Mom Forces 12 Yr. Old Son To Rake Leaves Nude

[Tab]

Fredericksburg, V.a (AP) - A woman who forced her son to rake leaves in the nude as punishment for misbehaving in school has pleaded guilty to a child cruelty charge. However, the 47-year-old mother might avoid a felony record. Under an agreement worked out by the prosecution and defense, Fredericksburg Circuit Court Judge John W. Scott Jr. on Monday deferred the case to March 3.
...
Defense attorney Beverly Haney said the woman has no criminal record and does not deserve a felony conviction.

"She lost her cool that day and she regrets it deeply," Haney said.
...
According to evidence, the incident occurred on April 27 in the Mayfield subdivision. The 12-year-old boy had aggravated his mother by continuing to get in trouble at school, and the mother responded by sending him outside that evening to rake leaves naked.

A neighbor saw the boy and called police.
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1104/188568.html

[BeyondGeography]

1. A little red state justice for the kid

That'll teach him.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. Funny how she...

The good mother, full of "morals", defaults to a punishment full of heavy psychosexual overtones as punishment.

Toys in that attic. Many broken.

[elehhhhna]

3. He should be removed from that home. Period.

[Danmel]

4. Agreed

That is just so messed up. What type of person would do that to any kid, much less her own.

[RedSock]

5. hmmm

think there'd be a bigger outcry if a father sent his 12 yo daughter out nude?

[izzie]

7. Have you seen how some dress? They may as well be nude.

I am pretty open minded but I just see no reason to see girls getting off school buses and you can see half their underpants . And that is just the bottom part. For get the top. Where do they get these things from?

[Atlant]

11. Whores-R-Us

> Where do they get these things from?

Whores-R-Us, a chain that's almost certainly owned-and-operated by
Family Values Republicans and promoted by other Family Values
Republicans such as Brittney Spears.

Feminism still has a ways to go; lots of women still left to be reached,
may it *PLEASE* succeed!!!

Atlant

[ilovenicepeople]

41. Thongs aren't underpants

Is it also MANdatory that all women(girls) have to shave their pubic area to be pre-pubescently sexy?

ON Edit:I always felt that "GIRL POWER" was about females thinking that sexually exploiting themselves was self-empowerment.

[ZR2]

49. No, it's not mandatory

but it sure helps prevent having to pick hair out of your teeth.

[Justitia]

19. wow - you are so right, that adds perspective here! -eom

[Cadence]

29. He should absolutely be removed!

That is sick! God knows what else she could be subjecting him to that's making him act up in school all the while hiding behind this "good mom" bullshit!
What a psychopath!

[DemBones DemBones]

36. Are you a psychiatrist or psych social worker?

Just asking.

[JohnLocke]

70. Common sense doesn't require a Ph.D (nt).

[Mike Daniels]

13. And for all you know the parent could have voted for Kerry

Shi**y parenting skills aren't exclusive to one political affiliation.

[BiggJawn]

22. And just what the hell is THAT supposed to mean?

"Red State justice"?

Like you fucking NewYawkers don't have Jerry Springer candidates living amongst YOU?

[MattBaggins]

23. Hey there buddy

I prefer asshole New Yorkers, if you don't mind

[Cadence]

31. Can we FOCUS here?

It's not a red state, blue state issue....the issue is about that little boys LIFE and the inane cruelty he is probably subjected to on a daily basis. Do you really think this was a "one time" incident? No way! People like that get away with that type of abuse and worse because others find out about it and are dismissive.
Let's not make his abuse about us.

[Logansquare]

26. There are lousy parents in Illinois

I live in Chicago, and trust me, there's some people on my block who are capable of this. Please stop with the "Red states are eeeevuul" routine.

[BeyondGeography]

30. You and Mr. BiggJawn

get the Lack of Irony award today. Please contact the mods for information on your prize.

[Logansquare]

37. You get the lack of courtesy award. No prize.

[BiggJawn]

42. That's "irony"?

Could have fooled me. Seemed exactly like the "state-ism" that's been rampant on this board since someone got the burr up their ass that ALL "Red-Staters" voted for Bush.

Nice attempt at wriggling out of it, but i'm still holding your feet to the fire.

2 out of 5 Indiana residents voted for Kerry. Odd for a bunch of "red-Staters", huh?

[BeyondGeography]

43. Oooooh, Mr. BiggJawn, my feets is burning

I'm proud of all the Hoosiers who voted for Kerry.

Maybe next time we can run Evan Bayh and we'll lose the state by a mere 8 or 10 points.

[BiggJawn]

44. Let's run Lieberman before we run Bayh.

Peas in a pod, y'know.

