Sunday, October 20, 2013

How To Raise A Monster


Deputies have arrested a Florida woman whose 14-year-old daughter was charged earlier this week with maliciously harassing another young girl who jumped off a tower to her death.
Vivian Vosburg, 30, of Lakeland, Fla., was charged with two counts of child abuse with bodily harm and four counts of child neglect, the Polk County Sheriff said.
The charges were unrelated to the arrest of Vosburg’s daughter, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
They stem from a video posted on Facebook, which showed two children fighting, while a woman punched them and screamed profanities at them, the statement said.
Several other children, aged 9 to 14, were shown in the video shouting obscenities and moving around what appears to be a bedroom, the statement said.
Vosburg admitted to investigators that she was the woman in the video, and she had punched one child in the face and had punched the other several times on the back of the head and shoulders, the sheriff’s office said.
She was jailed pending a hearing scheduled for Saturday morning.
Vosburg and her husband have seven children. The sheriff’s office did not identify the children in the video but said Vosburg “had access” to them and that child protective services were called in.
Vosburg’s 14-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old friend were charged Tuesday with felony aggravated stalking of Rebecca Ann Sedwick, who was 12 when she committed suicide last month after being bullied at school and online.
The two were among a large group of girls who “repeatedly and maliciously harassed” Sedwick, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said earlier in the week.
The girls fought with Sedwick at school, threatened other girls who were friendly with her and sent online messages calling her ugly and encouraging her to kill herself, Judd said.
Sedwick became so despondent that she climbed a tower at an abandoned cement plant and jumped to her death, he said.
Vosburg’s 14-year-old daughter was held in juvenile custody after a brief hearing, and the 12-year-old was released to her parents.

25 comments:

Jeff said...

Vosburg gave birth to her daughter when she was 16. This is another example of what happens when a child raises a baby (regardless of any outside parental help she may have received) - a childish, self-absorbed bully is created. I remember back in the 1980's when a high rate of pregnancy developed among young teens, I asked myself, "I wonder what sort of people those infants will become after being raised by children themselves." Those babies would now be 30 (give or take a couple of years). And what age group contains the largest amount of adult males who still live at home with their parents, unwilling to work so they can play video games instead? The 30 year olds. If a female teacher molests one (or usually more), of her students, what age will that teacher typically be? Age 30. While I do not have evidence to prove the 30 year old losers of today were born to teen girls, it would be very interesting if somebody did a serious, sociological study to see if there is, indeed, a correlation between sociopathy and having been raised by a teenager. I write this knowing some will agree with me, and many more will crucify me with juvenile responses.

Carnival Barker said...

Wow, Jeff, I never made that correlation, but you may have a point. It's an interesting theory, nonetheless, and worth looking in to. I remember reading a statistic in the book Freakanomics that said that 20 years after Roe v. Wade, the crime rate had dropped considerably, so you may actually be on to something.

Anonymous said...

Jeff, you're wrong. Those who raise their child to be evil are evil themselves. It doesnt matter what age they are when they have the children. If an evil person waits till age 35 to have children, they will still be evil. It takes courage and strength to be raised by an evil parent and remain good.
How do I know? I was raised by an evil parent and was the one who stopped one of my sister's from her fondness for sadistically making fun of my other sister. These types of people look fir vulnerable socially isolated people and ENJOY tormenting them mercilessly.
Where did my nasty sister learn her behavior? My parent who noone would have ever suspected was anything but a living saint, did not have kids at a young age, went to church every Sunday etc.

Nanna Frances said...

This article says Vivian Vosburg is the stepmother.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/mom-accused-teen-cyber-bully-arrested-child-abuse/story?id=20617247

Vosburg is the biological mother of some of the children in the video but not all. She is in step relation to Guadalupe Shaw.

~mj said...

Anon, while I appreciate your candor about your personal life and equally validate how hard that must have been for you, that does not make Jeff's point "wrong."

Jeff brings out a point that is quite possibly spot on and at the same time, there is going to be a population of "evil" people who raise children too, no matter their age.

I would be surprised if Jeff's theory were inacurate. Most young teens have a hard enough time with critical thinking and responsibility as it is, let alone have the ability to teach those necessary skills to another human being.

TexTchr said...

According to Heavy.com:
Vosburg has told anyone who will listen that she believes her daughter's Facebook page was hacked. She said that her daughter is a "lovable," "caring" girl. Vosburgtold ABC News: "I would check her Facebook every time she would get on it."
Hmmm - mom said she WOULD check....

