Life Lessons

March 21, 2012 by admncc

Take a look at these two pictures.  Now…if I were driving down the street and saw a kid standing there with that sign, I would probably ask myself, “Good parents or a good judge?”

trezahn-blaha-1     trezahn-blaha-3
Pictures courtesy of Chronicle.NorthCoastNow.com

Meet 12-year-old Trezahn Blaha of Elyria, OH.  Blaha recently admitted to stealing a telephone, bracelet and mouthpiece from the local mall.  As a result, and to teach him a lesson, his uncle made him stand on the street corner with a sign reading, “I like to steal and have no respect for my mother or authority!”

Blaha, who has been arrested several times, was also suspended from school a few days ago.  According to this article, Blaha’s uncle, Ricardo Pamplin, said, “Since the law claims that we cannot, what they call, discipline them on three strikes, I figure why not embarrass them?  I think if more parents stood in line and disciplined their children with either embarrassment or either a good old fashioned a – whooping, this community would be a better, and safer place and the jails wouldn’t be so packed.”  Blaha now says he made the “made a wrong choice” by stealing.  And his uncle thinks the unique punishment may keep him from doing it again.  You can read the entire story here.

I think this story creates a fascinating conversation about disciplining your child verses what, if anything, is too extreme.  I mean, if you were this kid’s parent, what do you do if he wouldn’t listen, stole, got arrested, was suspended or something else?  And would you ever consider public humiliation as a possible solution?  I once had a boss who said, “If they don’t respond, embarrass them!”  Maybe he’s right.  What do you think?

All Posts / Family/Lifestyle / Law and Order / Parenting / Schools Disciplining Children / Elyria / Embarrassment / Jail / OH / Parenting / Parents / Public Humiliation / Ricardo Pamplin / Theft / Trezahn Blaha / Unorthodox Techniques /

Comments

  1. Some old guy says:

    I hope his punishment included an apology to his mother, an apology to the store owner and a good butt whooping for stealing.

  2. Parents have to be creative but I’m not against a good whopping when nothing else works.

  3. Bobbi Sue says:

    punishment fits….hope he gets the lesson

  4. TallElf says:

    Notice the police officer smiling in the background. I’m not sure if this is going to work, but it’s worth a shot. Didn’t he just receieve discipline at school earlier in the week/month as well? Somethings gotta give.

  5. SFL says:

    I’d have him redo the sign so it is neater too!

  6. Jen says:

    It’s hard to imagine doing this to my own child – but then again I would have never let my own child get to this point.

    I know someone who set up a scare with their local police station and drove their child there and let the police begin to “book” their son for a crime he committed (sexting) that they could have gotten him fined and sued. The parents of the other child dropped the charges but the parents of the instigator decided to follow through as if they hadn’t dropped the charges. Similar kind of thing and I probably would do the same.

    Kind of makes me agree with this sign if my kids were that bad.

  7. Amber says:

    Great idea. And my husband is from Elyria, ha!

  8. Angelica says:

    Okay, time to get real. My parents spanked me (my dad also became physically abusive when he was drunk) and I know the difference between a spanking and a beating. My mother, for instance, hardly ever spanked us because she felt guilty about how my dad treated us. However, she did spank us a handful of times and when MOM spanked you, you never did it again.

    When I have children, God willing, I will teach them right from wrong. Kids NEED boundaries. Period. I believe that if my child behaved this poorly, I would do the scare tactic as mentioned by Jen or I would find a way to creatively show them what they did is wrong.

    When I was about ten or eleven, my parents were going through a divorce and I reacted by thinking I could do whatever I wanted because I was the child that could do no wrong. I went to a country corner store with my cousin and I stole a pack of gum and a candy bar. My cousin, not in the same mindset, came clean about it to my aunt when my aunt asked where my cousin had gotten the gum. My mother and aunt made us both go back to the store, pay for the candy and then apologize. To my recollection, she has not been back in there and neither have I. I am STILL embarrassed about it. So maybe there is something to embarrassing your kid to show them right from wrong.

  9. oceangirl says:

    I didn’t realise he was being punished, I thought he was showing off.

  10. tera says:

    I’m all for public humiliation. Kids don’t respond to a whooping anymore. Schools don’t matter. Juvy just teaches them how to be better criminals.
    And not just for kids. I think adults should be publicly humiliated. Isn’t that part of what stocks were for back in the old days? I think if most of the dirt-bag criminal types had to stand in the middle of town with a sign saying what dirt-bag scummy thing they did for all the town to see, maybe they’d think twice about doing dirt-bag criminal scummy stuff!

  11. Brian says:

    Left a comment on my blog, which is how I found this one and yeah, one of my new favorite sites. Perhaps it’s because my wife describes me as a constant complainer. Yes!

  12. Extreme John says:

    If they can wear their pants below their ass, they can stand in public and eat crap for making crappy decisions. I can’t possibly see it being more humiliating than letting their sweaty crack show through their panties on a daily basis.

  13. I don’t think embarrassing the child will work. I mean if they get disciplined at school and at home in front of their peers and siblings and it doesn’t work what the hell makes the parents think that embarrassing him in front of strangers that he’ll never see again?

    I also believe in the US that there is a Constitutional right to not have strange and unusual punishments. I believe this falls under it.

    I believe better punishment would be: Write a letter of apology to everyone who needs it (including the mother) and then making the child volunteer somewhere as community service even if the punishment by court/school didn’t include it. To kids the most valuable thing they have is their time with their friends (to do stupid shit like this). Take their time away. Make them spend it how YOU see fit not them.

    I’m also not against a good old fashioned butt spanking if nothing else works. I wasn’t spanked but I was a great child…too bad that didn’t last into adulthood! ha

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