Father gets probation for making son walk home from school (one mile)

[SteyrAUG]

If there isn't more to this I hope he appeals and wins.

When Robert De Mond asked his son last year why he was placed in timeout and didn’t get a straight answer, he pulled over, had the 8-year-old hop out of the car, then told him to walk the rest of the way home.

When the incident happened last October, De Mond told the news station, he drove back to the Kuhio Highway, which has ample room on the shoulder but no official sidewalk, he couldn’t find his son: Someone had spotted the boy crying, picked him up and called the police. The child was brought back to the school, according to the Honolulu Star Advertiser.

“I wasn’t able to see my son. I was put under arrest,” he told KHON when he learned of his son’s location, calling the police himself in a panic.

The Garden Island reported that De Mond received charges of second-degree endangering the welfare of a minor.

“All I was trying to do is have my son think about his actions and there was no intention at all that I wanted to harm my son. I just wanted him to walk home and think about what he did by the time he got home,” the father told KHON.

[Honu]

on Kauai of all things ? safe place really frigin pathetic but Hawaii is a ultra stupid liberal biased state and getting worse in some ways of those in control and the ones who live there many are not ultra liberal but more old fashioned hunting and fishing discipline kids type

bad mix sadly !!

[Koshinn]

Dinosaurs could have eaten him though. That's where Jurassic Park is and as we all know, the Park was overrun and abandoned by people. We thought the dinosaurs would die off from the lack of an essential nutrient that only we could provide, but they found it in the local flora and thus the local fauna as well. They can also breed because they're based on frogs that can change sex.

So yeah. Watch out for dinosaurs on Kauai. The judge was totally justified, but she spelt "dinosaurs" as "pedophiles", which is a perplexing typo, but it is what it is.

[Bulletdog]

Is there anyone on this forum that DIDN'T walk at least a mile to and from school as a child? I had no idea my parents were child endangering criminals!

Maybe mine weren't criminals since I was provided with a bicycle for my 6 mile trek to school every morning. There were a few times over the years that I got a flat and had to walk my bike though. I wonder what words of wisdom the judge would have to say about that.

I'm so glad we have overseers like Judge Watanabe to explain right and wrong to us and protect our children from the callous and thoughtless harm would would do to them without her help.

Our society is just circling the bowl... Example after example.

[SteyrAUG]

Is there anyone on this forum that DIDN'T walk at least a mile to and from school as a child? I had no idea my parents were child endangering criminals!

Maybe mine weren't criminals since I was provided with a bicycle for my 6 mile trek to school every morning. There were a few times over the years that I got a flat and had to walk my bike though. I wonder what words of wisdom the judge would have to say about that.

I'm so glad we have overseers like Judge Watanabe to explain right and wrong to us and protect our children from the callous and thoughtless harm would would do to them without her help.

Our society is just circling the bowl... Example after example.

Hell it was almost a mile from the bus stop to my house when I was that age. To my actual school was 4 miles and I remember walking that a few times when I discovered I could walk home faster (with shortcuts) than I could with the bus dropping me off.

[Dead Man]

All of these back in mah day sentiments may be true, but do they really fit in this context?

Kids don't walk... anywhere, really, anymore. People can be prosecuted for neglect for letting their 8 and 6 year olds play by themselves in parks across the street from their own homes. Chimo-hysteria has every kid on short leashes. It's all wrong - absolutely. There might be more pedophiles today than there were back in mah day, but the number of child abductions hasn't really changed over the years. This country is still overwhelmingly safe for children, with around 50 unrecovered abductions (classic stranger chimo kidnappings we're talking about here) in this country every year. One child per state, annually. But what is public perception? Most people would likely give you a blank stare and say, "well, I don't know. But I'm sure it's a lot!"

But regardless of what reality is, perception has been something else for quite some time. Children have been raised to be terrified of being on their own, and do not walk anywhere without an adult (or walk anywhere, with or without, for that matter), let alone on a road with passing cars, each one almost certainly containing a ravenous child raping murderer.

It's perfectly conceivable that in this specific situation, the father made a poor choice in a moment of anger, and endangered the child by putting him in a situation he was not equipped to handle. The fact that the kid apparently sat down and started crying, instead of continuing home (if he even knew where home was, likely having never had to do any sort of navigation before), and then went with a stranger, strikes me as strong evidence.

Just my alternative take.

[Voodoo_Man]

I'd be quite curious as to the child's age, and if the father followed him home in a car or on foot.

Does it really matter though? Since when do parents get punished for disciplining their kids?

I'd be moving out of that jurisdiction as fast as possible.

[TAZ]

Does it really matter though? Since when do parents get punished for disciplining their kids?

I'd be moving out of that jurisdiction as fast as possible.

When your punishment places you child in unnecessary danger.

Don't know squat about Hawaii, but they mentioned a highway so unless every road is called a highway I'll assume that this was a pretty big road. Round my neck,of the woods highway is a term for pretty busy roads generally not designed for pedestrian traffic. If a parent kicked their 8 YO out on one of our highways it would be a retardo move.

Given that I walked to and from school pretty much from 1st grade on. However it was never because my mom or dad abandoned me on the side of the road. I always had walk throughs to understand where the danger zones were, what to avoid and what my back up plans were should I be forced off my primary route. IMO that's how responsible parents prepare their kids, not by throwing them to the "wolves" and hoping for the best.

It sounds like the dad did something idiotic and the judge found a way to make her point re the cho-mo's. Is it right....probably not. Would probably been better off having the bailiff kick the dads ass for being an idiot and calling it quits. But that can't happen today.

[Honu]

I am from Maui not Kauai but the roads on any island except Oahu are nothing like mainland HWYs even Maui being way busier than Kauai the main road to say the airport can get busy but huge wide shoulders and not that fast moving and being from the islands I would see folks walking all the time on all roads not a big deal even to see kids walking riding bikes etc.. back from Lahaina way to Kaanapali and that is considered a busy road with small shoulders ?

sad thing is you can't move out of county or jurisdiction on the islands unless you change islands which is a major huge thing since each island is so different in so many ways got to wonder who stopped ? most likely some haole family that moved there from california to screw up the islands even worse sadly the folks that screwed the islands were are mostly mainlanders

[Sensei]

When your punishment places you child in unnecessary danger.

Don't know squat about Hawaii, but they mentioned a highway so unless every road is called a highway I'll assume that this was a pretty big road. Round my neck,of the woods highway is a term for pretty busy roads generally not designed for pedestrian traffic. If a parent kicked their 8 YO out on one of our highways it would be a retardo move.

That is about where I am with this. If this was a highway with a speed limit of at least 55 mph and no sidewalk, then dad might have some explaining to do. I walked about a mile to school in 3rd and 4th grade, but it was mostly residential streets and a brief portion on a larger road with sidewalks that were supervised by a crossing guard.

Having said that, none of the news reports quote the judge as being concerned about traffic hazards as she handed down her sentence. It's hard for me to make a call on this one without having first hand knowledge of this highway.