15 Year Old Hangs Himself After Being Arrested for Streaking

[WiregrassTiger]

When I had to take psych at Auburn the prof was all in favor of corporal punishment.  To paraphrase: it's immediate and it allows a child to grasp the cause and effect reactions of disobedience or dangerous behavior.

That's the way I feel about it. Little Johnny runs out in front of a car in a parking lot because he's just running wild and won't mind. Giving him a scolding and punishment won't work as fast and efficient on a toddler or young kid, imo. Spanking likely reminds him, "Hey, I should probably listen to them when we're in a parking lot and stay pretty close. They whipped my ass last time I ran in the parking lot."

[Godfather]

I guess a water balloon to the windshield would get me some time today. Back then it was an ass whopping from the driver.  (if he could catch me)

You lose -125 keen points.  Water balloons really?!? That is a rookie move.  ICE dumbass!!! It melts no evidence. 

What are you talking about lady, I didn't throw anything at your car.

[dallaswareagle]

You lose -125 keen points.  Water balloons really?!? That is a rookie move.  ICE dumbass!!! It melts no evidence. 

What are you talking about lady, I didn't throw anything at your car.

I was 12, I was a fucking rookie.

[Token]

Punishment should always depend on the child and situation. I got my ass whipped a lot as a kid. More than I should have and for shit that was ridiculous. My mom is a bitch and I haven't talked to her in a long time. Haven't had a relationship with her since I moved out at 18. Her answer for everything was "whippings". Never talk about what happened and explain why it is a bad idea to do.  Nope. Just beat with whatever she could find. No lesson learned there. That's how you train an animal. And it is a horse shit way to deal with children.

With that said, I'm on board with whippings as long as it is as much about teaching as it is punishment. I have a 12 year who I've never had to whip.  He has also never had any discipline problems in school or any other time that I can recall. He's done things that would have got him beat by my mother, like drawing on the wall with a crayon, but simply making him clean it up and explaining why he shouldn't do that was enough to correct the problem. Same method was used with every other "kid" thing he has done in his life and it has worked.

8 year old on the other hand......Explaining doesn't work. He understands, and does it anyway. It has gotten a lot better in the last 3 years, but first 5 caused me to wear out 3 belts and I no longer have hedge bushes. But it was never excessive and it was always with an explanation.  I'll admit it is very frustrating at times, but I manage to save my beatings for business hours.

In short, I agree with THS and the belt.

[CCTAU]

Punishment should always depend on the child and situation. I got my ass whipped a lot as a kid. More than I should have and for shit that was ridiculous. My mom is a bitch and I haven't talked to her in a long time. Haven't had a relationship with her since I moved out at 18. Her answer for everything was "whippings". Never talk about what happened and explain why it is a bad idea to do.  Nope. Just beat with whatever she could find. No lesson learned there. That's how you train an animal. And it is a horse shit way to deal with children.

With that said, I'm on board with whippings as long as it is as much about teaching as it is punishment. I have a 12 year who I've never had to whip.  He has also never had any discipline problems in school or any other time that I can recall. He's done things that would have got him beat by my mother, like drawing on the wall with a crayon, but simply making him clean it up and explaining why he shouldn't do that was enough to correct the problem. Same method was used with every other "kid" thing he has done in his life and it has worked.

8 year old on the other hand......Explaining doesn't work. He understands, and does it anyway. It has gotten a lot better in the last 3 years, but first 5 caused me to wear out 3 belts and I no longer have hedge bushes. But it was never excessive and it was always with an explanation.  I'll admit it is very frustrating at times, but I manage to save my beatings for business hours.

In short, I agree with THS and the belt.