[BeyondGeography]

45. Hey, on another note, put on MSNBC

It's pissing rain on poor Big Dog.

I've got nothing against any state, by the way. I do think we've got a better chance to make some hay out West than in the South, however.

[BiggJawn]

57. Ah, but it's pissing rain on 41 and 43, too...

...and I'll bet that's A-OK with the Big Dawg.

And why did Poppy have to wear the odd-coloured raincoat?

We have to take the Midwest back, too. I'd have to check, but 4 out of 10 going for the Democrat candidate seems a little closer than in years past. That's why we saw neither Bush nor Kerry here. Rove thought he had Indiana locked up by a landslide, and so did Mary Beth. Maybe in '08 we might actually SEE some candidates here?

I'm not convinced that the Lieberman "We're religous, too!" scheme is the way to do that. It scares me, because I think it has a HUGE ass-bite potential.

[BeyondGeography]

60. We're barely hanging on in the Midwest

so we should think about shoring ourselves up there with a regional presence on the ticket before conquering Culture War Country in the South, which is a hopeless cause in 2008, IMO.

We were in the neighborhood in CO, NV, NM. We have some potential in AZ. We need to get right back into the fight in OH, don't give up on MO, recapture IA, and keep everything else in the fold.

As for the religion thing, remember when civil rights was a religious issue? We have values, too, we just forgot how to frame the discussion. We need to attack the extreme fundamentalists, in the form of exposing the false nature of their "values." Jerry Falwell is not a nice man, to put it mildly, why are we playing defense against a guy who said 9/11 was payback for all those decadent homos in NY?

The one thing I would move toward the center on is abortion. Convenience abortions after the 18th week are a hard thing for me to be passionate about. Admit that the right has a point on partial birth, but criticize them for not allowing medical discretion. Sometimes the other side isn't totally full of shit. Most of Europe limits abortion to doctor's approval after 12 to 18 weeks. Our law is extreme, and it keeps one-quarter of the country voting against us no matter how bad the Republcian is.

[maxrandb]

56. There are lousy parents everywhere

Hell, I know I've made plenty of mistakes, but the "blues" are not the ones that wear their morality on their sleeves and preach about how the annointed one was elected due to morals and family values!!!

That is what pisses people off so much. It's the "effing" holier than thou shit they spout out of their mouths, while their little heads on their lower bodies are abusing young boys! I think it is definitely relevant to point out that this 47 year old mother is in the "heart" of what is supposed to be the "heartland of red Amurika".

I'll bet you dollars to donuts this lady calls herself a Christian, and probably came up with this punishment from something she read in the Old Testament. You know, spare the rod and the whole thing.

I for one will point out every single lack of morality I see coming from the "heartland", until the media and their enablers quit telling me that I am somehow "less moral" because I voted for Kerry.

Does it mean I'm more moral than red staters? Hell no. But, that is not the point I'm trying to make.

[blackspade]

6. so much for

red state family values!
:o

[bobbobbins]

8. =( thats my state

I live about 20 minutes from fredericksburg

[bendeminga]

9. Need your leaves raked? :-) n/t

[One_Life_To_Give]

10. Heard of Pettycoating but this?

OK I can grasp the concept of putting a boy in a frilly dress to get him to behave. But naked does what? Other than humiliate the kid.

[NorthernSpy]

14. nakedness or frilly dresses as punishment?

OK I can grasp the concept of putting a boy in a frilly dress to get him to behave.

I can't. Who the hell does such things?

There are some weird-ass people in this country. And it's the staunch Middle-America types who are always the weirdest.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. Yeah, what does that teach except contempt for women?

I'm convinced that one of the sources of the intense homophobia in this country is adult men who keep telling boys not to "act like girls" and who call boys who cry or boys whose sports team isn't doing well "ladies."

[leftchick]

33. they are equally warped concepts...

both are meant to humiliate. The mother is making a potential woman beater/rapist out of her child.

[RedCloud]

12. Dyslexic son!

He was told to rake the leaves good.
"For food?"
"No! Stop dawdling and get raking now".
But he heard "get naked boy".

Happens every day.

[slackmaster]

15. This one belongs in The Lounge IMO

:hi:

[goddess40]

32. why does child abuse belong in the lounge?

If she did this to this kid in public don't you wonder what hell this kids has been through in private?

[slackmaster]

47. All kinds of horrible things get posted there

Make a donation so you can use Search and you'll see what I mean.

[goddess40]

50. I've got my star

I donated already

[slackmaster]

51. Thank you!

Sorry I didn't notice earlier.

Seriously, some of the stuff that gets posted in The Lounge involves injury and death. I don't think it's appropriate. My remark was more a critique of what gets tolerated there.

