I was on the Guillotine earlier reading one of their Xanax threads, and found the following post by Seth Gross' father earlier this evening. He was responding to attacks on his son in that thread. It is a beautifully written post, and in the final analysis, Seth and his family were strong enough to find good from the bad. I thought it was very uplifting, and hope you enjoy it as well. I'll link the thread so that you can see what Mr Gross was responding to.
http://forum.theguillotine.com/topic/9303420/3/
... and his post.
I am not sure why it seems like you want more punishment for my son and are making false accusations about him, yet for others you are worried about them being destroyed from punishment. I am not calling out for punishment for the young men being discussed in this thread but I do not understand your position and the attack on my son.
My son was never charged with driving a vehicle another person was. There were several wrestlers involved in doing stupid things in the neighborhood in this situation and they charged only the ones that they caught. They charged those caught with all of the crimes, as there was no way to differentiate who did what. As far as what my son or others did, I will not get into any of that. I will say there was no evidence that anyone "broke" into anything. I believe stuff was taken from unlocked vehicles and an open garage, not a home. None of the victims asked for any restitution to fix anything that was broken (as I don't believe things were damaged). Most of the victims seemed very gracious in their statements to the court, obviously frustrated/disappointed but none wanting blood. I am not minimizing what was done, but the facts and the terms you used were inaccurate and misleading.
Did he get a slap on the wrist? I guess that is a question for each person to answer. Seth spent time in jail. He had his name plastered all over national media. People wishing him failure. People ripping on his faith. He was kicked off the wrestling team that had been his social life for the previous 6 months. All communication was cut off from the coaching staff. He lost his scholarship. There are still on-going things he is dealing with that he would not have to if this did not happen.
The financial impact has already been in the tens of thousands of dollars to him and his family.
We personally have had people go into our opened garage and took stuff from our vehicles. The people were never caught. Did I wish they were caught? Yes. I do. If they would have been caught and given the same legal punishment as my son I would not have thought is was a slap on the wrist.
The whole situation has been humbling for my son and our family. No one knows the dark time he went through in his heart and mind for the year following these events. I do believe he has grown from this experience and is a better young man than he was 16 months ago. He has shared his story several times to peers and younger kids to try to encourage others not to make the same mistake he made.
We have been blessed by so many people during this past 16 months. So many have been supportive and encouraging to Seth, wanting to see him learn and grow from his mistakes and make the most of a second chance. Thank you for believing in him for who he is and not defining him by one decision. In addition, so many people have prayed for us as parents, reached out to us with words of encouragement and truly wrapped us up in God's love. Thank you, we appreciate you more than you will ever know.
http://forum.theguillotine.com/topic/9303420/3/
... and his post.
I am not sure why it seems like you want more punishment for my son and are making false accusations about him, yet for others you are worried about them being destroyed from punishment. I am not calling out for punishment for the young men being discussed in this thread but I do not understand your position and the attack on my son.
My son was never charged with driving a vehicle another person was. There were several wrestlers involved in doing stupid things in the neighborhood in this situation and they charged only the ones that they caught. They charged those caught with all of the crimes, as there was no way to differentiate who did what. As far as what my son or others did, I will not get into any of that. I will say there was no evidence that anyone "broke" into anything. I believe stuff was taken from unlocked vehicles and an open garage, not a home. None of the victims asked for any restitution to fix anything that was broken (as I don't believe things were damaged). Most of the victims seemed very gracious in their statements to the court, obviously frustrated/disappointed but none wanting blood. I am not minimizing what was done, but the facts and the terms you used were inaccurate and misleading.
Did he get a slap on the wrist? I guess that is a question for each person to answer. Seth spent time in jail. He had his name plastered all over national media. People wishing him failure. People ripping on his faith. He was kicked off the wrestling team that had been his social life for the previous 6 months. All communication was cut off from the coaching staff. He lost his scholarship. There are still on-going things he is dealing with that he would not have to if this did not happen.
The financial impact has already been in the tens of thousands of dollars to him and his family.
We personally have had people go into our opened garage and took stuff from our vehicles. The people were never caught. Did I wish they were caught? Yes. I do. If they would have been caught and given the same legal punishment as my son I would not have thought is was a slap on the wrist.
The whole situation has been humbling for my son and our family. No one knows the dark time he went through in his heart and mind for the year following these events. I do believe he has grown from this experience and is a better young man than he was 16 months ago. He has shared his story several times to peers and younger kids to try to encourage others not to make the same mistake he made.
We have been blessed by so many people during this past 16 months. So many have been supportive and encouraging to Seth, wanting to see him learn and grow from his mistakes and make the most of a second chance. Thank you for believing in him for who he is and not defining him by one decision. In addition, so many people have prayed for us as parents, reached out to us with words of encouragement and truly wrapped us up in God's love. Thank you, we appreciate you more than you will ever know.
