Highschool football players kill animals, pose for pictures

[Catherine]

I find this story shocking. A group of high school football players went out with baseball bats and killed a number of small animals and then posed for pictures with them.  No reason is given for their behavior.

http://news.google.ca/news/url?sr=1&ct2=...t=2&at=dt0

http://news.google.ca/news/url?sr=1&ct2=...840&at=dt0

They will probably only be fined for what they did. Their coach said they were good kids who made a bad decision. He said they were probably not aware of the laws against hurting small animals.

Are they missing the point. These good kids took bats and beat small animals to death. They killed a number of animals so it took some time. They would have had to hunt them down to do this. This doesn't sound like good kids making a mistake.
I would want to know whose idea it was. Did someone initiate the killing and the rest just went along. That is dangerous behavior. I have to wonder if one of the "good" kids has killed animals before.

Certainly a small fine is not a strong enough response to so serious a crime. Is one of the young men at risk for committing other more serious crimes.