# My son was jumped by a couple of punks at school today **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 28, 2011, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-son-was-jumped-by-a-couple-of-punks-at-school-today/583530 "2011-05-28T04:51:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-son-was-jumped-by-a-couple-of-punks-at-school-today/583530/81 "2011-05-29T03:44:49Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > If y’all want to engage in name-calling, take it to the Pit. Either that, or jump him in between Cafe Society and IMHO. > [@Docta\_G](#): > > ()\*() What is that supposed to be? Hands over ears? Maybe saggy boobs with a little tuft of chest hair? Two erupting volcanoes with Polaris in the middle? > [@treis](#): > > Are you contending that playground fights are a new phenomenon? A playground fight is when two people get in an argument that comes to blows. This…wasn’t that. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-son-was-jumped-by-a-couple-of-punks-at-school-today/583530/82 "2011-05-29T04:06:32Z")
> [@treis](#): > > Okay… > > I don’t understand why you think detention and suspension aren’t consequences, but whatever. They are consequences, but for a different set of problems. > [@](#): > > Maybe you can answer the question MsWhasit has been unable to. When did we start to need cops to discipline children? We started to need cops to discipline children when bullying started to be taken seriously as the violent crime it can be. Teachers and administrators can handle some problems, but when it comes to an unprovoked attack that leads to injury, the police are better equipped to deal with it. Maybe you’re OK with the idea of kids attacking other kids for no good reason. Most of us aren’t. Perhaps the attackers will learn from their encounter with the police, but they’re more likely to learn from that than they would from sitting in a detention hall. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-son-was-jumped-by-a-couple-of-punks-at-school-today/583530/83 "2011-05-29T05:05:54Z")
> [@MsRobyn](#): > > Maybe you’re OK with the idea of kids attacking other kids for no good reason. This is a low blow and completely unsupported ---
**Author:** ![Ibanez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-son-was-jumped-by-a-couple-of-punks-at-school-today/583530/84 "2011-05-29T05:29:30Z")
I’m glad your kid is ok THK. Go ahead with pressing charges, and don’t worry you won’t be ruining any kids lives. Their records aren’t permanent . It will send a message that assualting someone in order to intimidate is not acceptable. Kids need stern messages at times. I know if I found out my son took part in this type of beating, I’d be down right pissed with him and would want him to go through the whole “police” experience. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-son-was-jumped-by-a-couple-of-punks-at-school-today/583530/85 "2011-05-29T12:27:52Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > What is that supposed to be? Hands over ears? Maybe saggy boobs with a little tuft of chest hair? Two erupting volcanoes with Polaris in the middle? Good question. I know what **))\<\>((** means, however, which is the unofficial logo of Great Debates… ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-son-was-jumped-by-a-couple-of-punks-at-school-today/583530/86 "2011-05-29T12:54:04Z")
**Ms. Robyn, treis** , if you want to talk about cops in schools as a policy issue, _take it to Great Debates_. **twickster** , MPSIMS moderator ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-son-was-jumped-by-a-couple-of-punks-at-school-today/583530/87 "2011-05-29T13:08:27Z")
Im going to assume that the juvie was a temporary holding center. But fir 10 to 13 year olds? Jesus, they’re punks, not career criminals. Sigh. If I were 12 again and some brat said, “You’re gonna get busted!” I would probably have threatened to bust her face as I had a thing with authority at that age and perceived threats were taken seriously. I’m not excusing what the boys did. We don’t know what happened in that bathroom any more than we know what happens in their day to day lives. The kid got jumped for a reason. Not a good one, but a reason. That reason should be addressed. I hope the school counselor recognized that. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-son-was-jumped-by-a-couple-of-punks-at-school-today/583530/88 "2011-05-29T13:28:29Z")
Since charges are being pressed, it will be the job of the judge to determine if this is a minor scuffle or a punishment worth event. The kids are unlikely to go to juvie either way having charges brought against them for a single fight, unless their is testimony that these kids are a risk to others and this is just the first time charges have been brought. Even then, they aren’t likely to do much than see the inside of a courtroom. The hope is this is a wake up call so that they don’t ruin their lives getting into a fight the moment they turn 18 - or in a bar at 21 - when records aren’t sealed and this is serious. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-son-was-jumped-by-a-couple-of-punks-at-school-today/583530/89 "2011-05-29T13:43:15Z")
