Expert: John L - 8/23/2009

Question
Good Evening Mr. Lewis

We have a 17 old son, a senior this year and he seriously wants to join the Navy,
He is a straight A's and B's student until his junior yr.
one incident was he was standing outside of the school building and their was another kid who was Car jacking (stealing from unlocked vehicles in the parking lot) he came up to our son handed him two Ipods, at the same time his coach opened the door and saw what was going on, he then brought both kids in called the state troopers, anyhow my son had to go to court, he had 50 community hours and probation for 6 months, which he already accomplished.  although the court says do mention the incident.  He was 16 at the time.  My question is,  my son is confused as to mention it on the security clearance form that the recruiter game to him.  Also he was at a dept store with some of his friends and the 2 girls that he was with told him to put 2 pair of earrings in his pocket that cost $6.00 each, yes he was caught the others ran away but he remain and confessed to the police, and was taken to the police station and fingerprinted, it never went to court and was told to do 25 hr community service which he did.   
since then He has been good, preparing for his senior year, Varsity Basketball, studying for his ASVAB exam (he purchased a book)
He has never been in trouble before, no drugs, no traffic tickets, nothing besides what the 2 incidents above.
Will this mess up his chances for any kind of law enforcement work in the navy?   
how much do you tell for security clearance?

Thank you for your time

Answer
He will be able to join, though probably need a waiver depending on how the navy categorizes them.  Just because they were as juvenile, those records are accessible despite what you hear.  I get juvenile records all the time.  Just come clean, it makes it easier to deal with.  But he needs to take ownership of his decisions when doing it.