E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSPolice say a Minnesota mother and her husband shaved the head of her 12-year-old daughter, then forced the girl to run around in a diaper in public as punishment for a failing grade on her report card.
The child’s 38-year-old mother and the woman’s 34-year-old husband were charged on Wednesday with malicious punishment of a child, a gross misdemeanor, according to Lt. Mike Monsrud with the Fridley Police Department. The offense is punishable up to a year in jail and or a $3,000 fine.
"Parental discipline is one thing, but intentional humiliation of a child is abuse no matter what," Monsrud told msnbc.com.
Msnbc.com is not identifying the family.
Officers arrested the couple Monday evening after a neighbor called police, saying a crowd of about 50 people, mostly men and boys, had gathered outside to watch the child, clad in a diaper and a tank top, begging to be allowed inside the family’s townhouse in Fridley, just north of Minneapolis, Monsrud said.
"When the officer found her, she was crying and hysterical and inconsolable," Monsrud said. He said while officers were escorting the girl to the patrol car, a neighbor took a baby blanket from her own infant and wrapped it around the girl, whose hair clippings were still clinging to her neck, chest and tank top.
Facebook discipline: Creative parenting, or just mean?
According to a criminal complaint, the couple had warned the child repeatedly that she would be placed on “diaper duty” if she failed her classes.
"They told her if she didn't get good grades, they would shave her head and put her on 'diaper duty,' which I guess meant running up and down the street and cleaning up trash as a form of public humiliation,” Monsrud said.
A crowd started to gather shortly after the girl first emerged from her home after 7 p.m. Monday, Monsrud said. The girl was forced outside and told to repeatedly sprint back and forth, according to the criminal complaint.
"One of her classmates from school saw [the girl] and was calling her name while she was running but [the girl] told him to leave her alone," the complaint stated.
Watch US News videos on msnbc.com
The Police Department received two calls during the time the girl was outside, which lasted about 30 minutes, he said.
"What is perhaps the most disturbing is that all the way up to the jail, the couple was laughing and joking, not believing they were involved in anything inappropriate," Monsrud said. "They questioned police involvement. They believed it was their decision as parents to discipline the girl."
Monsrud said the girl and three other children in the family have been placed in foster care.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
- Piglets twirled, pigs kicked by farm workers, activist video shows
- Should troops attacked in US be eligible for Purple Hearts?
- Conservative author drops claim of two Pulitzer nominations
- Video: More girls suffering sports-related concussions
- Viewing child porn 'legal' in New York, court finds
- Principal: Errors get Nevada high school ranked 13th in US
Leave a Comment:
This was probably just the tip of the iceberg. A child failing in school can indicate severe problems at home.
Sick parents.
you can find love from parents. it's hurt to find love from your prison pals.
This is awful!!! Discipline is one thing, I don't want my child to fail either, but humiliation is wrong!!! Children get enough of that from students at school, they should be able to trust that their parents won't humiliate or belittle them. That little girl is going to need therapy and lots of prayers!!! Bless her heart!!!
JPR- Amazing. There is nothing to indicate there was "other stuff." Some of you people can't believe that a parent would do this. Therefore there's got to be more. There is no judgement to reserve. This was plain criminal.
I just remember my Dad's words -- "You never humiliate anyone if you want positive results." My Dad was a well-respected public school teacher for over 30 years. His students, for nearly 30 years after he retired, respected him and loved him because he always treated them with respect regardless of their failures. Until he passed away in 2007, he was among the very few teachers from his school that were regularly invited to attend class reunions. That said, what was this mother and her husband thinking? I simply cannot imagine.
Republicans. That's Republican child rearing. Scar your child psychologically
The punishment of 1 year in jail and a $3,000 fine is not enough for what these "parents" have done to their child. The parents get multiple Fs in parenting.
Yet we spend more time defining marriage than we do defining good parenting. Emblematic of a wayward society that parents could actually think this was a legitimate act of punishment and not show any remorse.
Shave the heads of the parents, put them in diapers and make them parade around town for a day, then see how funny they think it is......Give them an IQ test while you are at it.
they don't look too happy in their mug shots.
