To the teenagers who were hanging out at the Wildewood Pool playground on Monday evening, Sept. 10, around 7:30:

You should be ashamed of yourselves. Going through a 9-year-old boy’s backpack, stealing his dinner, tearing it up and throwing it all over the ground, kicking his lunch box around the pavilion, throwing sandwich pieces into his backpack to get all over his school books, dumping his soda out onto the pavilion, and acting like cowards. You knew this was wrong. You knew this probably belonged to the kid on the playground, who was probably half your age. You knew this was wrong, yet you did it anyway.

Did he come crying to me because someone stole and ruined his dinner? No. Did he come crying to me because he thought someone chewed up and spit in his stuff? No. He was upset over the mess you left and his new book getting sticky. How dare you? I was at a volunteer meeting, for service to this community, and this is what members of the community do back?

May you realize how horrible you have behaved. May you never find yourself in the position as a parent one day who has to explain to their child that some people are just mean.

AnneMarie Karnbach, Hollywood