If you read the link in the second post the girl lived with the father and he had full custody. Also as I understood it, he actually didn’t even want to ground her but was keeping with the wishes of her mother (presumably to have a “I am reasonable and listen to some of my ex-wife’s wishes!” card in the custody dispute mentioned.)
Your honor, the defendant would like to appeal on the grounds of “But DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!”
Wouldn’t that be Sticks, et. al. v. Words?
Sticks and Stones is a single entity, not separate ones. 
Bench orders this question remanded to a lower court pending a decision on the Constitutionality of “you’re not the boss of me.”
The court finds this request without merit based given the plaintiff’s little brother’s assertion that I know you are, but what am I?
Scotty Jones v. The Mean Kids From Homeroom, 440 So. 2d 174 (Fla. 1st DCA, 1976)
You guys have NO idea how close I’ve come to peeing myself reading this thread…seriously…oop…there it went… peed a little…happy now?
Obligatory “Harvey Richards, Esq., Lawyer for Children” strips from “Tom the Dancing Bug” link link link link link
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Complainant replies IS TOO TO INFINITY PLUS ONE! SO THERE!
The judge has been reported as exclaiming “If you two don’t stop, so help me I’ll turn this trial right around! Is that what you want?”
Attorney: “Your honor, may I approach the bench?”
Judge: “Yes. But watch the tiles in the floor carefully. You can only walk on the light ones. The dark ones are lava.”
The case itself is a little bit absurd but its a sympton of a long term problem that will increasingly damage western society and along with it our quality of life.
There has been a substantial increase in the number of divorces where the couples have children and it looks to carry on rising indefinitely.
This in itself is not a problem if the parents are mature enough(and I’m not talking about their age here)to genuinlly want whats best for the children irregardless of which parent has custody.
There shouldn’t be any debate about whether its OKor not for kids to smoke,drink
or attend school regulary to give some non controversial examples.
But all too often thats not what the parents want,instead they want the kids to love THEM more then the other one or even to hate the other one.
So they try to buy the kids love with excessive presents,pocket money etc.and by not being strict enough to enforce boundaries,reinforce appropriate behaviour and instil a level of self dicipline.
If one parent says that the kid cant stay up after ten oclock on schooldays then when the child tries to play off that parent against the other as they most certainly will given even the least chance to do so then the other parent should back the first to the hilt and warn off any other cynical attempts at manipulating the adults.
But what often happens in practice is a parent will portray the other as an old stick in the mud.fuddy duddy etc. and themselves as a “Fun”,understanding older friend or sibling then a source of guidance and or direction.
The result is that the child comes to accept that what it WANTS rather then what it needs is the norm and that the whole world revolves around them.
They find discipline harder to take,their own self discipline is of a low order,failures are taken more traumatically and the stamina to carry on against adverse circumstances notably lacking.
As a result their level of maturity and responsibility for their own actions with regard to their age is diminished as is their self sufficiency.
Of course it would be ridiculous to blame ALL of this on weak parenting but IMHO it plays a big enough part.
The tragedy is that these not so adequate kids/teens grow into not so adequate adults who are much more likely to become parents younger,have larger families and more liklihood of marriage breakdowns so repeating the cycle on a larger scale.
Please note that I am not moralizing on the sanctity of marriage or how evil divorce is because I dont actually believe either of those arguments.
So our society has an increasing number of dysfunctionals of all ages resulting in more crime,more anti social behaviour,substance dependancy,poverty and I wouldn’t be stunned with amazement to find increased levels of mental illness also as a result.
Usual disclaimers here,I’m not religious or a moralist and my views are based on the large numbers that I have seen around me past and present with friends,colleagues and neighbours .
I hope that my opinion is based on dispassionate rationale rather then "My kids are Angels,its other peoples,its the schools fault,my ex is a bitch and all the other excuses otherwise adult and less then adult people trot out when found wanting.
From the law firm of Eeny, Meeny, Miney, and Moe?
So here it is (it’s a transcript of a decision given orally). The father was objecting to the trip for two reasons: he feared for his daughter’s safety during the trip, and (as said in the OP) he wanted to punish her by refusing to allow her to go. The court rejected the “safety” argument since the trip was organized by the school board, supervised by the professors, and the mother would actually accompany the daughter on the trip. As for the “punishment” argument, the court ruled that the daughter had already been punished (she wasn’t allowed to participate in the end of year show), that since she didn’t live with the father anymore, the mother was the de facto custodial parent, and that it was in the daughter’s best interest to go on the trip.
Defendant is hereby notified that the party of the second part, to wit the non-custodial mother, is counter-suing alleging whiplash, severe back injuries, and emotional damage. Counsel for the plaintiff stepped on the crack deliberately.
Regards,
Shodan, Esq.
