Parents should face community service for kids' crimes, lawmakers say

[MountainLaurel]

BATON ROUGE -- Parents of delinquent children should be held responsible for their offspring's actions and have to perform community service work when ordered by a judge, the House said today.

Lawmakers voted 76-22 for House Bill 383 by Rep. Walker Hines, D-New Orleans, sending it to the Senate for debate.

Hines said the bill is designed to give judges the option of ordering parents to perform community service work if their kids are picked up for skipping school, vandalizing property or violating curfews.

"This does not affect the sentence or punishment given the child," Hines said. "This is (for) the worst, most egregious parents. It will not impact a parent's ability to work. ... We want to make sure parents are more engaged in their children's lives.

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/05/patrents_may_be_sentenced_to_c.html

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Bad idea.

[MountainLaurel]

3. Why? n/t

[FiveGoodMen]

5. Making one person pay for the crimes of another?

Do you really think parents have that much control over their kids?

Can you imagine life as a kid if all parents tried to monitor every move they made?

[AndyA]

9. Yes, they do. And they should.

They brought the kid into the world. Who else is responsible for teaching their kids right from wrong?

If the parents don't have time, they shouldn't have kids. They world needs fewer people anyway, we're running out of food, clean air, and potable water.

Besides, if the kids are out shooting people at 1:00 AM, the parents are being negligent. This is their punishment.

[MountainLaurel]

10. If parents can't control their kids

Who is supposed to?

Besides, until kids turn 18 or the child is emancipated, parents are legally responsible for their children.

[FiveGoodMen]

11. It will lead to children having to be watched every second.

I can only conclude that you were never a child.

[MountainLaurel]

14. No, I was

But my parents taught be better than to do shit that would get me arrested and actually *gasp* parented me.

[FiveGoodMen]

15. But they didn't do it under the threat of being prosecuted for your crimes

If they had, you may never have had the freedom as a child to learn responsibility (as distinct from obedience).

[Mojorabbit]

2. Really bad idea. nt

[Arkansas Granny]

4. How about community service for the kids? I don't see how the kids are going

to learn anything by punishing the parents for something the kids did. The kids do the deed, they do the community service also.

[FiveGoodMen]

7. Clearly, they're trying to make parents into jailers.

[AndyA]

6. It's about time.

Parents should be held accountable for their children's actions. If the kids are building a bomb in the garage to take to school, who else but the parent's should know about it and put a stop to it?

Years ago, a kid stole a car from a dealership and attempted to elude police at high speed. Finally, at a speed of around 100 miles per hour in a 40 MPH zone, the kid lost control of the car and slammed into another car, killing the 3 people inside.

This wasn't the first time this kid had been in trouble, and that night on television, the punk's father blamed society for failing his son! I was so angry I almost threw something at the television. This man brought the piece of shit into the world, where was his responsibility for raising such a waste of life?

Parents should know where their kids are, who they're with, and what they're doing. This is especially true if they've been in trouble before.

It's about time, I hope other municipalities do this as well. This will not have any impact whatsoever on the vast majority of parents who do their jobs and raise respectful children who can function in society. This will only impact negligent parents.

[FiveGoodMen]

8. Yuk!

[hayu_lol]

13. Hmmm, would this also apply to the children of...

gasp...politicians, chiefs of police, presidents, administration personnel at state and fed. levels?

I thought not.

Better a bill that would require both parents of wayward youth to be present during their child's community service. What a shame that they would lose work time(sarcasm).

We do have important issues before us. Better these dimwitted pols concentrate on something that we need and not something that will never be used on the kids of those who hold wealth power status.

[SoCalDem]

12. One "reason" why so many kids are "delinquent", just could be

that ever since that teen was a baby, his Mommy & Daddy have been at WORK, and strangers "raised" him/her, or they raised themselves.

I guess Mom & Dad (or just Mom or Dad) will have to quit that job (if they're lucky enough to still HAVE a job) so they can do their community service :eyes:

[devilgrrl]

18. Exactly! Funny how that's never brought up!

Good call!

[Dogtown]

16. Another attempt to return to the good old days of yore...

This will be used disproportionately against black and Hispanic parents.

[LeftyMom]

17. Gee, I'd think those kids might need more time with their parents, not less.

:eyes: