MATTER OF" BENDER"

PANKEN, J.

Edward H. McAloon for parents. On the 27th of April, 1953, a petition was filed alleging that the child herein was a delinquent in that he was in possession of a thirty-two calibre Italian Baretta automatic gun with a cartridge in one of the chambers. On that day a justice of this court adjudged the child to be a delinquent after a complete hearing. An investigation was had by the probation department of the Domestic Relations Court of the City of New York. A written report was presented to a justice of this court, on or about the 18th of May, 1953. The mother of the child appeared on that day and told the court that since the boy had been paroled to her he had become an increasing problem at home and at school, and she had applied to the youth board for their advice; thereupon, the boy was admitted into Bellevue Hospital because of the assistance by the youth board. (At the time the youth board intervened the child was a ward of the court and the youth board knew that fact. It was imparted to them by the mother of the child. It is axiomatic that no agency is empowered to supersede the court in relation to a child under its jurisdiction. It is a good rule; it is nothing more than common sense. The experience of man has taught him that "too many cooks spoil the broth." The youth board had no right to interfere. It did more harm than good.) While in Bellevue Hospital it is neglect of them was the starting point of delinquency. They are victims, sinned against more than sinners. Lack of guidance, sometimes misguidance and very often a feeling of rejection by a child are the causative factors for aggressions by children amounting to delinquency. Children need not be rejected to feel rejected. When there is rejection or a feeling of rejection an inferiority complex is likely to develop in the child which will cry out for compensation. Compensation is aggression. Each child wants to be singled out, wants to be loved, and the love that a child understands is the interest of parents in him and the interests of others in his well-being. A stay of execution of judgment to a State school will give the probation officer an opportunity not only to show his own interest in the child but to develop an interest in the parents for the child. When interest is not forthcoming to a child he feels rejected, even though it is not so. Parents have a duty to love children. Sometimes even though they love their children, they fail to convince the child of that fact. Then some parents believe that the love for their children is expressed only in furnishing all his material needs or even material luxuries. That, however, is not the love that the child wants, nor is it helpful. The failure to give a child a feeling of interest in him, in his well-being, in his ambitions, will stand in the way in the development of moral stamina; failure to do this is worse than denying a child clothing or even food at one time or another. No child is born to be a delinquent. To hold that a child is born to be a delinquent is a libel upon what most people in the world believe in — the intelligent direction by an intelligent force of the world. No child is born into the world to be good either, except that all people should be good. A child is as good as the parent blazes the path for him and the community makes possible, and as bad as the parent and society fail him. It is my judgment that the best interests of this child will be served by staying the execution of the commitment for six months, and an opportunity accorded thereby to the probation officer, the parents, and others who are interested in the child to revamp his thinking, his emotions, his ambitions, which at this time are evidently centered in the "Pythons", a gang of which he is a member. Execution stayed. [*] Names used herein are fictitious for the purposes of publication.