Minnesota Girl Forced To Run In Diaper For Bad Grades: Police

[technomonkey]

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - A Minnesota couple accused of shaving their 12-year-old daughter's head and forcing her to run around their neighborhood in an adult diaper and tank top as punishment for a failing grade appeared in court on Wednesday on misdemeanor charges.

The girl told police it was the third time she had been put on "diaper duty," according to a criminal complaint charging her mother, Stephanie Broten, and stepfather, Darnell Landrum, with malicious punishment of a child.

The alleged incident occurred on Monday in Fridley, a northern suburb of Minneapolis.

Broten, 38, told police "she did not see what the problem was and that she was simply disciplining her child by embarrassing her," an officer said in the complaint.

Alerted by neighbors, police found the girl - who was being disciplined for getting an F on her report card - "hysterically crying" with a shaved head and wearing the tank top and diaper, the complaint said.

The girl had been forced to run sprints in the diaper and tank top and had been outside for more than half an hour in the incident seen by 30 to 50 people, including men and teenage boys, it said.

Landrum, 34, said the girl had been warned several times she had to start listening in school and get better grades or be forced to wear a diaper and shave her head, according to the complaint.

The girl had failed to bring her school assignments home before the incident, it said.

The charges carry up to a year in jail.

source:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/10/us-usa-minnesota-diaper-idUSBRE84901L20120510?feedType=RSS&virtualBrandChannel=11563

[wetatnight]

the parents should have to shave their heads and run around in diapers.

sick bastards!!!

[Kari]

Wonder if she grows up to be a AB/DL to cope with the trauma?

Or will make up in her mind that we are all like her parents?

[Diaper Mike 05]

1 year in jail? Shouldn't this be classified as child abuse and a felony? 30-50 people saw it, probably people she goes to school with, and she probably will never be able to escape the name calling and anything else that she will probably get from her peers.

And the one idiot that commented on the article supported this "shock treatment". Idiots.

[freswith]

Perhaps she will receive sympathy from her friends for her ordeal. I would like to think so.

Why do the parents wish to make school a terrifying experience for her? Do they really think it will improve her grades.

[Eir]

Humiliation is not a valid form of punishment... Some idiots never learn.

[Bettypooh]

I'll be different here While in no way supporting these 'parents' or what they did, humiliation can be a big motivator, especially for a teen, and moreso when it is rather well known While this went too far, is it not also the parents responsibility to do what they can to assure their child gets a proper education? I would hope that they made every effort to help her with her studies before reaching punishment stage (but I somehow doubt that happened). And I know how stubborn and rebellious I was in my teens- it took something severe to get my attention back then

My points-

1- The diaper wasn't too much all by itself so long as she wasn't forced to use it. Making her go out in public with it exposed was going too far though. Had they made her stay home in it and let her friends visit if they wanted to, or let her cover it in public it might have been a realistic punishment.

2- Shaving her head was definitely too much because it will take many, many months for it to grow back enough to be styled into anything presentable. At her age this is going to be traumatic. Making her braid her hair on the very top or front of her head so she looked silly would have accomplished the same thing but not have any lasting effects.

3- The physical part shouldn't have harmed her. In fact, most kids these days could use more physical exercise for their own good.

4- The public humiliation part wouldn't have been bad had it not been this. More appropriate would have been to have made here wear a T-shirt that said "I failed my (fill-in-the-blank) class because I didn't study so I am stupid" or something like that. Just showing such a shirt to most teens to prove that you might do it would be enough to motivate them.

I'm looking for discussion, not arguments, here. I want to see how everyone thinks about this- especially those who were once stubborn teens like myself (or as close to me as you could get- it would be tough for you to match my rotten record of teen behavior ) I can see where diapers could be a reasonable punishment for a teen- just not used in this manner!

Whadda ya think?

Bettypooh

[DiaperPony]

I've used humiliation to motivate my kids. It's a slightly different setup though, I think. I'd been having trouble with them not wanting to get dressed in the morning before school. We were late a couple times due to them not being ready.. they had been playing with their toys instead. So, the next time, I warned them that we were leaving at a certain time, whether they were dressed or not. I set the time a little earlier than when we'd normally leave. Of course when the time came they weren't ready. So I said "okay time to leave for school", and proceeded to take them outside in their undressed state, and locked the door as if we were leaving. Well as you can imagine, they weren't happy with that at all and begged to be let back in to get dressed. I let them back in and they got dressed in record time. Since then, they've always gotten dressed in the morning. Am I a horrible parent?

p.s. A Bettypooh post with no emoticons? Were you hacked? lol

[Kella]

I agree with the earlier posts, these parents should be sentenced to 500 hours community service by picking up trash a long the roughest part of the state wearing only adult diapers . . . and sporting freshly shaved heads.

