In a statement read to the judge by her attorney, Yang cautioned Chinese parents against sending their children alone to the U.S. at a young age.
“This is a wakeup call for the ‘parachute kid syndrome,’ ” Yang said in the statement. “Parents in China are well-meaning and send their kids thousands of miles away with no supervision and too much freedom. That is a formula for disaster.”
Zhai also told the judge that living on her own in a foreign country played a role in her actions.
“They sent me to the U.S. for a better life and a fuller education,” Zhai said in a statement read by her attorney. “Along with that came a lot of freedom, in fact too much freedom. … Here, I became lonely and lost. I didn’t tell my parents because I didn’t want them to worry about me.”
