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If a 16 year old can be tried as an adult for felonies, their actions should not be excused for "young stupidity." When I was 12 years old I stole a pair of tennis shoes from a gym locker, and to this day it haunts me. It was a misdeameanor and I served my 30 days probation and was told the event would be expunged from my record at the age of 17.
I am now 23 and still get turned down from security jobs and my college application is even suffering because my state record shows "felony larceny of a building." I have called my local courthouse and they assure me that while my record was expunged long ago, as they can't even find my name mentioned in their archives, there is allegedly "nothing I can do" to have my state records corrected and cleared.
This could appear hypocritical, but while I think it's absolute horseshit a mistake I made at the age of 12 should be effecting my life over a decade later, I believe 16 should actually be the age at which you no longer are given free passes.
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