We would like to commend Robert Skydell for his opinion piece in the Sept. 19 Gazette. We had our home broken into by neighbors and their friends, several caught red-handed by the police, asleep in our vandalized home. Like Mr. Skydell, we did not want the kids thrown into prison. What we did request was that the young people have to face us and apologize. Instead the district attorney chose to have the kids write a letter (whoa, that’ll teach them) and do a few hours of community service. The DA suggested that she knew better than we did how to deal with teenagers. We raised three girls and their myriad friends but I guess that was not enough experience for our opinion to count.

We do not live on the Vineyard but the Vineyard is happy to take our tax dollars. Thus we have no voice other than the written word. I hope Vineyard residents would think about how their elected officials deal with minor youth crime.

Larry and Ricki Lewis
Glenville, N.Y.