[thong5]

In this case the parents went to far. I can see this young girl being bullied at school and subjected to many nasty comments because of this. the article said she was seen by many people including men and teenage boys. thats just wrong. I'm sure some of those boys might go to her school and they will talk about this and it will only serve to make it worse for her. I can also see her building up anger over this so much that she might lash out at someone else, which is never good. We all want to motivate our children to do better , in school ,work, life whatever but this is not the way. I would hope her real dad ( if he's around ) would remove her from this situation and that mom and stepdad be charged with felony child abuse.

[willnotwill]

Mom got three months: http://www.startribune.com/local/179380141.html?refer=y

[Bettypooh]

Nice! And thanks for the follow-up

Bettypooh

[sissymichelle]

I'll be different here While in no way supporting these 'parents' or what they did, humiliation can be a big motivator, especially for a teen, and moreso when it is rather well known While this went too far, is it not also the parents responsibility to do what they can to assure their child gets a proper education? I would hope that they made every effort to help her with her studies before reaching punishment stage (but I somehow doubt that happened). And I know how stubborn and rebellious I was in my teens- it took something severe to get my attention back then

My points-

1- The diaper wasn't too much all by itself so long as she wasn't forced to use it. Making her go out in public with it exposed was going too far though. Had they made her stay home in it and let her friends visit if they wanted to, or let her cover it in public it might have been a realistic punishment.

2- Shaving her head was definitely too much because it will take many, many months for it to grow back enough to be styled into anything presentable. At her age this is going to be traumatic. Making her braid her hair on the very top or front of her head so she looked silly would have accomplished the same thing but not have any lasting effects.

3- The physical part shouldn't have harmed her. In fact, most kids these days could use more physical exercise for their own good.

4- The public humiliation part wouldn't have been bad had it not been this. More appropriate would have been to have made here wear a T-shirt that said "I failed my (fill-in-the-blank) class because I didn't study so I am stupid" or something like that. Just showing such a shirt to most teens to prove that you might do it would be enough to motivate them.

I'm looking for discussion, not arguments, here. I want to see how everyone thinks about this- especially those who were once stubborn teens like myself (or as close to me as you could get- it would be tough for you to match my rotten record of teen behavior ) I can see where diapers could be a reasonable punishment for a teen- just not used in this manner!

Whadda ya think?

Bettypooh

I don't see anything wrong with the punishment, unless laws like indecent exposure come into play. I probably wouldn't have shaved her hair, or went to the extreme of public embarrassment outside in only a diaper. But I don't think this warrants a year of jail time. It might be a cruel and unusual punishment, but I have heard worse, like kids being caged, starved, in wet soiled diapers, for days on end. I like the idea of this punishment rather then physical punishment. Heck there are some people, that walk around walmart as a dare, in just a diaper, and a shirt. In the longrun, hair grows back, and the punishment is over with. A lesson learned for the parents, that laws can be too extreme.

[ForbiddenFruit]

It's like every time Michele Bachmann goes in and out of Minnesota, she leaves some of her insanity behind her.

[dlsmd]

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - A Minnesota couple accused of shaving their 12-year-old daughter's head and forcing her to run around their neighborhood in an adult diaper and tank top as punishment for a failing grade appeared in court on Wednesday on misdemeanor charges.

The girl told police it was the third time she had been put on "diaper duty," according to a criminal complaint charging her mother, Stephanie Broten, and stepfather, Darnell Landrum, with malicious punishment of a child.

The alleged incident occurred on Monday in Fridley, a northern suburb of Minneapolis.

Broten, 38, told police "she did not see what the problem was and that she was simply disciplining her child by embarrassing her," an officer said in the complaint.

Alerted by neighbors, police found the girl - who was being disciplined for getting an F on her report card - "hysterically crying" with a shaved head and wearing the tank top and diaper, the complaint said.

The girl had been forced to run sprints in the diaper and tank top and had been outside for more than half an hour in the incident seen by 30 to 50 people, including men and teenage boys, it said.

Landrum, 34, said the girl had been warned several times she had to start listening in school and get better grades or be forced to wear a diaper and shave her head, according to the complaint.

The girl had failed to bring her school assignments home before the incident, it said.

The charges carry up to a year in jail.

i had this happen to me when i was a kid without the hare cut

so i say this is disgusting

Wonder if she grows up to be a AB/DL to cope with the trauma?