I say make the parents wear crap-filled diapers and drag their asses all the way down Broadway. In fact make them drag their asses from Minnesota all the way to Broadway.
Pure and intense psychological torture at its finest: incite the animals to witness total debasement in the female child who does not excel.
Once again, @!$%#ed-up morons are allowed to breed. This child and her siblings need to be removed permanently and placed with caring people who know the proper way to raise a child. These idiots sure as hell don't.
There aren't any extenuating circumstances to excuse these parents actions. They are disgusting human beings. Ever hear the golden rule creeps? Treat others as you would want to be treated!! They probably don't even own a computer!!!
Officers arrested the couple Monday evening after a neighbor called police, saying a crowd of about 50 people, mostly men and boys, had gathered outside to watch the child, clad in a diaper and a tank top, begging to be allowed inside the family’s townhouse.
The parents should be forced to wear a placard saying "We pimped our daughter" and the word "pervert scum" tattooed on their foreheads.
I'm astounded by the number of people who actually believe that it's ok to shave a 12 year old girls head, then dress her in underwear and force her outside to humiliate herself in front of the neighbors. Do you people honestly believe that shame and humiliation in the form of forced public indecency is an effective form of punishment? Have any of you stopped to think about the emotional impact this can have on a young girl just entering her teen years? I hope these parents never get their kids back.
The out line of general cognitive ability is determined by genes given by the parents. It is quite reasonable that a kid of stupid parents has a learning disorder.
They should remove this child from their care permanently and than send the eejits to prison but first tell all the cons how they abused this kid and let justice reign !
This sounds like sexual abuse to me as well. Perverts pay a lot of money to see this sort of thing on the internet. Wtih a teenaged girl, I'll bet that really gets the weirdos going.
go and bleach your brain.
jon, why would you say that? don't you agree? or are you saying that you don't think that it was sexual abuse as well. I think it was. she was in a tank top and nothing else but a diaper. your comment makes you look bad.
These parents are lazy and ignorant. Lazy parenting leads to mental and physical abuse. These "parents" would rather punish for 30 mins of abuse instead of sitting with their child daily, each evening making sure the homework and school work is done and the child is learning.Typical.
Folks when you cut a childs hair (especially a girls) against their wishes you are invading their private space and undermining their confidence in themselves. Their bodies may be the only thing of which they have control and when you take that away, especially with violence, you are striking a blow that can be psychologically damaging and result in even worse behavior. Why is it when the mother brings in the young boy friend the kids get short changed, bet it was the boyfriends idea of the diaper. I would look for sexual abuse in that family.
What the F?? Those parents get an F, the neighbors and on-lookers get an F. Standing around and watching this poor girl being humiliated and terrorized? No one helped and/or offered her cover--except for the one woman with the baby blanket. I hope the "parents" will sit in jail in diapers........and the rest of them will have to live with the fact that they are socially inept.
These parents need serious help, shaving their daughters head & having her parade outside with barely any clothes on is just extremly wrong. Then laugh about it, that is sick. They did malicious bodily harm to this girl. The parents who had their kids standing on a corner with a sign were trying to discipline their children by teaching them a lesson.
Were these parents related to Michelle Bachmann ????
People should be required to have passed an IQ test before having children. I mean honestly, this pair sounds like a bunch of trailer trash retards. How exactly does humiliating the girl help her grades? When my daughter started misbehaving, we experimented with taking away her toys, keeping her from watching TV and putting her in the corner (rarely) for 1 minute per year, so since she was 3 it was 3 minutes, and 4 minute timeouts when she was four. Hell, Publix supermarket will send you a huge child rearing book for free if you sign up.
Can't help wondering why such people have children in the first place.
for some people it's the only thing they know how to do. I'll bet she never even finished high school. they both look like real winners.
I can't believe this is not on every cell phone or other devices. 50 people most men and boys and no one put this on the net? I hope if someone did tape it, they think before doing so, or face punishment if they do.
Maybe it was just to horrible to do. Or maybe the crowd took pity on the poor girl and felt she had been humiliated enough. Maybe there is still some human feelings when it comes to all that junk.
I can think of a lot of punishments for those parents and the least would be a fine and jail time!