By Rhonda Ramsey,
P.O.V. Contributing Writer
Utah woman Valerie Bruno
is filing a formal complaint after a judge encouraged her to cut off her
daughter's ponytail in court.
Bruno's daughter, Kaytlen
Lopan, was charged with assault last March after she and her friend cut several
inches of hair from the head of a 3-year-old girl at a McDonald's restaurant.
Lopan, 13, and her
11-year-old friend did not even know the 3-year-old before the hair-cutting
incident at Mcdonald’s but “befriended” the toddler just before chopping off
her hair.
District Juvenile Judge
Scott Johansen initially sentenced the 13-year-old to pay restitution to the
victims, spend 30 days in detention and serve 276 hours of community service.
Then the judge said that if
Lopan were his daughter, he may not want her spending too much time with the
youth "work crew." Which brought Johansen to the following option:
"I will cut [the
community service] by 150 hours if you want to cut her hair right now,"
the judge told Bruno. "I'll go get a pair of scissors and we'll whack that
ponytail off."
Bruno agreed. However,
after she made the cut, Mindy Moss, the mother of the 3-year-old victim, complained
that Bruno had not chopped off enough hair.
For bullying a 3-year-old,
I am not sure what I would do with a
13-year-old, if I were responsible for the punishment. In this case, the judge
gave the option of hacking off the ponytail, all the way up to the rubber band;
would this teach the girl a lesson she would never forget? Probably so. But not
everyone agrees that this is the way to handle these situations.
Some call this punishment,
which has become a trend, instant gratification, cruel and humiliating. Some
firmly believe, that hair-cutting, sleeping in doghouses and walking through
town with embarrassing signs are perfect punishments.
What do you think? Are some
crimes worth an alternate punishment instead of jail? If so, is something like
cutting off a 13-year-old’s ponytail “too cruel”?
Source:
Possibly. I think there are certain punishments that fit certain people better than others, but in a true justice system, there are too many people to find this perfect punishment.
ReplyDeleteGreat post :)
-The Anon Blogger
When I see these 'humiliation tactics', I laugh at first but then I get angry. Why do we get to side with the parents who created the 'monsters' who are doing these things? Take the case of the father who shot up his daughter's laptop due to her facebook posts.. I wouldn't have had a laptop to begin with (my siblings still living at home have their fb accounts monitored) and my parents taught me respect so I wouldn't ever have dared to post things like that on a public forum.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, why were the 11yo and 13yo left alone in the time it took to befriend this child and cut her hair? More importantly, where was the toddler's mother?
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. We should prevent these things from happening by being our children's parents not buddies.
Wow.
ReplyDeleteExcellent points on both sides. Thanks so much for your comments. Seriously, great views!!!