Arrested Developement

Has your kid ever done anything to piss you off?  Are traditional methods of discipline not really working out for you?  Maybe you should take a page from the Texas Legislature's Education Code and just have the unruly little punk arrested.  What's that?  Your kid's only six years old?  No problem!

In Texas, children as young as six years old are being ticketed and charged with class C misdemeanors.

"Disrupting class, using profanity, misbehaving on a school bus, student fights and truancy once meant a trip to the principal's office. Today, such misbehavior results in a Class C misdemeanor ticket and a trip to court for thousands of Texas students and their families each year."

Oh, right.  A trip to court for the families.  Doesn't that sound like fun?  Doesn't it make sense for a parent to have to miss a day at work to escort a first grader to court because he used profanity on the school bus?  Sounds like an opportunity for the kid to learn a few more choice words to me!

Critics of the practice point out that this disciplinary policy leads to larger numbers of high school dropouts, minorities and special education students are disproportionately singled out (Racism?  In Texas?  No!), and the practice stigmatizes young children as "behavior problems" and makes it more difficult for them to relate positively to school. 

Of course, there are two sides to every story.  If your kid was being spat on, choked, and pushed on the playground, wouldn't you expect someone to do something about it?