Last week a child was assaulted up in the cities simply because he was wearing the wrong color apparently. Nick Coleman writes this article in the Star Trib. I suggest you read it.
It would be easy for us here to say that it could never happen here. That stuff only happens in Minneapolis or St. Paul. Do you suppose that there was a time when residents there said it would never happen in their city too? You betcha.
Prevention and an engaged community helps to stop and prevent senseless acts of violence such as this one. Keeping kids interested in and staying in school is a start. Mentoring programs and activities help. What it really takes are actively involved adults in the lives of kids who hold them accountable for their actions when necessary and praise them when they do well.
It also takes a system that will identify troubled kids and deal with them. This is expensive and labor intensive. Even if they find the person who assaulted the kid in this incident, it won’t make it easier for him to snap out of the comma or to get back to a normal life, if he lives.