Read more at: http://www.heavy.com/news/2013/10/vivian-vosburg-guadalupe-shaw-rebecca-sedwick/

Anonymous said...

mj--Young teens do not have the best critical thinking skills, but a lack of critical thinking is not what causes this type of behavior that seeks "to destroy the other person".
If a child receives love they do not act the way this girl bully acted. MOST likely this bully girl was severely abused (mentally) by both parents. The bully girl has stated she doesnt "give a f@ck that the other girl killed herself" because she doesn't care, and as we can see, neither do the parents. The truth is, sadly, that one or both parents tormented their soon to become bully daughter and "didn't give a f&ck" how it effected her and this girl has followed her parents example a little too closely.
In their minds, they have done nothing wrong! It is like a tiger mauling injured prey--has the tiger done anything wrong?
Of course not! In their minds it is the prosecutor who wants to punish their daughter and themselves who are wrong! In their minds they are very clever and have absolute confidence they can sway a judge and the public the daughter did not write the email message.
Evil people are much better at critical thinking because this is their primary tool used to outwit, manipulate and deceive others.

Anonymous said...

We need to return Florida to Spain.

Jeff said...

I did not mean to imply that teens rearing babies were the sole source of the problem, just a large and common factor. Of course there are other factors - our current sociology courtesy of a media glamorizing violence, and a 'justice' system working to protect the criminal so he/she can breed unrelentingly, certainly contributes to the plight - but certainly the inexperienced, immature mentality of a teen parent exacerbates the problem because its next generation exhibits an immoral mentality even sooner (hence, younger and younger children having sex with each passing decade). I agree, Anon, that evil people will raise evil children; I thought that part was obvious enough it did not need to be addressed. I thank you for your support and opinions.

MsCabinFever said...

Anonymous said...
We need to return Florida to Spain.
October 20, 2013 at 1:29 PM
Oh my gosh, I am still laughing!

I think Jeff has a really valid point here. Surely there have been some sort of studies that isolate and evaluate or compare particular generations.
The young parent obviously must have had an inclination towards a rotten character prior to raising a child. That is learned behavior.
Cycles are hard to break. It takes action on the part of others. Most people don't have the strength, time or desire to step outside of their own circle of life.
I remember not to long ago trying to help children that were clearly being neglected. The house was also known for past sexual and physical abuse that was severe.
I reached out to that mother's older sister telling her what I saw, hoping she would somehow intervene. The sister said, "I think it's up to each mother to screw up her own children. It's not anyone else's business."
Wow.

I am not sure what the solution is. How do you force people to have good solid morals? How do you explain to a product of that cycle that good character and integrity are vital?

It's getting really depressing seeing report after report of disturbing acts involving children.

Anonymous said...

Bonnie Blue asked "How do you explain to a product of that cycle that good character and integrity are vital? "
The problem is that they are not vital. Goodness is an unnecessary generous extension of the self. Developing a cruel nature when raised by cruel parents is, in fact, what is vital.
This bully girl got what she wanted--she destroyed the other girl. Explaining to her that integrity is vital will make no sense to her when cruelty gets her what she wants.

annie said...

Jeff said...

"Vosburg gave birth to her daughter when she was 16. This is another example of what happens when a child raises a baby (regardless of any outside parental help she may have received) "

In much of the world, women have their babies as soon as they are able to conceive.

God designed them that way. Who should say this is a bad idea?


dadgum said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jeff said...

Annie, that's a nice thought, but unfortunately criminals or those with criminal tendancies do not follow the word of God. They may go to church (such as the BTK killer), but they do not follow God's commandments. Hence, they use their bodies, and procreation, in ways that do not benefit God or anybody else, and it is that very selfishness that is part of problem.

Shelley said...

I do feel that teens having kids puts alot of added pressure on a person and does affect their parenting skills.

However, I think that typcially when you have someone who is a bully, there is usually abuse at home.

And of all the people that I know that did get pregnant young and had grown up in a good home, were good parents. Even if they made mistakes.

I think the fact that this "step mom" was seen punching her kids in the face, it is safe to say this "bully" in fact came from an abusive home.

Punching a child in the face is just so outside of the norm.

I can not even fathom the idea.

But then, I have a very well behaved child who responds well to time out and having things taken away for 24 hours.

Being that I would babysit starting at age 11, and would do it full time in the summers, I even then used time outs with the kids.

And while I can imagine that kids that came from poor homes who had kids young could potentially be worse, I dont think that is the biggest factor.

