It's The End of the World

Some college kids broke into Robert Frost's house, had an impromptu party, and trashed it.

And, what would their punishment be. Hmmm, maybe pay for the repairs. Maybe, help build a fence to keep riff raff like them out. You know, "good fences make good neighbors."

No, justice was served this way:

For the drunken teens who trashed poet Robert Frost's former home in Ripton Vermont last December, justice has been served in a rather unusual way. As you may recall, a former Middlebury college student threw an impromptu party at the historical farmhouse last year and things got way out of control. The nearly 50 guests broke furniture and china, discharged the fire extinguishers, and ruined the carpet with the by-products of too much drink and drugs. They caused over $10,000 in damage and created quite an uproar in the small Vermont town.

Their day of reckoning has finally arrived and their punishment goes beyond community service and public embarrassment. Twenty-five of the party-goers have been sentenced to attend a poetry class where they will learn about the work of the man whose home they nearly destroyed.

Prosecutor John Quinn explains the unusual punishment: "I guess I was thinking that if these teens had a better understanding of who Robert Frost was and his contribution to our society, that they would be more respectful of other people's property in the future and would also learn something from the experience," he says.