Lessons to Learn: Excuses for alleged teenage actions of Supreme Court nominee unwarranted

Being held accountable for our actions as students is an important lesson to learn.

A recent article by the New York Times addressing the allegations against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh sexually assaulting a girl at a party decades ago shows that some adults are putting aside a lesson that they have been lecturing us about for our whole lives.

For Kavanaugh, a 17 year old during the incident (and another allegation concerns when he was a freshman in college), many adults are now dismissing this situation as something that is too irrelevant to be bringing up now. 

Matt Walsh, a writer for TheBlaze, was one of many commentators that took this position. “If the story is true, we now have to decide whether a man is unqualified for the Supreme Court because he drunkenly groped a girl 35 years ago when he was 17. I’m going to answer ‘no’ on that one. I don’t see how this has any bearing on his qualifications whatsoever,” Walsh tweeted. 

The dismissal of this situation tells young adults that what we do now is not relevant in the future.

But we know that is not true. 

At this point, we know right from wrong and what good and bad looks like. Whether the allegations against Kavanaugh are true or not about the sexual assault, the suggestion that it doesn’t matter because those involved were teenagers is disturbing and wrong.

The least that Kavanaugh can do is either confess and ask for a second chance or forgiveness, or he can defend himself if he is innocent as he is currently seeking to do, but at no point should anyone offer excuses for him because of his age. 

As teenagers turning into young adults in high school, it is time to be able to be held accountable for our actions. Adults should remember when they try to give a pass for teenagers that younger people are looking to them as examples.