“I shouldn’t be doing this, but I’m going to…”

No, not something overheard in a University dorm.

These are the words of Judge Gary McKinley who recently excused two “football stars” from Kenton, Ohio, of their reckless behavior that left one young man physically disabled and another brain damaged.

Last November, Dailyn Campbell, 16, and Jesse Howard, 17, who apparently weren’t being stimulated enough by football, decided to steal a deer decal from a local man. Since the decal only had two legs and wouldn’t stand on its own, they built a platform under it, then completed their work of art by covering the deer with obscenities.

After they placed the decal in the middle of the road, they drove up and down the road, watching drivers swerve to avoid the road hazard they created. No one thought to stop the prank, thinking it might be unsafe.

Robert Roby, Jr. and his passenger, Dustin Zachariah, became the victims of this juvenile, reckless prank.

Roby swerved to miss the deer decoy and his car crashed into a both a pole and a fence. He broke several bones and is facing his 11th surgery. Since the accident, he has not been able to work or go to school.

His passenger, Dustin Zachariah, is brain damaged and, according to his mother in an Associated Press article, has the cognitive ability of a sixth grader.

Most ethical people would agree the culprits of this unthinkably careless act should be punished severely. They are essentially responsible for the destruction of two lives.

Judge McKinley, a retired Union County juvenile court judge, hearing the case in Hardin County, came to a decision that seemingly ignored the repercussions of the act and fails to punish Campbell and Howard effectively.

McKinley threw out an original sentence that would’ve lasted between one and two years.

His ruling allows the boys to play the entire football season – and then begin their 60-day juvenile detention sentences. In the meantime, they are on house arrest. We saw how effective house arrest was at crimping Martha Stewart’s lifestyle!

Howard expressed genuine regret for being responsible for practically ruining the lives of two young men only a couple of years older than him. But Campbell has two previous juvenile convictions. Is this someone who can be helped by playing football, as is the judge’s goal?

Judge McKinley feels he’s giving the boys a chance to make a better future for themselves by letting them play the season, thus giving them the chance to earn football scholarships, a chance at college and a better future.

But is this vindication for the two boys whose lives will never be the same? Are they being given justice for what they have lost?

This ruling has split the town of Kenton in half. Some feel the judge did the right thing. Others agree with me – that the judge basically let these kids off, when they are responsible for destroying lives. They still get to play their game, and the judge, in reality, showed them that football holds more value than life lessons.

All this does is show these boys that they can be reckless and thoughtless and not have to deal with the consequences, which does nothing to prepare them for adulthood, or life.