> [@treis](#): > > (2) 7th grade. I walked up to some kid in the hall and punched him in the spine. Why? I haven’t the slightest idea. I barely knew the kid, he hadn’t done anything to me, and I wasn’t mad. Maybe I just thought it was funny, I dunno. I suppose I should consider myself lucky that I didn’t have a middle school cop to taze me and toss me into Juvie. Yes…thank goodness that you weren’t negatively impacted by your assault! Best wishes, hh ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-son-was-jumped-by-a-couple-of-punks-at-school-today/583530/90 "2011-05-29T14:37:44Z")
If they had just played “monkey-in-the-middle” with his hall pass or something, then yeah, detention would have been called for. Bouncing the soccer ball off of his head doesn’t merit going to jail either. But they took things to the next level with the pounding. I tend to think of the “What if?” behind stupid stuff involving kids. The kid in the OP was fortunate that the punches landed where they did, and that he was physically fit and not asthmatic , epileptic, or had some unknown heart abnormality; and that the numbnuts threw him down the “right” way. This easily could have been a much sadder story about a boy who was rough-housed right into intensive care or worse. Would detention still be called for? Hells no. I don’t think all incidences of childhood violence should be turned over to the authorities. A kid flicking a rubberband around after having been told to stop and then accidentally hitting someone in the eye should not be sentence to life in prison because of it. But if his ass definitely should be facing something much harsher than detention if he deliberately flicks that rubberband in someone’s eye, whether or not he actually blinds them. ---
**Author:** ![katie1341](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/91b2a8/32.png) [@katie1341](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/katie1341)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-son-was-jumped-by-a-couple-of-punks-at-school-today/583530/91 "2011-05-29T15:24:07Z")
As a career public defender (24 years and counting), I can promise you that it’s better that these kids learn that their actions have consequences NOW. Hamster King, good for you for being supportive of your kiddo. I think it’s awesome that his classmates came to his defense. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-son-was-jumped-by-a-couple-of-punks-at-school-today/583530/92 "2011-05-29T16:26:14Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > Im going to assume that the juvie was a temporary holding center. But fir 10 to 13 year olds? Jesus, they’re punks, not career criminals. Ever stopped to consider where career criminals come from? ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-son-was-jumped-by-a-couple-of-punks-at-school-today/583530/93 "2011-05-29T16:55:35Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Ever stopped to consider where career criminals come from? When a mommy career criminal and a daddy career criminal love each other very much… ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-son-was-jumped-by-a-couple-of-punks-at-school-today/583530/94 "2011-05-29T17:13:19Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Ever stopped to consider where career criminals come from? But the reality is that the majority of punks grow up into normal healthy adults. You can read [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=606142) about the awful things, presumably non-career criminal, Dopers did as kids. A couple lowlights: > [@](#): > > One thing we did was get a length of garden hose, about 4 feet long. Then you stick a marble in the end you’re holding and whip the hose forward, sending the marble out like a bullet. We’d stand on the deck of our apartment and shoot cars with it, smashing their windows, terrifying the drivers I’m sure. Then we’d duck down and peek at them through the little holes in the wood on the deck. > [@](#): > > The awful thing I did was when a few guys from my block captured a kid from the next block that we all particularly disliked. We stripped him down to his whitey-tighties and heaved him into a thick patch of thistles. He landed flat and got the wind knocked out him. He did considerable thrashing around getting to his feet and getting out. I don’t think there was an inch of him, other than his crotchal region, that wasn’t thick with urticating thistle hairs. We hurt each other a lot, so cries of pain didn’t normally bother us, but that boy just screamed in pain. > [@](#): > > We also had a hobby called “ass mastering” where a friend and I would drive around, looking for female joggers, preferably wearing a walkman. When we found one, my friend would drive up really slow and sneaky like alongside the woman (who couldn’t hear our approach) and I would lean out the car window and administer a resounding smack on her butt cheeks and quickly drive away. We really thought that one was pretty funny. > [@](#): > > One of the things - he had built a covered walkway from his house out to