposterous — if it supports their belief that the government is corrupt and that our elected officials are incompetent.

Anyway, whenever I come across misleading information, I feel obliged to set the record straight. Having said that, you may be interested and pleased to learn that I have gone back and looked at all of my columns for the past 12 months, and easily 80 percent of them dealt with the practical side of Social Security.

So now, I’ll get practical with you. I’m ashamed to admit that my former colleagues at the Social Security Administration did you an injustice. First, even though you should have made an appointment before visiting your local office, they really could have found someone to help you file your claim when you showed up anyway.

Second, the online process is not the way you want to go. That’s because you’ll have some decisions to make regarding the two benefits for which you’re potentially eligible. For example, you might want to take widow’s benefits now and switch to your own retirement benefits later on. Or it may be better to do it the other way around: retirement benefits now and widow’s benefits later. And the online application system just isn’t sophisticated enough to deal with those complicated situations and help you make a decision.

So you should call SSA at 800-772-1213 to make an appointment to talk to someone in person about your Social Security options.

If you have a Social Security question, Tom Margenau has the answer. Contact him at thomas.margenau@comcast.net. To find out more about Tom Margenau and to read past columns and see features from other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2011 CREATORS.COM