You just described real world situations. Yes, you and your mom have issues. Maybe she was part of the problem and took it out on you. maybe you were a terrible child and do not realize it. The important part is that you realize that the punishment needs to fit the crime. You felt slighted growing up and being whipped for "dumb" stuff. So you wanted to approach it a little more intelligently ( as if a bammer...) when it was your turn to parent. Lucky for you that the good kid came first. People want to plump parenting into a category. The problem is, not every kid fits in the same category. the idiot who says, "I never had to whip my child, so you shouldn't either" is just that, an idiot. Most of those folks were blessed with less stubborn children. Or their children are little shits and they can't see it. I read something a lng time ago that says to use just enough punishment to break the child's will. i want my children to understand why this is happening. One problem I find with mine is that society has taught them that my values are "old fashioned". I say that's OK. when you get out and pay your own way, you can have your own values. Right now my old values come with an old fashioned ass whipping if they are not followed. RESPECT DOES NOT GO OUT OF STYLE!

So you learned that what works for one, may not work for the other one. That is the joy of parenting. You get screw up each kid in different ways...It's how the psychologists stay in business. I tell my kids to save the unjust memory so you can tell your psychologist when you get older...

[Godfather]

I was 12, I was a fucking rookie.

no excuses play like a champion.

[Godfather]

Punishment should always depend on the child and situation. I got my ass whipped a lot as a kid. More than I should have and for shit that was ridiculous. My mom is a bitch and I haven't talked to her in a long time. Haven't had a relationship with her since I moved out at 18. Her answer for everything was "whippings". Never talk about what happened and explain why it is a bad idea to do.  Nope. Just beat with whatever she could find. No lesson learned there. That's how you train an animal. And it is a horse shit way to deal with children.

With that said, I'm on board with whippings as long as it is as much about teaching as it is punishment. I have a 12 year who I've never had to whip.  He has also never had any discipline problems in school or any other time that I can recall. He's done things that would have got him beat by my mother, like drawing on the wall with a crayon, but simply making him clean it up and explaining why he shouldn't do that was enough to correct the problem. Same method was used with every other "kid" thing he has done in his life and it has worked.

8 year old on the other hand......Explaining doesn't work. He understands, and does it anyway. It has gotten a lot better in the last 3 years, but first 5 caused me to wear out 3 belts and I no longer have hedge bushes. But it was never excessive and it was always with an explanation.  I'll admit it is very frustrating at times, but I manage to save my beatings for business hours.

In short, I agree with THS and the belt.

You beat the shit out of your sister/wife everyday though don't you?

[Kaos]

Violence begets violence, Okonkwo.

You've seriously turned into this lately. 



And it's not pretty.  Sometimes violence is the only answer.

[Saniflush]

The smell of patchouli makes me violent.

[War Eagle!!!]

I spank my 2 year old girl. And it is nothing more than to get her attention because she is a stubborn little shit. My 10 year old son, I don't really have to spank. All I have to do is tell him I am upset with how he is acting, and that is enough to get him to straighten up. I can't imagine that working for my little girl.

Seriously...she just turned 2 in September...and this morning she wanted to watch cartoons and I was ignoring her...so she started calling me by my first name. Seriously? At 2 years old and 1 month, how the fuck does she know how to do that????

[Townhallsavoy]

You've seriously turned into this lately. 

And it's not pretty.  Sometimes violence is the only answer.

Are you saying I'm now part of the beta male crew?

[Vandy Vol]

Here's two and three quarter cents from someone who isn't a parent; take it for what it's worth:

Any discipline that you give a child is premised on fear.  Not fear of the parent, but fear that if they do X, Y will happen.  Of course, it's the parent(s) who performs Y, but ultimately the goal is to have them fear the consequence and not the consequence deliverer.  Kids of different types fear different things.  Some fear the physical pain of a spanking.  Some fear the embarrassment of being spanked.  Some fear the mere threat of being spanked.  But fear doesn't only come from the threat of or execution of physical discipline.  Some fear having a parent yell at them in an unpleasant tone.  Some fear their parents being disappointed in or upset with them.  Some fear not having their Xbox for a week.

