Should an adult be allowed to physically move a stranger's misbehaving kid?

In My Humble Opinion
21

[QUOTE=JohnT]
Well, according to witnesses the kid was shooting hockey pucks at the man and his 3 year-old child, repeatedly hitting the man even after the kid had been called on it. So the “stop it” did not work.

Also, I don’t see how one can call the hockey pucks ancillary to what happened here - it’s the instigating event.
[/QUOTE]

Well, that’s what I mean by my first paragraph: was that kid 3 (story 2) or was he 5 (story 1)? While it doesn’t matter for thehypothetical it is telling; it tells me that nobody writing the story talked to the actual person(s) involved.

There is no doubt that the hockey pucks are what annoyed the man. But it was the taunting I gather that caused him to take action. If you as an adult grab a child to stop them hurting you, that’s one thing. If you grab a child to stop them mouthing off, that’s an entirely different thing.

22

I would have taken the stick away.

I think Schmidl was wrong to touch the kid. I think he acted against common sense. I don’t think he should be legally liable or charged with anything.

I have no kids. If I was this child’s parent, both he and Schmidl would have gotten yelled at. You don’t purposely hit other people with pucks. You DO NOT touch my kid.

23

I guess I’m officially an old bugger now. In answer to the OP’s query, should and adult be allowed…, I’ll answer, Hell Yes! As a youngster, if you were caught by a neighbor or another adult doing something you shouldn’t, they gave you hell and dragged your ass back to your folks, who thanked the other adult for doing so before giving you hell all over again. Getting out of line wasn’t oft repeated.

24

Should I get off your lawn now?

25

:shakes cane at Airman Doors:

You young pup!

26

[QUOTE=Omega Glory]
Is it okay for an adult to physically remove a stranger’s misbehaving child from an area, and deliver him/her to the people in charge?
[/quote]

Yes.

No. He handled it badly, though.

No. Like I said, he handled it badly.

Well, my experience with trying to take blood from people who don’t want it taken tells me that I can in no way handle a 10 year old*, much less a 10 yo with a hockey stick. I would leave with my child, find the authorities, tell them what is going on, and let them deal with it. If I couldn’t find anyone, I’d just plain leave, and call them later. I don’t like the idea of letting the 10 yo have his juvenile delinquent way, but it’s too dangerous a situation for me to remain involved in.

If I was the parent of the 10 yo, I don’t think he would be shooting pucks at other people, or telling them to shut up. He might do it once in front of me. Once. And I wouldn’t be suing other people that caught him at it.

27

Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.

This kid is whacking pucks every which way, possibly risking serious injury to the guy and his kid, and he’s wrong for removing him from the ice?

I’m not currently a parent but I will be soon. I don’t want people randomly handling my kid, but if my kid is doing something that may seriously injure others - PLEASE grab him. Now if the guy has the kid by the lapels and is shaking him, that’s not cool. But the kid precipitated the situation to begin with. I can see Mom’s reaction initially but c’mon!

It’s clear this kid had no fear or respect for his elders. For some reasons people vilify fear, but we would be much better off as a society if kids would respond to an adult telling them to stop doing something that could cause injury to themselves or others. Would it be preferable that the kid hit someone and permanently injure them?

I taught in a 1-8 school and I got to know parents and people in the community - and if a kid was whaling on another kid, you bet your ass I would pull them apart, and if necessary, drag the aggressor kid away. What’s bizarre is that the action of the adult moving toward the kid wasn’t sufficient to get him to hightail it out of there. What kind of nutter is this punk?

28

The kid doesn’t need dragging off the ice. He needs a good hiding.

29

[QUOTE=danceswithcats]
I guess I’m officially an old bugger now. In answer to the OP’s query, should and adult be allowed…, I’ll answer, Hell Yes! As a youngster, if you were caught by a neighbor or another adult doing something you shouldn’t, they gave you hell and dragged your ass back to your folks, who thanked the other adult for doing so before giving you hell all over again. Getting out of line wasn’t oft repeated.
[/QUOTE]
Agreed.

As I see it, the mother of the brat is all wrong. If you’re the mother of a 10-year-old brat, it’s your responsibility to be supervise it at all times. If you need to use the restroom, you turn to one of your fellow parents and appoint them as “in charge.” That way, when the brat needs to be physically dragged someplace, there’s someone with the appointed authority to do so.

The brat said “shut up” to an adult? What good does it do to go get “someone in charge?” There wasn’t anyone in charge and the kid would have told the rink employees to “shut up” too. what do you do with a brat no one’s in charge of? Haul him off the ice if you have to. If you don’t want your little angel getting hauled off the ice then supervise him, or appoint someone to supervise him.

30

When I was a small child in Lousiana, it was taken for granted that the neighbors would whoop your ass if you misbehaved, then they would send you home to get your ass whooped again.

This guy had a three-year-old with him. If a kid is trying to pepper me with hockey pucks and I’m with my toddler…that kid is going to get his ass handed to him. I would at least take his stick away from him.

