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Father charged with child endangerment for making kid walk home from school.

SunnyD

SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
Won't someone think of the children!

LIHUE — A Kilauea man was given probation and a fine Wednesday in 5th Circuit Court for punishing his son by making him walk a mile for not answering his questions — a form of discipline a judge called “old school” and no longer appropriate.

Robert Demond was sentenced to a one-year probation, a $200 fine and to a child parenting class for a misdemeanor charge of second-degree endangering the welfare of a minor.

Demond said he would handle it differently now after going through Family Court, where the case originated on Oct. 17, 2013, and to Circuit Court, where he pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge.

Demond told the judge that it was a common form of punishment when he was a kid and that he didn’t see it as morally wrong or criminal. He had picked his son up from school and questioned him about a matter that came to his attention. When his son didn’t respond, he stopped the vehicle and made him walk home to think about his actions.

“How far did you make him walk?” asked Judge Kathleen Watanabe.

“About a mile,” Demond said.

These are different times, Watanabe said. It is understandable that you became upset with your son, but it is dangerous for children to walk along the highway, and there are predators out there, she said. The age of the child was not revealed in the course of the hearing and the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney would not divulge further information.
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God forbid a parent actually be a parent. "Different times" or not, but we're now literally at the point where we're calling something this mundane child endangerment? My parents would be serving about a dozen lifetime sentences for as many times as I walked home from school, and I lived a good 10 miles away. I'm surprised they're not just taking kids everybody's away at birth now.

I'd be locked up for contempt charges after telling the judge that she may as well lock me up.

(Arguably, this was probably a 5 or 6 year old or something - but still)
 
Yeah, it's different times. I used to walk home, usually with school companions, both from junior high and high school. I'm sure that in general it's a lot less safe, in oh so many locals in the USA these days.

That said, now reading the OP, I can agree with the judge that kicking your kid out of the car as punishment is somewhat venal. It's not so much that the kid has to walk, it's cruel to kick your kid out of the car for anything.
 
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Need info on road kid was expected to walk. I saw the word highway, which could represent completely different environments to walk a mile on.
 
Making a child walk alone on a highway is probably not a good idea. Back in Junior High, I used to walk over a mile home from school every day, weather permitting, but that was through town. We once made our son walk about half a block home while we drove along side him when he was about 5 for lying to us. I'm sure someday that will be "too old school" and "inappropriate."
 
Is there a law that forces parents to drive their kids home from school? Is there a law prohibiting a kid from walking along a highway? Aren't cops supposed to be in the area to serve and protect the kid from danger? Does a parent need legal permission to discipline a kid?
 
Also, what is a highway? We have roads all over Tampa named "___ highway" and they're nothing more than two lane (one in each direction) streets with 30 mph speed limits. I live next to one. So if I wanted to sensationalize my story, I'd call the dinky little road a highway.
 
The kid was never endangered or harmed in anyway. Kudos for Dad trying to be a parent. If there were more like him kids would grow up right.
 
Hmm.

We got chewed out by the school bus driver for waiting 3 doors down for our kindergartener to get off the bus because it, "just wasn't safe for a child to walk that far."

The next year the school "reassessed" the safety of the neighborhood, (i.e. had their budgets cut), and decided that anyone who lived within two miles was now walking to school.

So I guess our school district in Texas would be fined by this judge......
 
Yes, these are different times. It's safer than ever for kids.

Both of my kids have had to walk home on occasion. It's between 4 and 5 miles.
 
DrPizza said:
Yes, these are different times. It's safer than ever for kids.

Both of my kids have had to walk home on occasion. It's between 4 and 5 miles.
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I don't agree with the father being charged with anything in this case, unless it was a real highway, which I highly doubt.

However, it might be safer than ever in some areas, but I wouldn't say that applies to big cities. My concern in Chicago (other than the daily shooting) is the fucktard sex offenders. I live right next to a school, so to my knowledge they're at least a bit away, but we're still surrounded by plenty of bullet targets:


BZb7FEN.png
 
I walked a mile home everyday. Guess my parents were "bad" parents. Unless it was a mile through snake infested forest, I think this is ridiculous.
 
Muse said:
Yeah, it's different times. I used to walk home, usually with school companions, both from junior high and high school. I'm sure that in general it's a lot less safe, in oh so many locals in the USA these days.
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Oh yes, the world we live in today is SO much more dangerous for the little children than when you were a child!

violentCrime2.jpg


It's dumb people like this, easily manipulated by the fear mongering of the media, that are the reason we have such idiotic rulings from judges. People like this vote.
 
lol my house was nearly 2 miles from the bus stop when i was a kid, walked/rode my bike to that every day. FFS my driveway was a 1/4 mile long
and in the winter it was nearly dark out when the bus dropped us off
 
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