I mean a kid who was loved and nurtured their whole lives does not just turn abusive by having a child too young.

It is ingrained.

I am glad that the "step mom" was arrested.

But had it not been for that video, she may not have been. And she is raising more people to be the same way.


Ruse said...

I don't know any bullies who seem to come from an abusive home or a youthful parent, but the bullies in my school have parents who make certain their kid is on the top of every totem pole all through school, and has never been told "No" in his or her whole life. That's not abusive as I would describe it, nor is exalting their child to be an entitled jerk, but it looks irresponsible to me and it's just what I see the most of. I see a lot of good kids and a few bad ones - and over the last 20 or 30 years, it really hasn't changed, but now the nightly news covers bullying and we're all talking about it.
Just a point of interest regarding the 80s birth rate, we heard a lot more about births (and ?? student-molesting teachers, and just about everything else)in this decade due to a increased availability of and ease of access to the information. The birth rate in the 50's, 60's and most of the 70's was still higher in the United States than it ever was in the 80's and it has continued to decline. I don't write this to crucify anyone with a juvenile response, but to share an amicable disagreement instead. If a more juvenile response is warranted, maybe you'll get one from the millions of 40-60 year olds born to teenagers in the 1950 and 60's. Perhaps your argument has more to with 80's babies than teen mothers, in which case that earlier-mentioned wealth of easy info and recreation at our fingertips had just begun to seduce society into technological comas.

Anonymous said...

It's sad but psychopaths do not conform to a lot of the things people are trying to project here, like if people just procreated for God this would
help.
It's well-intentioned to thinks such, but unfortunately many psychopaths claim to be procreating for God's will.
I wish it were so easy to identify them but oftentimes they present as very moral people who obey God's word and "would never hurt a fly".
From my experience with one, be careful of a person who TRIES very hard and is very succesful in eliciting pity (but doesn't deserve it) (the person will present as a "pitiful person" when necessary to escape blame) along with acting like they are "without sin" yet you do not get a sense that they are kind.

Jeff said...

Thanks for the perspective, Ruse. I agree there are more factors to consider than just age of parents or birth rate, but certainly, many teen parents are ill-equipped to deal with the rigors of parenthood where an older, experienced person can have greater tolerance and devotion. I know this is not always the case, but the younger person simply hasn't yet acquired the tools and skill sets they may eventually accrue, creating a more volatile situation. Thanks again for the insight.

Anonymous said...

If you want to look at parenting trends, take it back another generation. What kind of parenting led to a generation of teenage mommies and absent daddies? What went wrong there?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous annie said...
Jeff said...

"Vosburg gave birth to her daughter when she was 16. This is another example of what happens when a child raises a baby (regardless of any outside parental help she may have received) "

In much of the world, women have their babies as soon as they are able to conceive.

God designed them that way. Who should say this is a bad idea?


**************************

It's a bad idea because very young mothers are often too small to deliver without sustaining serious injury.

It's a bad idea because a body that is still growing isn't well suited to nurturing another growing body.

It's a bad idea because some of these girls are in arranged marriages with much older men who are often abusive.

Furthermore, whether or not "god designed them that way" is up for serious debate. Increases in global temperatures and high levels of contamination in food and drinking water cause girls to begin menstruating far earlier than they otherwise would. Maybe "god" forgot to take those factors into consideration when firing up the baby-making organs.

Some people are sociopaths and aren't capable of raising healthy children. Monsters can be both born and created.

Jeff said...

To Anonymous@3:46 AM - I, too, would like to know the answer regarding that older generation.

MrsRob said...

Off Topic:

Something is off with the "Apostle" Ron Carpenter's story about his wife/Co-Pastor, Hope. He is clearly being deceptive in his statements quoted in this article as well as during the "Message to the Congregation." I wonder who has any concern for this woman's actual whereabouts or her general state of well being???

http://m.wbtv.com/#!/newsDetail/23701174

Anonymous said...

there is a study that morals, education, beliefs and more, will actually change your DNA that you pass on. if you are young, how will you pass on an upgrade in DNA to your babies?
church attendance and other functions that build up, education has dropped to no child left behind, dumbing down. add with gansta and thug mentality and general lazy worthlessness, human DNA is not evolving towards a one world order of peace and love.

Anonymous said...

I agree 100% and anyone who takes in this uneducated pile of rubbish as the gospel are certainly dumbing down the population.

Anonymous said...

I think as mother's moved out of the homes and into the workplace, some of these changes in children's development took place.

Just my humble opinion....