Must See Video: An 11-Year-Old Joyrides a Stolen School Bus with a Dozen Cop Cars in Pursuit

NY Daily News - An 11-year-old Louisiana boy is facing criminal charges after authorities said he stole a school bus and crashed into several cars during a wild joyride Sunday morning. 

The pre-adolescent thief led multiple police cruisers on a 13-mile pursuit through the streets of Baton Rouge before crashing into a tree and getting arrested, authorities told local news outlet WBRZ. The child even flipped the middle finger to officers as he drove past them, according to the station. ...

The boy, whose name was not released because of his age, struck three vehicles before finally hitting a tree and coming to a stop, authorities said.

He was booked into the Baton Rouge Juvenile Detention Center and charged with theft of a vehicle, aggravated flight, three counts of damage to property and one count of aggravated assault for intentionally crashing into at least one of the three vehicle he hit, a police spokesman told The Advocate.

Allow me to begin with the disclaimer that I am anti-stealing school buses, leading wild police chases, driving to endanger, committing property damage and crashing into vehicles. It's lucky no one got hurt. This child needs better adult supervision. The system has failed. Our young people are in crisis.

OK,,that said, say what you will about this kid, but don't deny he is without a doubt the coolest 5th grader in Baton Rouge, LA. (Note that I am assuming he's in 5th grade because I was when I was 11 years old. For all I know he's still in 1st grade because he's an incorrigible troublemaker or a senior about to graduate because he's a Doogie Howser-level prodigy. Both of which are equally likely.) He's done a thing the rest of only dreamed of at the age of 11. 

I don't care who you are or where you grew up. What your family dynamic was or what kind of socio-economic upbringing you had. There is not a child among us who at some point didn't picture themselves hijacking the school bus and going ham with it through our hometown. As a matter of fact, the bus driver was the only person employed by the school system you wanted to be. I mean, no one ever wanted to emulate the assistant principal, making kids turn around and walk back down the stairwell because they shouldn't be running, the lunch lady slopping out spoonfuls of American Chop Suey or the custodian making puke disappear with that magic green stuff. But the guy/woman who got to grab the giant wheel and be at the helm of that five ton yellow death machine? That was someone wielding true power at the tip of their pedal foot.  

Sure, they'll put this kid in Juvey. But not forever. And not for long. He'll be back in school soon enough and he's going to bestride those narrow hallways like a colossus. He'll get a hero's welcome. His locker is going to be like a Trump rally, with adoring fans climbing all over each other to hear him speak of the time he flipped the cops the State Bird of Massachusetts. The seats at his cafeteria table will be the hottest ticket in town. And believe me, when he gets to be dating age (which might be 11 in Baton Rouge; I don't really know the culture of the place), he's going to have his pick of the top talent. I know in my schools the bad boys always got the girls. And we had nobody on this kid's level. I know all my crushes would've stepped over my face to get to get next to a boy who'd done time for Grand Theft School Bus when I was getting detentions for sleeping in and showing up late for homeroom without a note from my mom. As Jack Nicholson once put it in some movie or other, "A woman takes to an outlaw like a little boy takes to a stray dog."

So I'm sorry for whomever got their car wrecked. Dents can be pulled. Doors can be replaced. Insurance claims can be settled. But glory is forever.