It says something about us as a country when the fact that Kayla Manson drops the C-bomb on the Today Show gets more interest, and causes more controversy, than the tragic story behind it. Hell, the U.S.C. Sanctions story has more legs.

Kayla Manson, age 13, is being charged as an accomplice in the violent assault on Josie Ratley, 15. According to investigators, Manson and Ratley were friends, and Manson often borrowed Ratley’s cellphone to send texts. One day last March, Ratley saw text messages to Manson from Wayne Tracy, Manson’s boyfriend, age 15. Ratley didn’t approve of their relationship, calling Tracy “a rapist” at one point. They then argued via text, until Ratley then said something in reference to Tracy’s brother, who had committed suicide the previous fall, at which point Tracy started threatening Ratley, telling her he was going to kill her. 3 hours later, Wayne asked Manson to point out Ratley at school, where he proceeded to assault her, repeatedly kicking her in the head with steel-toed boots, causing signifcant brain damage that hospitalized Ratley for close to two months. Tracy is now going to be tried, as an Adult, on charges of Attempted Murder in the First Degree. The facts are that Tracy also texted other friends beforehand, telling them that he was going to “snap her neck and stomp her skul [sic];” and then he put on steel-toed boots and rode 3 miles on his bicycle to find and assault Ratley. It’s going to be hard to argue against pre-meditation in this case.

Manson is being investigated for her alleged role in the assault, as she pointed Ratley out to her boyfriend, outside the school, although she claims not to have known about the texted threats beforehand, or the assault afterwards. She assumed he would just yell at Ratley a lot. Manson has been taken out of school because of death threats and is staying with family, following the 30 days she was held in custody.

All of that is horrifying and tragic, and goes to the heart of every parent’s fears for their children’s safety, as well as fears of what they would do if their child committed a horrible act.

But it’s not what has people talking. Nope, the internet jaws are flapping over the fact that, in her Today Show interview, Manson uses the C-word. Twice.

OK, first-off Manson was quoting texts that she saw on Ratley’s phone, so it’s hardly a case of trash-mouth gone wild. Secondly, she’s 13 and she is in a big, scary place right now.