Do the crime, and you get to do the time. Great Job Paulding County School Board!

I agree! many of these students and thier peers still to this day do not see what the big deal is and think (as Zimmerman stated on TV) the school board is over reacting. This is the very reason they needed to be severely punished, Maybe now future generations will stop and think about thier actions and the consequences.

The School Board went overboard. Additional punishment just because this young man appealed? How childish.

Have you people seen the punishments that teenagers in Paulding are getting for drunk driving, shoplifting, theft? MUCH less than what these teens, all of whom up until now have never done anything wrong, have received for painting graffiti -- in the same places where teens have been painting it for the past 10 years.

Paulding County for ya!

Kids will be kids. Make them clean it up and pay a fine. And let them walk with their class. The school board is overreacting and making an example of these kids. The punishment should fit the crime. And besides, graduation isn't for the student. It's for the families.

severly punished? Seriously,if ALL this young man did was spray the road as his peers have for the last few years, then there is NO NEED for severly punished. they don't even severly punish hardened criminals such as robbers, rapist, etc...Pay back all the repairs, YES, community work, YES..But making someone that has made GOOD DECISIONS, based on his GPA, and accolades that have been mention for over 11 1/2 years and take away his graduation, NO, absolutely does not fit his crime..Now, the other's that damaged property, a truck, wrote ugly things about the principal, that's alittle more serious, Severe Punishment to kids who have not been in trouble before, that's a bit TOO much, common sense needs to kick in. Let these kids that have been in school for 13 years walk with their class, If GT is not worried about it, then why has PC BOE/administrators made such a fuss? I'm frankly tired of the crime in Paulding, my aunt's car was stolen in front of Kohls, another truck was stolen in front of the theaters in Hiram, and robberies right and left--now those folks need some severe punishment--BUT there is NO COMPARISON to writing SENIORS in front of the school on the road, come on be reasonable, you cannot compare these students to hardened thugs that might rob you the next time you go shopping in Hiram, I wouldn't loose any sleep over the students being stupid, but I might think about watching my back while shopping in the area, real crimes are planned in detail.

I think the real crime is how much WASTED time by paid administrators/BOE have USED on this "not news worthy" show, how we gonna recoop that money? OH wait, charge the students three times the damage repairs, yep that should work it all out, so the students are paying for the damages, and for the wasted time, so they are getting to pay everyone's penalities. $1,000.00 X 24 students= 24, 000.00 dollars, and $7,500.00 reported in damages, you know how many people are out of work in Paulding County that would have repaired for alot less?? MANY.

I guess now it's not enough that they don't have the felony conviction on their record. I think the punishment is fair, the DA did a good job. By the way the DA let everyone know that it isn't 3 times the money for the crime, the other money is for supervision and such while they are doing community service. NO felony conviction, NO jail... it just does not get any better than this when you are tearing up property and getting arrested! It's real simple for the DA because HE ISN"T ALLOWED TO PICK AND CHOOSE which laws he is going to enforce... he has an obligation to enforce them all. He did that and still managed to be merciful on the kids so they don't have a felony arrest. As far as the clean up goes if the schools here are union (I really don't know) then the School Board would have no choice as to who cleans it up.

As some may wish this would go away. As well as one who wants to be treated special. However, that one special person now thinks he has been treated unfair. He went to the media, Fox 5, WSB 2 and the AJC. Guess what? They loved the 5 min story. Now here is the real kicker. This story is now part of the internet. Regardless of the out come for poor poor little me Zimmerman. He will be applying for jobs in a few years. The HR people will be using the internet as part of their review of the application. Guess what will be found. So just keeping his mouth shut and take a wait and see attitude. He and his parents may have sabotaged the future. So much for being smart.

Oh, the deal that was offered on Friday. It is a great deal. Zimmerman should take the deal.

One last thing : Use "BING" and search "jacob zimmerman paulding". See if all those links will disappear before he hits the job market.

UNION? The kids should be cleaning it up and if not it will be the Paulding Co. Maintenence Workers, Union...no, this isn't Chicago, what ARE you talking about? Now, the truck would be a different thing, that could include some "body shop, paint job"...As far as I'm concerned, they could take some thugs from the jail that get three meals a day, clothed and etc..and let them clean up the parts that the students cannot, but the students should clean MOST all of it up...Hard work is good therapy, and let them remember how hard it is to clean up, even though alot of it is ALREADY cleaned up...?

Graduation isn't for the student...Really? Why does almost 98% of the class attend graduation? Its an achievement and some of the kids don't even have family that care enough to come...add up the number of kids graduating and how many get to go , and you'll see not many of the family are even there...Most students want the bragging rights of graduating in front of their peers, because it shows the hard work. I did attend my graduation because I wanted to, it made High School complete, if I had not ONE person from my family to attend, I would have walked for myself!! There is no way, I would have worked that hard and then just went home the last day of school without that service, my family has never attended award programs on my jobs, and service awards, but yet I still walk up in front of a group of people to accept my thanks or a piece of paper for a class or seminar etc...Without the students, there would be NO GRADUATION, Families are not going to show up and hear a name without the student...its for ALL!

This Zimmerman is sabotaged for the future whether He talked to media or not--His Police Record is PUBLIC RECORD, no matter if He doesn't have a felony charge, its still public and will pop up, and plus it was in the newspapers, along with the other names, so--Yea, He will have a tough time just like ALL the others', felony or not, they are all on Public record of being charged and etc....and it will be there forever and ever..