Massachusetts

Scrubbing up the mess, painting and repairing damage would be a good learning experience and they could work off some of that energy. The parents could take turns supervising. At least they'd know where their child was and what they were up to.

Several years ago, we had a rash of broken windows (many of them storefronts) across town. It went on for several weeks and the police could never catch them. However, you could map out their trail each week in a pretty straight line. I was one of the victims 3 different times.

As it turned out, they were caught, but then it was revealed they were members of the "cross-country" team. Ironic, eh? Also ironic was that their trials didn't come up until school was out...which turned out great for the cross-country guys.

The police came to tell me that the one who had broken my yard light 3 times was the son of a couple who was friends of my daughter. They apologized to my daughter, but were too embarrassed to apologize to me...nor did they repair the light. I lost all respect for them after that.