One of the two teens charged with vandalism of the Presby Memorial Iris Gardens, Gideon Korn-Wyatt, made a public apology to the township of Montclair and to the gardens’ friends, asking for forgiveness. From The Montclair Times.
I would like to apologize for the destruction I caused to the Presby Iris Gardens, and for all the pain I caused to the friends of the gardens and the Township of Montclair.
It was an ignorant senseless act, and I did not mean to hurt anybody.
I’m really sorry for the trouble that this has brought to my family, my friends and my neighbors. I wish I could take that night back.
I would like to thank the administrators and members of the Presby Gardens for their understanding and I hope, that in time, they can forgive me for my actions.
I now realize the seriousness of what I did, and will be making restitution to help fix the destruction that I caused. I hope that the Presby Gardens will soon be back to the way they were before all this happened. I hope that the people and town of Montclair can forgive me.
GIDEON KORN-WYATT
At last week’s court hearing, Judge Booker ordered both teens to write a public apology and to send it to newspapers. Will Poris, are we going to hear from you?
i take no solace in the fact that gideon feels bad.
he didn’t write this on his own, a judge to forced him to. more than a year after the fact. and, gideon didn’t come clean, he was caught.
i’d submit his punishment should be to work the iris gardens for every day he hid from authorities.
Severe? sure, but his remorse is less than sincere.
maybe he needs to post his apology on Youtube (heavily edited and with effects of course)
Note to the judges of the world: what value does an ordered “press release” or “public apology” have in our culture today? Courtesy and politeness have a place, for sure, but only if validated by sincereity. This letter of apology has the net effect of a statement read at a press conference for media outlet broadcasts. The town citizens place greater value on the restitution/repair project, and if a corrective program where available to prevent this crime from happening again (such as community service, mentoring, etc).
The kid is doing as the court mandated. Accept it. At some point, if one has faith in humanity, you simply move on and let the kid get on with his life as well. That there were (so far) two skeptical comments by (of course) anonymous posters is very dismaying.
Not to get to gossipy (no, never on the Barista’s time), how were the perps apprehended? I haven’t paid too much attention to this, and it was news to me three days ago when they were mentioned as though everyone knew.
Will an apology be enough? Problems often reach deeper than court-ordered solutions/apologies.
Hopefully, the plants can organize, form a defense group.
I have read that these boys will “replace” the flowers they destroyed. How are 300 year old bulbs replaced?
Just curious.
Gideon, thank you for your apology. We all make mistakes. It is how we rectify our mistakes that defines us.
Marshall – they were apprehended because someone was motivated by The Presby’s monetary reward.
This is not news, this is going to turn into another debate on the severity of the crime and forgiveness.
The court ordered this, and the Kid complied. The apology was not self motivated, it was a compulsory statement ordered by a Judge and likely crafted by the kids parents.
The kids should give the gardens the cash to replace the damages and then stay away from them forever, and we can all shut up and forget about it.
Most of us have been forced to answer at some point in our lives for impulsive, poorly thought-out decisions–less publicly, thank goodness. I daresay, some of us are the result of impulsive, poorly-thought out decisions…
The young man acknowledged his wrongdoing, accepted his punishment, and asks for forgiveness.
This affair has been adjudicated in a court of law, and now moves into the realm of a private family matter. Both young men are in my prayers, as are the person or persons motivated by the monetary reward.
The kid has said more than Rumsfeld did when enabled far worse acts of vandalism and destruction of cultural heritage during the invasion of Iraq.
Inquiring Minds — in your prayers? How can you pray for these horrible miscreants!? You should pray for the souls of the poor, noble orchid rhizomes, whose spirits live on forever though their corporeal forms can never be replaced. You know who’s in my prayers? You. I pray for you, that you come to your senses and stop pestering God with your misguided entreaties. If he actually existed, he’d be really mad at you right now. You’re lucky he’s fictitious!
You know what would be hilarious? – If tomorrow, Porus released EXACTLY the same statement, with only the name at the end changed. Now that’d be cojones, eh? It’s about the only way he could change my opinion on him.
holier than thou–somebody got up on the wrong side of the crypt this morning!
These kids are also paying a 17G fine apiece, Correct ?
I believe it is 17,000 total. So 8,500 each.
$8,500 each ? Pretty expensive price to pay for a six pack .
I know, right!
Just because these kids are 18 and they got drunk that night, it does not mean that they do not know how to write a short apology to the press. I love how most of you assume that the youth of Montclair are uneducated (unless they are your own children). Sure, there are some bad seeds out there, but that is the case in every town.
This story would make good fodder for a Bud Lite Radio commercial, you know, …those spots where they sing about Real American “heroes” ?
I can almost hear it : “So here’s to you, Mr. Drunk and Stupid Presby Iris Garden Vandalizer ….”
I have heard that one of the young men involved in the incident will be attending Oxford University. Therefore, though this particular act was idiotic, they’re not complete idiots, and as the parent of 18- and 16-year old sons, IMHO the apology letter was likely written by the teen, not the parents.
What the hell bug crawled up all your butts? If a week ago you found out a kid from Montclair was going to Oxford, you’d be using it to justify why Montclair is better than Bloomfield High School. (Remember Barista’s poll on would you allow your kids to mingle with ours in high school?) But now you peg the same kid as too inept to have written a very simple letter.