[bushisanidiot]

17. Repuke family values.

what idiots.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

18. What fresh hell do we live in?

While I agree with the defense atty, that she has no record and does not deserve a felony conviction, I SURE AS HELL hope in lieu of a felony conviction that she must attend counseling classes for a LONG period of time and learn how to COMMUNICATE with her son and seek a diagnosis for him as well as herself if a bonafide/ treatable behavioral disorder is his problem. WE all KNOW a bonafide BEHAVIORAL disorder is HER problem.

[cubsfan forever]

63. Without professional evaluation, we don't know anything

of the sort. But she does sound in need of counseling.

Professor 2

[Dulcinea]

20. WTF?

:wtf:

[donkeyotay]

21. I saw this and thought, "they rake leaves in Texass?"

That's were it seems most of these messed up stories come from.

[elehhhhna]

25. They're not in TX but I'll bet the mother starts homeschooling anyway.

[Javaman]

24. Ah yes, many years of therapy for that kid in the future...

[Logansquare]

27. Three guesses as to why the kid is misbehaving in school

Parenting, parenting, parenting

[DemBones DemBones]

35. I'd guess it has to do with his being 12 years old, and remind

everyone that "misbehavior" could mean talking in class, being tardy to class, and other minor offenses.

Is he misbehaving in really disturbing ways? Is he being picked on at school? How is he coping with apparent absence of a father in the home? (And did Dad just move out, or perhaps die, recently?)

More information would be useful if we're going to set ourselves up as a judicial/ psychological review panel.

[SKKY]

28. This just goes to prove...

Republicans love the fetus, but hate the kid.

[DemBones DemBones]

34. A couple of salient points:

#1 "The woman is not being named to protect the boy's privacy."

Apparently, no one saw the kid naked except the neighbor who called police. Since it was evening, he may have been raking by moonlight in the dark..

For all we know, the kid was naked in his own yard behind a six-foot solid wood fence and the neighbor was investigating who was out there in the dark, either fearing a prowler or because he or she is nosy. One thing I know about newspapers is that they don't always get the story straight, sometimes leaving out crucial facts.

#2 "The boy was never removed from the mother's custody, and Haney said both are now doing much better."

I'd expect that the situation would have been investigated regarding her fitness as a parent when the complaint was made. Like newspapers, police and social workers sometimes screw up, but this last sentence of the article suggests the kid may be OK.

I'm sympathetic to both boy and mother. It never has been easy to be 12 or to be the parent of a 12 year-old.

[Danmel]

38. I have a 13 yr old girl and 10 yr old boy...

and I would never have even thought of a punishment like this. IT is sick and bizarre. There are times when my kids are exasperating and drive me nuts- but I can honestly say I'd never even contemplate something so humiliating and embarrassing. The family clearly needs some therapy- there are other issues here.

[TahitiNut]

39. No mention of a father.

Yet the point is made that the mother is 47 years old and the son is 12 years old. No mention of other children or of other members of the household. There's also no mention of family in the area, like an uncle or grandfather.

I don't hold out much optimism regarding the emotional maturation of the son. At the age of 12, he's going through adolescence - a very difficult time under the best of circumstances. This is a boy who'd probably benefit tremendously from a Big Brother program. There's not much question in my mind but that this episode is a harbinger of an eroded confidence in parental guidance.

[Cadence]

68. Your sympathetic to the mother?

That's disturbing.

I can't imagine a valid reason why humiliation and dominance would ever need to be used in guiding a child's behavior.

[gtar100]

40. Stress or no stress, this woman is an idiot

Where is there a connection between *misbehaving in school* and having to *rake leaves in the nude*. Americans sure come up with some wierd shit. Just what did the boy learn from this anyway? That his mother's a complete imbecile?

So what does the mother regret? Bad judgment or getting caught?

[Minimus]

46. Raking leaves in April? Now that's odd.

<kidding>

That mother has some serious issues.

[Strawman]

48. "Lost her cool?"

Speechless. Take this poor kid away from this unfit parent while there's still some chance for him. Somehow I doubt this was the first time this kid had to do chores in the nude.

[Name removed]

52. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[daleo]

55. Or perhaps the sound of a tombstone descending

With your attitude, it won't be long.

[jayfish]

59. Ha Ha, Right On The Money. -NT-

Jay

[daleo]

53. Perhaps the punishment should be having her rake the lawn nude

I am not really serious, but it might make her see how wrong public humiliation is as a punishment, especially for a 12 year old. She sounds somewhat unbalanced.

