Parent looks for reason

Mother of bus vandal: ‘I don't understand it'

December 4, 2005

JOEL DAVIDSON/Frontiersman reporter

WASILLA - Four days after teens sabotaged Mat-Su school buses and forced local schools to close for a day, a Wasilla mother said she is still shocked her son participated in the vandalism.

&#8220I don't understand it,” Wasilla resident Capi Coon said in a phone interview Friday afternoon. &#8220I think kids watch TV and movies and play video games and they can't separate between reality.”

Coon said her son, David Coon, has been suspended from Burchell High School as a result of his alleged role in crippling school buses Monday night.

Coon and three other teens are suspected of disabling nearly half the First Student bus fleet by pulling valve stems from tires on 44 buses, which caused the tires to deflate. They also allegedly unplugged 110 buses from their engine-block heaters so the buses were unable to start in the below-zero weather.

Troopers said Friday that charges have not yet been filed, but on Wednesday they reported that the students - two from Burchell and two from Wasilla High School - were inspired by a popular MTV show, &#8220High School Stories.” The program seeks out high school pranks and then re-enacts those pranks for television broadcast.

Capi Coon said she doesn't think the show influenced her son, but said it may have inspired other kids.

&#8220I don't like MTV,” she said. &#8220I think it is a bad influence - apparently some of the kids were watching that show.”

Coon said she has learned from this that parenting and good intentions don't always guarantee kids will keep from running afoul.

&#8220We are still trying to figure out why David joined in on this,” she said. &#8220We have four other kids who are leaders in every way. Why would David do something like this? We don't understand it.”

Coon said her son didn't see the vandalism as destruction.

&#8220David said they didn't cut tires or break things,” she said. &#8220They thought it was innocent that way. They didn't think about all the kids and parents that were inconvenienced, or the bus drivers.”

With easy access to cell phones, Internet, cable television and a host of DVDs and video games, kids like her son, who are brought up in generally good homes, can be influenced, Coon said.

&#8220I'm from a different generation,” she said. &#8220I think all those things today influence kids. Parents are aware of them but they are just banking on the fact that their kids won't be influenced by them - I was one of them that thought everything was OK.”

When investigators asked David how his home life was, Coon said her son had no complaints.

&#8220There is no blame,” she said. &#8220He just sees things differently and thought it would be a good little prank.”

In the end, the prank could lead to school expulsion for all four suspects.

Coon said she hopes her son will be able to finish his high school career this year, but now she has doubts.

&#8220He would have finished this year, but if he is expelled, he can't go to school,” she said.

All four students are on interim suspension and face possible expulsion by the school board.

&#8220We've searched so many times to find out what went wrong,” Coon said. &#8220We used to think it was just bad parenting that caused kids to act out, but it's not necessarily that. Why would he go outside the bounds? We couldn't figure it out.”

Contact Joel Davidson at 352-2266 or joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.