I have a new hero. I don’t know her real name but in her Southeast Washington DC neighborhood, they just call her “Grandma.”

Last Friday Grandma was on her way to chemo when a 15-year-old punk walked up and ordered her to hand over her car keys.

“I have a gun,” he said.

“Baby, you’d better shoot me because you’re not taking my car,” she shot back.

A struggle ensued - Grandma’s hand was sliced by the keys - but she screamed for help and help arrived. Her grandson and some other neighborhood boys heard the commotion, and ran to her defense.

The would-be car jacker was taken away in an ambulance.

Score one for the good guys. And for Grandma.

You can watch the ABC news report and interview with Grandma here.

According to a news report by ABC’s Sam Ford, Washington is experiencing an epidemic of carjackings. There have been 82 so far this year. Friday’s incident won’t be included in the stats because the future felon didn’t get Grandma’s car.

The bigger story, however, is that even leftie council members - there are no conservatives on that body - in Washington have noticed that while kids get caught jacking cars, they don’t get incarcerated.

Sound familiar?

In Hampton Roads kids go to school sporting court-ordered ankle bracelets. After committing violent crimes.

That’s unacceptable.

School administrators and juvenile judges have a duty to protect the community as well as children. If a kid is violent and the court wants him or her tethered to an electronic monitoring device 24/7, that child does not belong in a regular classroom with children who are simply trying to learn.

Either stick these kids in schools for troubled teens or in juvenile detention. Do not jeopardize the community.

In 2021 a Newport News teenager who was wearing a court-ordered ankle bracelet - because he’d shot someone - brought a gun to school and shot two more people: His classmates.

Why wasn’t he in a detention center? He’s now in prison, where he belongs but he had to shoot three people to get there.

Is it any wonder public school enrollment is plummeting? Axios reports that public schools lost more than 1 million kids during and after lockdowns. Yet private and charter schools are packed and the number of homeschooled kids has more than doubled to 5 million.

There are many reasons for the exodus from America’s failing public schools - remote learning, masks, falling test scores, DEI, CRT - but an indifference to the safety of kids also plays a part.

In early January a Newport News 6-year-old shot and nearly killed his first grade teacher at Richneck Elementary school. In the aftermath, the public learned that school officials tolerated an intolerable amount of violent behavior by this particular child and shrugged off warnings from teachers who believed the little monster was armed with a gun on the day of the shooting.

Time to stop coddling bad kids and get them out of public schools. And off the streets.

Grandma’s would-be carjacker is reportedly being held in detention.

If history is any predictor, it won’t be for long.

Thumbnail photo by Greg Scales