The key (again, from someone who isn't a parent) is to determine what they fear, and use that fear as a deterrent to make them behave appropriately.  Immediately and consistently resorting to physical discipline doesn't always work, and if that's all you rely on, then you eventually get to the point where your physical discipline gets more severe in an attempt to make it work.  That's where things go wrong, especially on very young kids that can't take much punishment as it is.

Lastly, I'm not against spanking in the slightest, but the "Johnny got spanked and turned out fine" argument is weak.  Johnny could have also gotten tortured in the basement by his father for a decade and turned out fine, but the end result doesn't necessarily make the preceding actions acceptable.

[dallaswareagle]

Lastly, I'm not against spanking in the slightest,

Stating the obvious.

[Vandy Vol]

Stating the obvious.

Just so long as I'm promised to get my ass rubbed down with baby oil afterward.

[AU_Tiger_2000]

Here's two and three quarter cents from someone who isn't a parent; take it for what it's worth:

Any discipline that you give a child is premised on fear.  Not fear of the parent, but fear that if they do X, Y will happen.  Of course, it's the parent(s) who performs Y, but ultimately the goal is to have them fear the consequence and not the consequence deliverer.  Kids of different types fear different things.  Some fear the physical pain of a spanking.  Some fear the embarrassment of being spanked.  Some fear the mere threat of being spanked.  But fear doesn't only come from the threat of or execution of physical discipline.  Some fear having a parent yell at them in an unpleasant tone.  Some fear their parents being disappointed in or upset with them.  Some fear not having their Xbox for a week.

The key (again, from someone who isn't a parent) is to determine what they fear, and use that fear as a deterrent to make them behave appropriately.  Immediately and consistently resorting to physical discipline doesn't always work, and if that's all you rely on, then you eventually get to the point where your physical discipline gets more severe in an attempt to make it work.  That's where things go wrong, especially on very young kids that can't take much punishment as it is.

Lastly, I'm not against spanking in the slightest, but the "Johnny got spanked and turned out fine" argument is weak.  Johnny could have also gotten tortured in the basement by his father for a decade and turned out fine, but the end result doesn't necessarily make the preceding actions acceptable.

I keep a box full of snakes in the basement for just this reason.  It works on the kids and AUTiger1.

[WiregrassTiger]

Some of you bleeding hearts prolly think locking them in a dark closet as punishment is "too harsh", I'm sure. Pinkos.

[GH2001]

Some of you bleeding hearts prolly think locking them in a dark closet as punishment is "too harsh", I'm sure. Pinkos.

Mike Leach is now on the X

[AUTiger1]

I keep a box full of snakes in the basement for just this reason.  It works on the kids and AUTiger1.

You sadistic bastard!

[Buzz Killington]

Are you saying I'm now part of the beta male crew?

Beta Town

Population 2

[AUChizad]

Mah diddy tolt me da moon is made outta macaroni and ain't no damn sontist can tell me shit!

Weird how the kids you "have" to spank over and over and over and over and over are the little shits that just never get that message.

But best to leave the correlation to the superstious tribal natives, rather than the PhDs who dedicate their lives to this type of behavior.

I'm not one of those people that says there are zero circumstances in which a kid should ever get a pop on the backside. But if you beat the shit out of your kids regularly because they're "difficult", maybe, just maybe, there might be more effective ways to discipline them that would actually work, and not potentially turn them into sociopaths.

But back to the actual issue in this thread. I just read it for the first time.

Saw where Judd Apatow tweeted the principal's contact info and basically ordered his followers to unleash their wrath.

This is a complicated issue, and I can see both sides. On the one hand, it may have been an overreaction to tell the kid his life is ruined and he was going to be on the sex offender list for life. Maybe that led directly to the kid taking himself out. But I think when tragedies like this take place, we're quick to find a boogie man to blame it all on. So we're demanding the resignation and possibly prison time for a principal of a school for trying to scare a kid straight? Is that not his job description? I think in all likelihood the kid had deep psychological issues to have taken his own life over something like this. But then, that goes back to that medical science bullshit.