Yes, they are sharing the $17G fine; $8500 each. This matter is about justice to The Presby Garden, not to the outraged holier than thou correspondents on Baristanet! I am sure The Presby is much happier receiving the funds to re-establish those beds than it would be if some sense of revenge was served by jailing these kids. And, if they’d been ordered to “work off” the damage at The Presby — well, how would that restore the garden’s loss?
Yet many people can “umderstand” why a Montclair resident (adult) flipped out on the garbage men!!
People leaving a bar at 2 in the morning make a mess on Bloomfield Avenue, and some of you attribute that to kids!
Kids make some idiotic movie staging a fight and O MY GOD IT’S THE END OF CIVILIZATION!! What are adults doing trolling kids’ websites anyway? I’m sure they didn’t intend 40- and 50-something cranks as their target audience.
I wish I’d seem some of you in action when you were teens.
You know, the good far outweighs the bad among our teens in our towns. How sad is it that too many of you get your rocks off bashing kids all day long. Grow up.
I went to Oxford.
“get your rocks off..”?
Nice mouth there, Mom.
And we love hearing your callow self remind us of it, Marshall. But have you ever also pled out to a misdemeanor?
Since the apology is court-ordered, we must accept it for what it is… a forced statement. But let’s be honest: the morning after, did the perps feel proud of what they did in a drunken stupor? Probably not. Shame, self-loathing, genuine regret; these are feelings most of us would want them to have over this incident of vandalism.
Has Oxford been appraised of the situation regarding one of their future students? If they rescinded their offer of admission, do you think the miscreant would really be sorry then? Sometime paying a fine and saying your sorry won’t fix it. If denial of higher education would make someone understand the nature of their “mistake”, then perhaps that would be a lesson learned.
Ah Cathar, I’ve been missing your charming presence in my life this past year.
Last week I was hiking in southern Utah and nearly stepped on a rattlesnake hidden under some plants, which luckily rattled at me before I took the final step that would likely have gotten me bitten. The feeling that coursed through my body when I heard that rattle was strikingly similar to the feeling I get when I read one of your comments.
Lee–
This pales in comparison to the crimes committed by Oxonians in perfectly good standing. The former master of my college was a Soviet mole, for God’s sake, and the security services knew it, to no effect on his academic standing.
They do, however, consider gardens to be sacred over there, so this crime might actually get the future undergrad in trouble.
Just as long as you really weren’t sneaking round the backyards of a “polyg” community to get your jollies, Marshall, I’m sure you came through the ordeal with both your morals and your pomposity unscathed and unleavened.
Thanks for the laugh today x.
Bloomfield Mom……
You must have mis-understood what you have read the original quote……
Ome of the young men is not going to Oxford….he is going to Oxfrod. Oxfrod is a carwash in Morristown.
Too bad about not gettting community service. I would have enjoyed watching these two morons in bright orange jumpsuits doing menial labor throughout the town.
Has no one here ever done a really stupid thing when they were drunk? I mean, okay, they were being idiots, but it’s not like these kids realized they were ripping up priceless 300-year old bulbs. You all sound pretty silly defending the flowers and calling these kids morons for something they did a year ago, not meaning to harm anyone. The letter was forced, yes, but it’s not like they’re secretly snickering as they write an apology for the Montclair Times. They feel bad, I’m sure.
And if I’m 17 and I can figure this out, maybe it’s because I can sympathize with them more– but maybe it’s just because you all are acting ridiculous.
Has no one here ever done a really stupid thing when they were drunk? I mean, okay, they were being idiots, but it’s not like these kids realized they were ripping up priceless 300-year old bulbs. You all sound pretty silly defending the flowers and calling these kids morons for something they did a year ago, not meaning to harm anyone. The letter was forced, yes, but it’s not like they’re secretly snickering as they write an apology for the Montclair Times. They feel bad, I’m sure.
And if I’m 17 and I can figure this out, maybe it’s because I can sympathize with them more– but maybe it’s just because you all are acting ridiculous.
It doesn’t matter if they were drunk, or if they knew how old the bulbs were! They knew they were destroying something that didn’t belong to them.
And if the rst of us are so out of touch for being upset by that – then let us destroy your psp’s and xboxes- after all we’re such senile fogies who don’t know better.
In all my memories of being drunk as a teenager, I never destroyed any property or committed any crimes! The people that are justifying these kids actions are probably just the kind of lackadaisical parents that these kids have. Values and ethics are taught by example. I would have much more respect for the teenager, if he came forward and apologized in the first place. The fact that he had to be caught and then forced to write an apology is not impressive at all.
It should read-
I would like to apologize for the destruction I caused to the Presby Iris Gardens. Damn! I got away with it up to now.
Sure, it was an ignorant senseless act but big deal, I didn’t hurt anybody.
My parents told me to say “I’m really sorry for the trouble that this has brought to my family, my friends and my neighbors. I wish I could take that night back.” Ok ok I said it!
I would like to thank the administrators and members of the Presby Gardens for their understanding and I hope, that in time, they can forgive me for my actions blah blash
I also have to say “I now realize the seriousness of what I did, and will be making restitution to help fix the destruction that I caused. I hope that the Presby Gardens will soon be back to the way they were before all this happened. I hope that the people and town of Montclair can forgive me BUT it’s not like I lost sleep over it
GIDEON KORN-WYATT