I feel like I read a completely different article than you.
I don’t see anyone praising Lunchables as being nutritious. I see it being praised as potentially reducing labor and storage costs. I also see that while the the reformulated versions meet some of the current NSLP guidelines (that apparently those sold in stores do not) several people are questioning whether they meet either the current or proposed NSLP guidelines when taking into account total sodium and saturated fat content.
The kids deserve to be punished, certainly. But it’s not clear to me what exactly they did. Put a an empty bucket over her head? If that’s all it was then they probably weren’t trying to harm her, just scare her and have a laugh at her expense.
Now if they put a bucket over her head and beat her up that’s different.
Either way it’s assault, but I think they’d deserve a much harsher punishment in the second scenario.
And those aren’t the only two possibilities either. I’m curious to read more about it as details emerge.
Sounds like the first. It’s still a pretty serious assault, because she was seriously injured. When you illegally assault someone you are responsible for the consequences.
This might vary by state but it was my understanding is that you are responsible for things that are reasonably likely for a person with your level of knowledge and intelligence to foresee reasonably happening.
I think a lot of reasonable teenagers of average intelligence would not foresee a seemingly able-bodied young-ish woman having a serious injury and requiring hospitalization as a result of putting a plastic bucket on her head.
Regardless of the laws of the state, at a minimum I would expect that comes into play at sentencing. (I mean, if they catch the kids I assume they’ll plead it out and get community service or something, but if it actually went to trial…)