Or will make up in her mind that we are all like her parents?

im not sure but i pray she only blames her parents

1 year in jail? Shouldn't this be classified as child abuse and a felony? 30-50 people saw it, probably people she goes to school with, and she probably will never be able to escape the name calling and anything else that she will probably get from her peers.

And the one idiot that commented on the article supported this "shock treatment". Idiots.

yup thats my question

Perhaps she will receive sympathy from her friends for her ordeal. I would like to think so.

Why do the parents wish to make school a terrifying experience for her? Do they really think it will improve her grades.

i hope so but not likely

at lest this is my experence

[dlsmd]

Sorry for the double post but i hit the max on quotes

Humiliation is not a valid form of punishment... Some idiots never learn.

vary true

I'll be different here While in no way supporting these 'parents' or what they did, humiliation can be a big motivator, especially for a teen, and moreso when it is rather well known While this went too far, is it not also the parents responsibility to do what they can to assure their child gets a proper education? I would hope that they made every effort to help her with her studies before reaching punishment stage (but I somehow doubt that happened). And I know how stubborn and rebellious I was in my teens- it took something severe to get my attention back then

My points-

1- The diaper wasn't too much all by itself so long as she wasn't forced to use it. Making her go out in public with it exposed was going too far though. Had they made her stay home in it and let her friends visit if they wanted to, or let her cover it in public it might have been a realistic punishment.

2- Shaving her head was definitely too much because it will take many, many months for it to grow back enough to be styled into anything presentable. At her age this is going to be traumatic. Making her braid her hair on the very top or front of her head so she looked silly would have accomplished the same thing but not have any lasting effects.

3- The physical part shouldn't have harmed her. In fact, most kids these days could use more physical exercise for their own good.

4- The public humiliation part wouldn't have been bad had it not been this. More appropriate would have been to have made here wear a T-shirt that said "I failed my (fill-in-the-blank) class because I didn't study so I am stupid" or something like that. Just showing such a shirt to most teens to prove that you might do it would be enough to motivate them.

I'm looking for discussion, not arguments, here. I want to see how everyone thinks about this- especially those who were once stubborn teens like myself (or as close to me as you could get- it would be tough for you to match my rotten record of teen behavior ) I can see where diapers could be a reasonable punishment for a teen- just not used in this manner!

Whadda ya think?

Bettypooh

i can agree with # 4 but what thay did was wrong

I've used humiliation to motivate my kids. It's a slightly different setup though, I think. I'd been having trouble with them not wanting to get dressed in the morning before school. We were late a couple times due to them not being ready.. they had been playing with their toys instead. So, the next time, I warned them that we were leaving at a certain time, whether they were dressed or not. I set the time a little earlier than when we'd normally leave. Of course when the time came they weren't ready. So I said "okay time to leave for school", and proceeded to take them outside in their undressed state, and locked the door as if we were leaving. Well as you can imagine, they weren't happy with that at all and begged to be let back in to get dressed. I let them back in and they got dressed in record time. Since then, they've always gotten dressed in the morning. Am I a horrible parent?

i dont think so because thay needed to learn that when its time to get dressed its time to stop playing

also because you were not actualy going to make them go without clothes

Mom got three months: http://www.startribu...41.html?refer=y

3 months she needed 3 years if not longer

[yojojo]

Putting anyone in a diaper regardless of age, with out necessity can be deemed as Abuse. This is even more true when the person being forced to wear is compos-mentus and fully capable of making rational, ethical, moral and intellectual decisions for themselves.

While I understand the need to keep Prisons full of vacant spaces for repeat and dangerous offenders, I do not understand how anyone who harms a Minor can only get 1 year in Jail when you can be given 2 years in Jail for Speeding !

The Prison System desperately needs a review of policy and procedure. That goes for the Judicial System as well.

[willnotwill]

Step dad gets 120 days

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2012/12/05/man-gets-120-days-for-forcing-girl-12-to-run-in-diaper/

[Guest aielen]

Were the sick parents taught to do so by Doug, that creator of the sicko website Diaper Discipline?

1 year only? Shoudl be put away for life.

[Guest aielen]

"Through the whole contact, and even on the way to jail, both were laughing and thinking it was ridiculous police would get involved in what they said was their parental decision"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/09/stephanie-broten-darnell-landrum-diaper-daughter_n_1503322.html

Words are beyond me.