31

[QUOTE=levdrakon]
<snip>The brat said “shut up” to an adult? What good does it do to go get “someone in charge?” There wasn’t anyone in charge and the kid would have told the rink employees to “shut up” too. <snip>
[/QUOTE]

Theoretically, that would have gotten the kid tossed out of the rink without Schmidl getting tossed, too.

32

If I saw a kid deliberatly taking slapshots at any 3 year old I would have tackled him before he killed someone. What happens after that would depend on the kid but I would sure as hell have taken the weapon out of his hands.

33

[QUOTE=featherlou]
Theoretically, that would have gotten the kid tossed out of the rink without Schmidl getting tossed, too.
[/QUOTE]
True, but I was thinking if the kid would tell an adult to shut up then he’d tell the rink employees to shut up too, and if there’s this “no one touches my kid but me” rule then who’s going to actually throw the kid out? So the kid gets the power to ruin everyone’s day until mom finally shows up.

34

I guess that is the advantage I have with a yelling voice that would do a drill Sargent proud.
I have had punk kids spout off in similar manners to me before. I get right in their face and start screaming at them giving them a high volume lecture (with lots of profanity) about what they are doing wrong, and how inbred they must be to be that stupid.
I have not yet met a 10 year old that I could not reduce to tears using this method. :smiley:
Oh yeah, I would grab the stick also, not the kid the stick.
I would happily give it back as toothpicks.

35

[QUOTE=levdrakon]
True, but I was thinking if the kid would tell an adult to shut up then he’d tell the rink employees to shut up too, and if there’s this “no one touches my kid but me” rule then who’s going to actually throw the kid out? So the kid gets the power to ruin everyone’s day until mom finally shows up.
[/QUOTE]

This, unfortunately, is the reality I think we now live in: “respect for one’s elders” is a hoary concept, and if a young, unaccompanied kid wants to answer a gentle reprimand with “fuck you, you can’t make me do shit,” there’s precious little one can do about it that won’t risk severe repercussions. I only hope that more kids don’t realize this.

One night some years ago I was using the weight room in my apartment complex, alone, when three or four young girls, around 10-11 years old, apparently residents of the complex, wandered in. Obviously bored, they began playing with the machines and confounding my efforts to ignore them. They began asking me questions, innocent enough at first, then disturbingly inappropriate— asking, very obscenely, for intimate details on what I did with my girlfriend. When I refused to answer and told them to leave, they apparently decided I wasn’t “cool” and began calling me names, threatening to have their fathers “kick my ass,” which they assured me they arranged before for other guys who had crossed them.

I realized then that these bored, “innocent” little girls, whom I had never seen before, had the power to cause me serious trouble-- either with a hot-tempered (and apparently not particularly attentive) parent or with the police, or both, and despite how furious it made me to do so, I left.

So yes. The combination of negligent parenting and our litigious culture has empowered children to be assholes on a scale never before imagined, with relative impunity. If you’re an adult, please do what you can to prevent the news from getting out, or it’ll be mayhem.

36

[QUOTE=Rick]
Oh yeah, I would grab the stick also, not the kid the stick.
I would happily give it back as toothpicks.
[/QUOTE]

And get sued for destruction of property and arrested for theft? Not to mention causing the brat a great deal of emotional distress by yelling at him. :slight_smile:

Any puck that is flying high enough to hit an adult in the back or shoulder is high enough to hit a child in the head. And continuing to do so after being told to stop? It’s hard to tell from the somewhat conflicting stories, but a man defending his child is allowed somewhat more drastic measures.

37

I grew up with that “it takes a village to give a child shit” philosophy so I don’t think it was a horrible crime.

When I was in school teachers did things like that all the time. Sometimes they had to march someone by the shoulder or arm. My dad was a gym teacher and coached hockey so he was the natural enemy of the slapshot and I could completely picture him in that scenario. He was always quick to act in loco parentis out of habit but he was also good at that because it was his job. The thing about this situation is that it’s hard to judge without knowing the credibility of the man who did it and the credibility of the parent who is so upset. But I don’t believe there should be a law that says adults can’t ever restrain or escort a kid who’s being reckless and I think slapshots truly are reckless. I am pretty sure that this mother is a jerk and is busy adding another jerk to the world right now.

38

Grabbing the stick would be smarter. Grabbing the kid is a lawsuit waiting to happen. A smart person wouldn’t touch a child other than his/her own.

39

Where in the world did we get this ridiculous idea that “no one lays a hand on my kid but me” nonsense? <checks to see if this is the pit and throttles down…> I’m sorry, dear parents, but your little Johnny and Jill aren’t always the little angels that you think they are. Someone has to be the grown up and if you aren’t prepared to do so, then someone else has to. I certainly don’t condone whoopin’ the tar out of your innocent babe but I would find NO fault in someone forcibly escorting his little ass to the office. If the facts are as given, these parents better hope that I don’t get on that jury.

40

[QUOTE=Hippy Hollow]
What’s bizarre is that the action of the adult moving toward the kid wasn’t sufficient to get him to hightail it out of there. What kind of nutter is this punk?
[/QUOTE]
One who’s never had an adult lay down the law to him before. I would guess he’s been able to get away with this kind of rude behavior for years, and never thought someone would call him on his actions.