Justice today:

Boy, 13, faces 8 years for spitwad / Walnut Creek 7th-grader's missile injured another student's eye

After an investigation, the Contra Costa County district attorney filed identical charges against each of the Figueroa boys in December: battery causing serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, assault by force likely to produce great bodily injury and mayhem.

Last Tuesday, Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Araceli Ramirez found Stephen guilty of misdemeanor battery. Jeffrey was found guilty of battery causing serious bodily injury and mayhem, both felonies.

Dan Macallair, executive director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco, said the criminal prosecution "is another example of our society moving toward criminalizing kids. I don't know what purpose this serves."

Macallair said the incident "sounds more like a typical schoolyard prank that resulted in an incident in which someone got hurt" as opposed to an intentional act of violence.

Attorneys for the boys said today that they will appeal the convictions pending a June 6 sentencing hearing in Martinez.

"What we have is an unfortunate accident with injury to a child, but what one time had been horseplay has now been, by the D.A., elevated to felony status, just on the basis of the unfortunate outcome of an accidental act" said Pittsburg attorney Marek Reavis, who is representing the older child.

The closing quote from the boys' father is pretty spot on: "Things just went too far. Kids cannot be kids anymore."