his garage. It consisted of several sheets of metal braced on poles. I could stand in my backyard with some good sized rocks, heave them over the neighbor’s houses and be rewarded with a resounding BAVOOM when they hit. And I would do this at all hours of the day and night. I’d even set my alarm to go off at oh-dark-thirty, sneak down the stairs and into the back yard, let fly, then sneak back up the stairs into my room. > > It was also considered great fun for my buddy and me to screech into the alley on our bikes and stop just behind his garage. He’d come hauling ass out of the house to see what was going on and we would take off again and ride leisurely down the alley, leaving him yelling behind us. > > He finally defaulted on his house payments. I came home from school one day to find all of his furniture and personal belongings out in the front yard of his house. That evening, I took the dog out for a walk and let him piss all over the stuff. The reality is that kids simply don’t have the ability to comprehend the consequences of their actions. Thus, pretty much all of them act like little shits at one time or another. And pretty much all of them grow out of it as their brains develop. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-son-was-jumped-by-a-couple-of-punks-at-school-today/583530/95 "2011-05-29T17:18:09Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > Yes…thank goodness that you weren’t negatively impacted by your assault! > > Best wishes, > hh I had the epic foresight to do it right in front of a teacher, and thus received some sort of punishment that I don’t recall. But yes, I am rather grateful that my life has not been negatively impacted by things I did when I was 11. ---
**Author:** ![FloatyGimpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/floatygimpy/32/7750_2.png) [@FloatyGimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloatyGimpy)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-son-was-jumped-by-a-couple-of-punks-at-school-today/583530/96 "2011-05-29T18:04:57Z")
> [@treis](#): > > But the reality is that the majority of punks grow up into normal healthy adults. You can read [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=606142) about the awful things, presumably non-career criminal, Dopers did as kids. A couple lowlights: > > One thing we did was get a length of garden hose, about 4 feet long. Then you stick a marble in the end you’re holding and whip the hose forward, sending the marble out like a bullet. We’d stand on the deck of our apartment and shoot cars with it, smashing their windows, terrifying the drivers I’m sure. Then we’d duck down and peek at them through the little holes in the wood on the deck. > > The reality is that kids simply don’t have the ability to comprehend the consequences of their actions. Thus, pretty much all of them act like little shits at one time or another. And pretty much all of them grow out of it as their brains develop. Seeing as you quoted me, I’ll respond. My brother and I just got worse and worse as the years went by and my brother finally did end up in a juvenile delinquent program. Guess what? He stopped doing bad shit after that. So did I. ---
**Author:** ![2gigch1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2gigch1/32/3313_2.png) [@2gigch1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2gigch1)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-son-was-jumped-by-a-couple-of-punks-at-school-today/583530/97 "2011-05-29T20:45:59Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > re: ()\*() > > What is that supposed to be? Hands over ears? Maybe saggy boobs with a little tuft of chest hair? Two erupting volcanoes with Polaris in the middle? I took it to be a really small pecker between two balls. That was an assumption born of context. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-son-was-jumped-by-a-couple-of-punks-at-school-today/583530/98 "2011-05-29T21:08:48Z")
I took it to be two butt cheeks and an anus. ---
**Author:** ![2gigch1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2gigch1/32/3313_2.png) [@2gigch1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2gigch1)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-son-was-jumped-by-a-couple-of-punks-at-school-today/583530/99 "2011-05-29T21:10:13Z")
That works too. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-son-was-jumped-by-a-couple-of-punks-at-school-today/583530/100 "2011-05-31T19:38:01Z")
We finally heard back from the doctor. Yes, his toe is broken, but it’s right on the tip so there’s not much they can do to treat it. He needs to wear closed toed shoes and take it easy while it heals. If it’s not better in three weeks we need to go back to see her. No updates on the school front because my son is home today with a stomach bug. (It’s completely unrelated. His sister had it last week. Two days of barfing. What fun.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-son-was-jumped-by-a-couple-of-punks-at-school-today/583530.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-son-was-jumped-by-a-couple-of-punks-at-school-today/583530.md?page=6)