How will the Mass. juvenile justice system handle the Woburn bullying case?

A hearing is scheduled this morning in juvenile court to determine whether there's enough evidence to issue criminal charges against seven Woburn Memorial High School students accused of bullying a freshman football player last fall. This is just the latest in a string of high-profile incidents of bullying in local schools, including and Duxbury and Danvers. Daniel Medwed, Northeastern University law professor and GBH News legal analyst, joined hosts Paris Alston and Jeremy Siegel on Morning Edition today to talk about the case and the Massachusetts juvenile justice system.

Paris Alston: So, talk with us about what happened in Woburn. What exactly are the allegations here?

Daniel Medwed: A former Woburn Memorial High School student named Jonathan has accused a group of fellow freshmen and J.V. football players of assaulting him in the locker room last fall in retaliation for a prior incident in which he allegedly got the team in trouble. A video recording captured all of this on tape. Apparently, about a dozen students surrounded Johnathan. They were spraying him with water, throwing water bottles at him. Some of them even threw punches. Another student allegedly pulled down Johnathan's pants and groped him. In addition, Johnathan has made allegations that after this incident, a couple other students accosted him and threatened him with being "a snitch." Those are the basic facts.

Jeremy Siegel: So there's a hearing in this case today, Daniel. What exactly will happen at it, what charges are the students facing?

Medwed: This hearing, Jeremy, is called a probable cause hearing. It's going to be held in Lowell juvenile court. And the idea is the state has to present enough evidence to proceed, to issue criminal charges. And specifically, a juvenile court judge will see if there's enough evidence to file assault and battery criminal charges against these seven students. And with respect to the one student who's accused of actually groping Jonathan in the genital area, there's an additional charge of indecent assault and battery. So it basically is a preliminary hearing to see whether the case can go forward.

Alston: These are juveniles, Daniel. We're talking about teenagers. What could happen to them if those criminal complaints are issued?

Medwed: It really depends. Thousands and thousands of kids are actually arrested in Massachusetts each year, according to data from the FBI. In 2018 alone, more than 7,000 kids were arrested. But that doesn't mean they're actually going to be locked up. There are a number of what are called off ramps that will allow students to be diverted into community programs or simply go about their lives.

There's a terrific organization here in Massachusetts called Citizens for Juvenile Justice that that compiles data in this area. And according to that organization, only a small fraction of folks who are arrested are ultimately adjudicated — that's the juvenile term for a trial and after there's an adjudication of guilt, namely a conviction, some of those students are then committed to the Department of Youth Services and basically incarcerated or detained for a period of time.

But according to the data from this organization, only about three to five percent of the folks who are arrested in the juvenile system ultimately are committed to the Department of Youth Services. And if you're committed to the Department of Youth Services, you might be kept incarcerated until the age of 18. You might be put on probation or there might be a number of other outcomes.

Siegel: I'm curious as we're talking about the data, Daniel, do we know how often cases like this are happening? Because — this is speaking purely anecdotally — but it seems like we're hearing more about bullying cases, serious bullying cases like this one. Are these cases happening more or are we just talking about that more?

Medwed: That's so interesting, and the answer is I have no clue. On the one hand, I think this could just be the tip of the iceberg because we only hear about the really extreme or serious cases of bullying that make the headlines. And there may be any number of lower level bullying cases that are handled purely in-house, in part because maybe the victim feels uncomfortable lodging a formal complaint or the school, to some extent, brushes it under the rug. I just don't know.

But it also could be a function of the fact that we now have a lot of social media. Kids are taking videos on their cell phones. There's more exposure to things that previously were sort of shrouded in darkness. If there was a bullying incident like this in a locker room 10 years ago. It might just be part of the rumor mill. Now someone's going to record it on a phone and it's going to be out there and we're going to start talking about it.

Alston: And not to mention that for the last year and a half, almost two years we've been in this, this loop of being in school, not in school, remote learning. And I imagine that maybe having remote learning lessens those opportunities for bullying.

Medwed: I think that's right. Certainly, in-person bullying, team sports have been off and on for a while during the pandemic. And many of these incidents, for better or worse, seem to involve sports — teams that are bullying a weaker members of the team or folks who aren't involved in the activity.

But that's a really interesting point. Is there a COVID correlation to this? Are these things happening now because the students are coming back to school? Maybe they're a little bit untethered and things are getting out of hand? Or have we always had this problem and we're just learning about it more now?

Alston: And how exactly are juveniles treated once they get into the system, Daniel? We hear often how there will be young people who are actually charged as adults, and that really steers the trajectory of how they're going to be treated when they're going through the justice system.

Medwed: That's absolutely right. So first of all, traditionally we've had a system in Massachusetts for juvenile justice since 1906, and it was based on this idea called "parents patriae," sort of a fancy Latin phrase that says the government should stand in the shoes of the parents and that we should give guidance and direction to kids and we shouldn't be too harsh in penalizing them because they're worthy of rehabilitation. They can always change themselves going forward, unlike adults who might be more fully formed. And also, they're less blameworthy because as we now know from adolescent brain science, juveniles lack the ability in their prefrontal cortex to often calculate risk-reward or cost-benefit really clearly. They can't speculate or anticipate the long-term consequences of their actions as well as adults. So for those reasons, they're often given more benign or lenient treatment.

But Paris, as you indicate, we also have a system in Massachusetts that can charge some children as what are called youthful offenders. We adopted that law back in 1996. It was a rightward turn by the Massachusetts Legislature to be tough on crime. And the idea is that if someone who's over the age of 14 commits murder, they are automatically charged as a youthful offender, which means they're charged as an adult. And if they commit another serious crime, something other than murder, then it's up to the prosecution to have the discretion to charge them as a youthful offender. So you're right, Paris, absolutely. We have these tough on crime youthful offender laws on the books that can allow some juveniles to be charged as adults.