The old joke goes that older generations used to walk uphill both ways to school while in the snow. Well, Hawaii is not exactly known for its snow, but one father named Robert De Mond decided to punish his eight-year-old son by making him walk home. But a court says he was wrong to do so, and is charging him with second-degree endangering the welfare of a minor.
In a related report by The Inquisitr , one father decided to punish his rebellious teenage daughter for not cleaning her room by moving her entire bedroom out onto the driveway . Photos of the incident soon went viral and the girl certainly learned her lesson. Unfortunately, when another father decided to punish his daughters for recording a video of themselves twerking , he used a video cable and ended up being arrested for the spanking.
In the case of Hawaii, state laws allow parents to discipline their children with such “old school punishments,” including spanking. The reason the child was punished was because he would not give a straight answer why the school had punished him earlier in the day. This occurred on the drive home, so De Mond pulled over on Kuhio Highway and told his son to walk the rest of the way on the shoulder of the road.
Unfortunately, a stranger spotted the boy crying on the side of the road, called the police, and returned the boy to the school. So when the father realized his son was taking too long, he went back to find him only to realize he was missing. In a panic now, De Mond called the police himself and learned the boy’s location. But that’s when the government intervened, according to De Mond :
“I wasn’t able to see my son. I was put under arrest. All I was trying to do is have my son think about his actions and there was no intention at all that I wanted to harm my son. I just wanted him to walk home and think about what he did by the time he got home.”
The court disagreed, handing down a one year probationary period in addition to a $200 fine and parenting classes. The good news is that the father will have his record cleared, assuming there are not any more incidents. Still, De Mond says the case was hard on his family:
“I’m a pretty big figure in the community for multiple sports. For me getting through this and past it was my concern. It’s made me a stronger person, and made me think about being a parent a lot more. It also puts me in a spot. I’m happy to be accountable for my actions if I’m going to preach and tell that to my kids.”
Do you think that forcing an eight-year-old child to walk home a mile is an acceptable form of punishment?
