It gets better. . . apparently the stupid is hereditary:
* To trick her parents into getting her a passport, she made up a plan for some trip to Canada with a friend's family.
* The mom drove her to the bus stop to meet this family. The family, of course, never showed up.
* The mom finds out there's no trip, does nothing about it.
* The mom still leaves the daughter at home alone, from whence she called a cab and fled with the passport and two weeks of clothing.

Methinks her mom owes the FBI a debt of gratitude for out-parenting her.

Not at 16 no. But I did fly to Brazil a couple of years ago. What a dumbass.

And my mama wasn't anywhere around to slap some sense into me.

Did the mom check out the family going to Canada? (Canada?!?!?) Did Mom help the girl obtain the passport? Did she speak to the other parents? Who paid for the ticket???
Had she been successful reaching her Mid-East friend and she wound up MISSING or DEAD like the young woman in Aruba, would her mother have gotten a clue? Parents need to monitor what their kids do on the internet. But before that, they need to model good behavior and good sense to them.

A while back, there was a story where a 15 y/o goes to visit her friend in Marin for a month. After the month passed, she calls her mom and asks to stay a couple of more weeks. Not once in the entire time did Mom speak to the family her daughter was not staying with. The girl was shacked up in SF at the Fairmont with some rich fuck and a lot of cocaine. She ended up severely brain damaged. He got off with a misdemeanor because the family wanted his cash to care for the girl instead of having it all spent on a high priced defense

I may be way off on this one, but isn't it true that in the US, parents work very long hours, meaning that, for some, parenting is done late in the evening or in the weekend? Is there also a problem with people having to work another job to make ends meet? Maybe this has a detrimental effct on family life (including basic supervision - we've had some cases like this too).

I really gotta start shopping on Myspace...