Charges: Fridley Couple Made Girl Run In Diaper With Shaved Head

Charges: Fridley Couple Made Girl Run In Diaper With Shaved Head

I have heard of stories where parents have had their children stand on the streets carrying signs declaring their wasted education etc. I always thought that was extreme but this takes the cake. What lessons are learned by getting your head shaved and standing in the cold wearing a diaper? How could humiliation ever be a valuable way to motivate your child?

In my day, I thought my parents were awful by forcing me to sit at the table and study for a minimum of 90 minutes per day when my grades were below par. I felt resentful knowing I would be sitting at that table even if I had no homework. I cannot imagine how this girl felt.

 

New headline to come out soon:

Fridley couple murdered.

 

I have real difficulty understanding how such a large group could gather before anyone did anything about it. I realize that there is a lot of hesitation towards getting involved with problems unrelated to yourself, and I understand some amount of hesitation towards approaching a girl who is undressed like this as well. If I drove past something such as this I wouldn't make it around the corner without at least contacting the authorities. Could you imagine this poor child having to return to her school and face those who were standing around mocking her. The article does not state that she was being mocked or ridiculed but lets face it, a group of teenagers/children would laugh first and think later.

 

Wow, I find this to be utterly disgusting...

I get the whole "fear of consequences" bit, but I'd say a line has definitely been crossed when the consequence is being belittled and put on display for ridicule by your own parents.

 

Ok, I don't care where you fall on the "I need to study harder" signs argument... this is blatantly abuse. This is the sort of thing that deserves a long conversation with DCF and some long-term counseling.

Also a strong right hook, just to get the message through their phenomenally thick skulls.

 

I've never understood why parents do these types of things? How is abusing this girl going to bring her grades up? There must be a reason she is failing the class but instead of looking for the underlying cause, the parents shame and abuse her. Hopefully she will end up with a supportive foster family.

 

This was a bit extreme. The diaper alone probably would have been sufficient.

 

Assholes make lousy parents. Poor girl, having been born to a pair of them. It's a shame that we're so isolated from one another and so reliant on local law enforcement that we don't feel we own the responsibility or have the right to interfere in our own communities or with our neighbors anymore.

 

This is so far over the line it's scary.

Some character in a movie said "You need a license to drive a car, you need a license to catch a fish, but any butt-reamin' asshole can be a father."

Unfortunately, that is all too true.

 

Too many parents seem to believe that threat and punishment are viable substitutes to being integrated into their children's lives. This appears to be a prime example. Hope they seek and find help, for their daughter's sake.

 

I am sorry but I can understand why people in a community would be uncomfortable with approaching a child who isn't dressed properly, who knows what accusations could potentially follow? I would also find it equally difficult to step in and attempt to speak to a parent. I understand where you are coming from to suggest that the community should step in during these situations. Parents tend to become incredibly defensive in times that there judgment in parenting is in question. I know I would not wish to put myself in a situation where my personal safety was at stake. Seeing a child who is suffering horrible embarrassment, in tears, begging to be allowed to enter her home, her parents are oblivious to her discomfort, do you think you would feel the parents would be approachable? Is there any lesson that could reasonably taught to a child by shaving her head, dressing her in a diaper and locking her outside? I am pretty certain she didn't get much homework accomplished. As far as I am concerned, the community did what they were comfortable with doing. I would also consider the possibility that they may not have known their neighbors or been close enough to them to be comfortable with discussing the situation with them. 609.377, 2011 Minnesota Statutes

There are laws against this sort of treatment of a child, there was a basis for arrest. Should a parent be allowed to keep their child in a dog kennel? Should a parent be allowed to whip their child bloody because they wet themselves? Should a toddler be subjected to being force fed horseradish as punishment for vomiting? Should a child be burned to death with scalding water for being a little sassy? I am not suggesting that you would agree, but these are some examples of real punishments that have been made to children. By charging the parents with a crime it will be fully investigated, Child protection will talk to the children and make sure they are safe. The children will be placed into a safer environment if they are at risk and the parents may have an opportunity to take parenting classes, anger management etc and who knows, maybe they will turn out to be better for it. The police clearly had a right to intervene in the matter.

 

I find it astonishing that the couple are facing only one year each. Ten years would certainly be appropriate. Forcefully shaving somebody's head against their will is a serious assault.

As for the comment about "shouldnt the neighbour's have stepped in"... just stopping the girl being parading up and down the street is not the whole point. She was already the victim of a serious assault at that point and the perpetrators certainly should be punished.

Both mother and father will be on the sex offenders register for life, and hopefully will at least spend some time in prison. It might not help the girl get over the abuse (and lets not kid ourselves that things like this happen out of the blue, someone who will abuse a 12 year old like this is likely an abuser since the kid was born)... but at least they will never be able to abuse her again.

In some ways its sentimental that assaults against children seem worse to us all than assaults against adults...but on an emotional level it does.

On an intellectual level, I dont agree with what I am about to say at all, but on an emotional level if they put the father in the general prison population and identify him as a child abuser and he gets what he gets... this doesnt strike me as a significant problem.

If I saw a grown man and woman doing this to a 12 year old child, I dont think I'd feel able to confront the woman, but I'd have no problem of walking up to the guy and striking him with maximum force, in the liver, car keys wrapped around the fist so he feels it. Police arent going to care if someone who is in the middle of torturing a 12 year old gets tucked in, are they?

 

Seriously?

Mate, you've said some retarded stuff in the restaurant thread but this takes the cake. You remind me of the Middle Ages, where "damaging" a man's beard was an acceptable justification for the victim to slay the perpetrator.

How can you possibly classify the parents' actions as serious assault and for it to warrant them being on a sex offenders (of all things) list?

I completely agree that what the parents did was appalling, but not even when I'm drunk (which I am) can I agree to your twisted logic.

The sentences they are facing are more than just, and provide very adequate retribution.

Where do you see sexual-fucking-abuse in any of the parents' actions? And serious assault, you must be kidding right? I love how their actions are the same to you as somebody stabbing someone, critically injuring and landing them in the ICU of a hospital.

Really man, some of your stuff is very entertaining and I usually have a great time reading what you write. This is entirely ridiculous, though.

 

If somebody shaved your head against your will you would not consider yourself the victim of assault? You do not think stripping a 12 year old girl to a nappy and parading her around the stReet is a sex crime?

I don't know that I can believe you believe that but I don't understand why you would make such astonishing statements

 

Oh man. Please learn to read. She was wearing a tank top with the diaper. I've seen 12 year olds wear less than that and nobody did anything about it.

It's bloody obvious that there was no sexual malice behind the parent's actions. There's many lewder things you can make a girl wear than a fucking diaper. So no, no sex crime anywhere in that particular case. If you took your head out of wherever the hell it is stuck, maybe you'd realize the idiocy behind your claim.

And somebody shaving my hair against my will? Sure, I'll be hugely mad about and will probably smack that person hard. But a crime? Serious assault, at that? Come off it.

By your logic, entire institutions are liable to thousands of counts of serious assault charges, especially the military and the correctional systems.

 

I have pondered whether or not it is a sex crime and I am on the fence about it. Certainly she was sent to a public area in a state of undress. On the other hand, she was covered to the extent where her "bathing suit areas" would be covered.

I have to seriously question though. If a parent is willing to punish a kid in such a horrific manner in public, how were these children punished in private? It is really upsetting to consider.

 

History is replete with examples of this.
Many involving far worse than a child wearing a diaper with a shaved head.