Criminalizing Children

Recently, a six year-old student at an Indiana elementary school was charged with battery and intimidation when he kicked his schools principal. It brings to question if we are starting to rely on law enforcement, when in reality it should be only the schools or parents doing the enforcement. Parents feel as if they should be the ones doing the punishing, and schools feel that the parents many times cannot handle the responsibilities, so they turn to law enforcement to make sure things do not get out of hand. The simple matter of a child throwing a tantrum and kicking an administrator is not that hard to handle. The school should punish the child and let him know what he did wrong, and the parents should do likewise. Although the child did commit an act that was against the law, it should not have gone to the police. That just makes the school look inept and make it seem like they cannot handle a simple matter like this by themselves. If parents and school faculty expect children to grow up and be responsible adults, first they have to lead by example.

http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/kindergartener-charged-battery-why-crim...