A misbehaving 14-year-old is made to stand on a corner with a sign: "I act up in school."
By Associated Press
Published November 17, 2005
EDMOND, Okla. - Tasha Henderson got tired of her 14-year-old daughter's poor grades, her chronic lateness to class and her talking back to her teachers, so she decided to teach the girl a lesson.
She made Coretha stand at a busy Oklahoma City intersection Nov. 4 with a cardboard sign that read: "I don't do my homework and I act up in school, so my parents are preparing me for my future. Will work for food."
"This may not work. I'm not a professional," said Henderson, a 34-year-old mother of three. "But I felt I owed it to my child to at least try."
In fact, Henderson has seen a turnaround in her daughter's behavior in the past week and a half. But the punishment prompted letters and calls to talk radio.
"The parents of that girl need more education than she does if they can't see that the worst scenario in this case is to kill their daughter psychologically," Suzanne Ball wrote in a letter to the Oklahoman newspaper.
However, Marvin Lyle, 52, disagreed. "I don't see anything wrong with it," he said.
Coretha has been getting Cs and Ds as a freshman at Edmond Memorial High in this well-to-do Oklahoma City suburb.
While Henderson stood next to her daughter at the intersection, a passing motorist called police with a report of psychological abuse, and an Oklahoma City police officer took a report. Mother and daughter were asked to leave after about an hour, and no citation was issued. But the report was forwarded to the state Department of Human Services. The department said such a case likely would not be a high priority.
