And in this case, credit goes to my CA colleague, Clay Bailey, who tipped off the Juvenile Court to some illegal doings by Germantown and Bartlett. And he did it in just one paragraph in a Sept. 13 story about three G’town teenagers who were vandalizing cars in Kimbrough Woods.

All three 17-year-olds - two students at Houston High, the other from Christian Brothers High - were given misdemeanor juvenile summonses and will be handled through Germantown’s youth offenders program, where everything from service hours to retribution to letters of apology are possible as punishment for the crimes.

When Juvenile Court officials read this story, they realized that Germantown was dodging the Juvenile Court system - through which all juvenile offenders must be processed, by law. That led to Juvenile Court Judge Curtis Person’s cease-and-desist letter to Germantown’s youth services programs and a letter to Bartlet, which was committing the same offense.

Why Germantown and Bartlett authorities thought the law didn’t apply to them is still under investigation.

The Guest Diva and metro columnist,
Wendi C. Thomas