Humiliation as punishment..?

[Steff]

http://www.thewbalchannel.com/news/3984457/detail.html

 

There is video at the link.

 

 

Mom Disciplines Son By Making Him Wear Sign In Public

Murafetis Says She's At Her Wits' End

 

POSTED: 6:43 pm EST December 8, 2004

UPDATED: 10:44 am EST December 9, 2004

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- What is proper discipline and what is going too far?

 

You will find both ends of the spectrum when it comes to a punishment served by a 12-year-old Kansas City boy.

 

The boy has attention deficit disorder, but according to his mother he's also defiant, on the wrong path and spinning out of control. At her wits' end, she meted out a very public punishment Wednesday.

 

"He is a very smart and intelligent little boy, he just doesn't know how to use his ability," mother Jessica Murafetis said.

 

But he does know how to walk, and walk he did. Dustyn, who is a seventh-grader, wore a sign for all to see why he was at a street corner in Kansas City.

 

"And his teacher is the best teacher in the world. She has done everything possible to keep him in school. He got suspended (Tuesday) for the seventh time this year alone," Murafetis said.

 

Murafetis had to go to work. Her son came along with his sandwich sign.

 

Many people noticed Dustyn and his sign, which said he's being punished for being a class clown. Many approved of his mother's methods,.

 

"It's reasonable, I guess it's better than getting a spanking so putting him out here, let everybody know what he's been up to. He'll think twice about doing it again," Andre Jackson said.

 

Dustyn said that is true.

 

When asked what he had learned, he said, "Not to act a fool in school because this is what I have to do every day I do it."

 

But some people said they thought the discipline went too far.

 

"That's humiliation for him, I don't believe in that, and it's cold outside," Robyne Warburton said.

 

But Dustyn's mother said desperate problems require desperate measures.

 

 

"I want my son to have an education, to be something in this world. I don't want him to go to his grave. I don't want to have to bury him before it's time, and that's exactly the way he's heading. He is heading down the wrong path with no one to pull him out but me, and that's what I'm trying to do," Murafetis said.

 

Murafetis is a single mother of two. She said Dustyn has caused so many disruptions in their family that now she's worried about losing her job.

 

She said she has gone everywhere she knows of for help, but has been told there's nothing anyone can do until Dustyn gets into big trouble. Murafetis said that she is not waiting.

[YASNY]

Judges have used that type of punishment, such as making DUI convicts have special bumper stickers placed on their vehicles. No reason a mom can't use the same logic.

[mreye]

I love it! We'd all be a lot better off with more parents like her!

[Rex Kickass]

I think if this kind of punishment is a matter of degree. Once in a while, aint nothin wrong with it. Is it anymore humiliating than when you were punished in front of your friends as a kid?

[mreye]

I think if this kind of punishment is a matter of degree. Once in a while, aint nothin wrong with it. Is it anymore humiliating than when you were punished in front of your friends as a kid?

That reminds me of a story. The first time I pitched in Little League I walked in the 5 run limit in the first inning. When I got off the field I kicked and threw anything I could find in the dugout. My mom came in and grabbed my by the back of my jersey, dragged me to the car and took me home. Talk about humiliation.