[genieroze]

54. Bet she's a B*sh Supporter

[NorthernSpy]

65. bet she's also a pro-lifer

You know how those damn people are always boohooing over the precious contents of a petri dish one moment, and the very next they're advocating hitting and humiliating real children as "discipline". Just good pro-life valyoooz in action, I suppose.

:eyes:

[guitar man]

58. what in the hell is wrong with people

..these days?! When I was 12 if I kept acting up in school, the only thing that would be naked would be my little ass while mom spanked it to a nice cherry red. Then I'd be raking leaves fully clothed and doing all kinds of extra chores while I thought about my behavior.

[DemBones DemBones]

62. These days, if she'd spanked his naked butt, they'd be nailing her

on child abuse for the spanking his butt, plus investigating her for sexual abuse for spanking his naked butt.

And you can bet the teachers and principal are no longer allowed to give him a couple of swats with a paddle. When I was a first-year public school teacher back in the eighties, I was surprised that schools now have policies against punishing kids by having them "write lines" ("I will not talk in class," "I will not chew gum in class.") The reasoning for that policy? Writing lines "turns kids off to writing" and "is not educational."

Back in the fifties and sixties, I wrote my share of "I will not talk in class" and it never turned me off to writing.

It was educational in that it taught me not to talk in class.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

61. She get the idea from Abu Ghraib? Gitmo? Biderman's Chart of Coercion.

Parents, teachers, and other adults larger than children use the same mind-breaking tactics that torturers use in this Amnesty International chart of abuse. See the last one, degradation.

The chart is now recognized as applicable to domestic abuse:

http://www.actabuse.com/chartofcoercion.html

Biderman's Chart of Coercion

General Method Used Effects and Purposes



Isolation
Deprives victim of all social support (necessary for the) ability to resist.


Developes an intense concern with self.


Makes victim dependent upon interrogator.


Monopolization of Perception
Fixes attention upon immediate predicament; fosters introspection.


Eliminates stimuli competing with those controlled by the captor.


Frustrates all actions not consistent with compliance.


Induced Debility & Exhaustion
Weakens mental and physical ability to resist.

Threats
Cultivates anxiety and despair.


Occasional Indulgences
Provides positive motivation for compliance.


Demonstrating "Omnipotence"
Suggests futility of resistance

Enforcing Trivial Demands
Develops habit of compliance.


Degradation
Makes cost of resistance appear more damaging to self esteem than capitulation.
Reduces prisoner to "animal level" concerns.

[DemBones DemBones]

66. Hey, most of that applies to "in school suspension" programs,

which are now used in lieu of paddling kids, making them write lines ("I will not talk in class"), or actually suspending them.

Kids get ISS both for minor stuff like talking in class or acculumated tardies, and major offenses that should get them suspended. A teacher (always a coach) is assigned to keep the kids all sitting quietly in their isolation desks, working on their assignments. Twice a day, he marches them all to the bathrooms and they stand in line in the hall, one boy and one girl being allowed to go in the bathrooms at a time. No talking in the hall, nobody to talk to in the bathroom. They're marched to the cafeteria to eat in silence before or after any other students are there. It's a cushy, if boring, deal for the coach, who doesn't have to teach or do lesson plans but makes regular teacher's pay. It's a pain in the ass for teachers, because they have to write out assignments for all their students assigned to ISS every day, usually during homeroom period, when they have other things to take care of, notably attendance records.

Does Amnesty International know about ISS? Maybe it can help get the minor offenders back in the classroom, allowing teachers to assign after-school detention or writing lines as punishment, and send major offenders home for a few days. (I know that's hard for working parents -- that should strongly encourage them to find a way to persuade the child to behave himself/ herself.)

Giving kids gold stickers for good behavior does not inspire all children to good behavior. Sometimes, kids need to be punished in some way.

[0007]

64. Kids can drive 'ya crazy.

[DemBones DemBones]

67. Yes, and until your kids are adults living on their own,

saying "My kid would never do that" OR "I'd never mistreat my child" are two sentences that can make liars out of the best-intentioned parents.

Old story says a child psychologist started out with six theories about child rearing. Years later, he had six children, and no theories about raising children.

[chookie]

69. More trickle down from Abu Ghraib

Our troops had been taught that sexual humiliation and shame works wonders on naughty Muslims.

A lot of people in the heartland had no trouble with the techniques they used.

This woman may have thought it was such a good idea she wanted to try it on her naughty 12 year old boy.

So "She lost her cool that day"? Why not throw things, or break things if she was so maddened by rage and out of control. Forcing her son to strip naked and go out and rake leaves sounds more systematically insane than some spontaneous act of rage.

She should have stuck to Dr Spock and not adopted practices adopted by Israeli counter-terrorism.