Remember when little Ralphie Parker was warned against shooting his eye out with a Red Ryder BB gun?
Well, Ralphie's dad wasn't as crazy as this man...
Wisconsin Boy's Essay Leads To Charge Against His Dad
A New Warning For Our Time: You'll Shoot Your Son't Butt Off!
Sheesh.
Sometimes when I'm out in traffic I think of all the possibilities of the kinds of people who might be driving.
ReplyDeleteThe same goes for people who are parents. You wonder how children survive having parents like this guy!
Good for the teacher who turned in the essay.
I hear you. Just because some people can have children, doesn't mean they should.
ReplyDeleteMy brothers, friends, cousins, etc., and I used to shoot BBs at each other very often! It is a BB not a bullet. Often travelling at anemic velocities, the acts of war we committed as younguns (Pun!) would now have us jailed?
ReplyDeleteYeah, the guy should not have shot his son in the rump, or anywhere else, with a BB, but this charge and potential penalty is excessive.
It is part of the problem of having too many panzies in positions of authority. Sorry teacher, but you don't understand males and apparently think over-reacting and wussifying society equals improving it.
An appropriate response would have been to make the dad run through a hail of BBs, while wearing only his skiveys, fired by others. That would be a fitting punishment.
What do you suppose happens to junior while dad is in the pokey? Honestly people think this stuff through :D
Queequeg
QQ: I understand where you're coming from. We all did really stupid things when we were kids, e.g., I sprayed my sister in the face with ammonia thinking it was water.
ReplyDeleteYet, the key difference is that this a grown man, the kid's father, for Pete's sake, and there is no excuse for that kind of behavior.
I do agree with you that the charge of one felony count of child abuse (a maximum penalty of 6years in prison and a $10,000 fine) is way too harsh.
We don't put some pedophiles and murderers away for that long.
I like your idea of running through the BB equivalent of a paddle machine.
My friends and I were paddle machine experts. All I can say is, even if you were really fast, you'd end up getting a good walloping in my neighborhood. Lord help you if you were slow ;-)
Ahhh, the good old days.
I found the cattle prod to be a better persuader with my kids...
ReplyDeletejust kidding!!!
I think the punishent was a little harsh; especially if there was no other sign of abuse.
Man, they really wouldn't have liked my brother. I couldn't count how many times he shot me in the butt with a BB gun growing up.
ReplyDeleteLarry T. Durham: Don't taze your kids with a cattle prod, bro ;-)
ReplyDeletePapa Frank: We all perpetrated evil deeds upon our siblings and friends. In Mr. Cube's day they used to hold down kids and stick them with rose thorns.
But again, this was kid on kid stuff and not something done to a child by an adult in a position of trust.
What, I'll bet that kid had it comin'...
ReplyDeleteJUST KIDDING!
*ducks and runs*
Brooke: I got the tar spanked out of me once for walking in front of the TV while my dad was watching "Combat". I guess I deserved it ;-)
ReplyDeleteStupid yes. Child abuse NO. Jeezus. There is real child abuse out there, this is obviously not a case of it.
ReplyDeleteI cannot believe this is being prosecuted.
oh, and the person who said "good for the teacher"? - the teacher has no choice. You have to turn in anything that looks like abuse or you are liable.
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