[Costello:] A wild party involving 300 teenagers who has trashed and damaged a former NFL player's New York home while he was out of town you have heard that story before. Well, now a New York radio host is lashing out at the teenagers' parents for making threats against the homeowner Brian Holloway. Kelly Lynch writes in an open letter, quote, "Instead of sitting little Johnny and reminding him that what he did is not acceptable and then dragging him by the collar to apologize to Mr. Holloway, you chose instead to harass and threaten the victim. How dare you respond with anything other than regret, embarrassment and a sincere apology instead of righteous indignation, threats of violence and lawsuits? Kelly Lynch with WGY News Radio joins me now. Good morning Kelly.
[Kelly Lynch, Wgy News Radio:] Good morning, Carol.
[Costello:] Any responses to the letter?
[Lynch:] Oh, my gosh, yes. I posted this last Friday, and kind of went about my day. And I checked in later in the day, and it had just taken off. It has been met with such an unbelievable response. I have heard from people all across the country, and even people overseas. And I think it strikes a chord with parents everywhere who see what is happening with the way we are raising our kids and what happens down the road. It is just a sense of entitlement, a lack of accountability and a lack of responsibility, and people are angered by it.
[Costello:] You seem to be indicting all parents of the millennial generation. I mean is that really fair though? I mean, I know these kids were awful. They were so awful
[Lynch:] No, I'm not.
[Costello:] but there are many good kids in America.
[Lynch:] I know, I have a few of them. Not every kid is bad and not every parent is bad. I think the overwhelming majority of parents and kids are really good. They are trying to instill values in their kids. Kids want to work hard. They want to do a good job, but I think there is a set of parents out there who believe in being their parents, their kids' friend, instead of their parent who give them everything that maybe they never had, and so we are raising not an entire generation, but a good number of kids who feel that they are entitled to have everything handed to them. We give every kid in sports a trophy. We give we have parents who are raising kids to blame the teacher for their failing math, and we give our kids iPhones in middle school and we wonder why they want everything handed directly to them. They don't have to work for it.
[Costello:] Well, you know, this problem has been going on for quite some time. And everybody thinks oh parents are changing, and this is the year that they are going to change. Why aren't parents changing, because they don't seem to be?
[Lynch:] Well, I think it is very easy. It is easy to be a lazy parent and say, "Oh, you want the iPhone, here you go." It is easier to buy the iPhone than listen to your kid complain about it for days and weeks and months until they get it. So I think part of it is lazy parenting. But I think the other part of it is we're just seeing this generation of kids that's growing up and expecting things, because they have gotten it all along. And so that is what we see with the Holloway case is that they felt entitled to break into this man's house and entitled to have a party there and there are no repercussions. Their parents weren't holding them accountable. If I had done that when I was in school and not to say I never made mistakes as a teen, because I certainly did but my parents held me accountable. And I would have never dreamed of anything else than expecting to be marched up there and apologize and do my part in cleaning up. Instead these kids are making threats and their parents aren't holding them accountable, and it has made a lot of people really angry because it is so symbolic of what is happening in parenting these days.
[Costello:] So Mr. Holloway he has been very generous through all of this. He says, you know, come on apologize. Help me clean up my home. Of course only five of the teenagers showed up, but do you think that he should have went another route in these times?
[Lynch:] Well, you know what; I have to say he was an incredibly gracious man in doing what he did. I don't think I would have been able to rise to that. And I think that is probably what has everybody so angry. If it had been a party at some house, we probably wouldn't even be paying much attention to it. But because this man went so far out of his way to say "Hey, listen, I'm not going to press charges, I want you all to come and help clean up. Let's use this as an opportunity, a teachable moment so to speak, and use this as an opportunity to look at ways we can better spend our time than drinking and doing drugs and whatever." And what they did instead of saying, you know what; you are right, let's take advantage of this opportunity, they instead their parents went and started making threats against him and threaten lawsuits for putting their pictures on Twitter and Instagram. And I think we've lost sight of what this guy had in mind. He wanted to help these kids. And instead, we are seeing this kind reaction. And now, because they didn't step up and take responsibility, we are starting to see them being charged. We saw six kids charged on Friday and they expect to have more. When all is said and done, it's going to be the largest round up of criminals in this county, because they didn't step up to the plate and accept responsibility from day one.
[Costello:] I must say, I'm so glad because that is just it's just despicable. Kelly Lynch thank you so much for joining us this morning, we appreciate it.
[Lynch:] Thanks, Carol.
[Costello:] Still to come in the NEWSROOM, fed up with paying all those bank and the ATM fees? Well, you're certainly not alone. According to a new report, those charges have been climbing for 15 years straight.