[rusty pins]

Using diapers as punnishment for humiliation or embaressment, weather for bedwetting or getting a bad grade in school is totally wrong! I just can't see why some parents do that instead of taking other privleges away, such as a cell phone or other things instead. I can probably tell you who's idea it was of the two parents! The word "stepdad" is probably a big clue. True, I may not be correct in this case, but I've seen in my own paper many times where a child is abused or even beaten to death by the stepdad or boyfriend while the mother was out. It should be that the mothers own child be the most important thing in her life, however in some cases when the mother hooks up with a guy, weather she eventually marries him or not, her own "needs" take over and become more important to her than her own child! Go along with the stepdad or boyfriend when it comes to "diciplining" or "punnishing" the kid! Why? It's not his kid so he could probably care less what happens to the child! In fact, if he came into the relationship without any of his own kids, he might even think the kid is an annoyance he has to put up with and may even wish the kid wasn't around! His influence over the mother may be so strong that she not only goes along with it but sees no problem with it! That could be what happened in this particular case, if my assumptions are correct. It's sad and both these adults need to be severly punnished! So the kid got a bad grade? What did the parents do to try to help the child with her school work? Right! They sent her out to run the neighborhood wearing a diaper with a shaved head! Did either of them talk with the teacher about her assignments? Did either of them check her homework every night to see that it was done? Did either of them offer to help her study or help her better understand the problem area? Maybe they did and maybe they were more interested in sitting in front of the TV all night. Sure, maybe the kid didn't bring home her assignments or study hard. There could be fault on both sides, but maybe there is also a reason the kid is failing some classes at school. Maybe unhappy at home for some reason? I don't know the whole story, obviously, but the parents probably could have done more to help the kid get better grades other than telling her, excuse me, warning her that she would be put in diapers and made to run around outside if she didn't get better grades.

[Guest aielen]

Using diapers as punnishment for humiliation or embaressment, weather for bedwetting or getting a bad grade in school is totally wrong! I just can't see why some parents do that instead of taking other privleges away, such as a cell phone or other things instead. I can probably tell you who's idea it was of the two parents! The word "stepdad" is probably a big clue. True, I may not be correct in this case, but I've seen in my own paper many times where a child is abused or even beaten to death by the stepdad or boyfriend while the mother was out. It should be that the mothers own child be the most important thing in her life, however in some cases when the mother hooks up with a guy, weather she eventually marries him or not, her own "needs" take over and become more important to her than her own child! Go along with the stepdad or boyfriend when it comes to "diciplining" or "punnishing" the kid! Why? It's not his kid so he could probably care less what happens to the child! In fact, if he came into the relationship without any of his own kids, he might even think the kid is an annoyance he has to put up with and may even wish the kid wasn't around! His influence over the mother may be so strong that she not only goes along with it but sees no problem with it! That could be what happened in this particular case, if my assumptions are correct. It's sad and both these adults need to be severly punnished! So the kid got a bad grade? What did the parents do to try to help the child with her school work? Right! They sent her out to run the neighborhood wearing a diaper with a shaved head! Did either of them talk with the teacher about her assignments? Did either of them check her homework every night to see that it was done? Did either of them offer to help her study or help her better understand the problem area? Maybe they did and maybe they were more interested in sitting in front of the TV all night. Sure, maybe the kid didn't bring home her assignments or study hard. There could be fault on both sides, but maybe there is also a reason the kid is failing some classes at school. Maybe unhappy at home for some reason? I don't know the whole story, obviously, but the parents probably could have done more to help the kid get better grades other than telling her, excuse me, warning her that she would be put in diapers and made to run around outside if she didn't get better grades.

Seems its wasn't a "stepdad" but a boyfriend. The real dad apparently divorced her but didn't take custody of all the children

[Dill_Pickle]

Notice that the ourt took mom's kids away....and told mom the amount of contact she could have was dependent on the goodwill of child welfare. The boyfriend was ordered not to have ANY contact. For mom, thats probably gonna hurt more than her 90 days....

[PeculiarChangeling]

Not sure if I should descend into the fray that is arguments on the internet, but...

First off, yes. The mother and boyfriend were out of line, it is very cruel, and they are certainly in no position to be taking care of any children. However...

The punishment they received, (90 days and custody loss,) is fitting. The article was biased so that you'd be mad at the parents, but the mother did warn her daughter about that punishments specifically and the daughter still apparently didn't work hard enough for a passing grade. Barring mental deficiencies or learning disorders, (which would definitely have been mentioned in the article,) getting a passing grade shouldn't be too hard.

So, long story short: unless you believe in Draconian punishments, (I think that is what its called,) the punishments of the parents is apt.

[Dill_Pickle]

How long will it take people to learn that negative reinforcement doesnt work?