Another parent shirking responsibility for their kids actions...
 

Kids writes her name in we concrete and Dad says the trip to the police station was enough punishment.

What say you?

http://www.foxnews.mobi/#r_http%3A//www.foxnews.mobi/quickPage.html%3Fpage%3D22995%26content%3D46658110 %26pageNum%3D-1

Take One 11-Year-Old,Add Wet Cement, and...
Jan 05, 2011 5:31 PM EST
A New Jersey sixth-grader is going before a judge next week after apparently writing her name in wet cement.

Kelly Zierdt, 11, and a group of her friends allegedly etched their names in wet cement outside their school. Police caught the group in the act as they were driving past.

One of the officers said, "'lets put these kids in the back of the car; were bringing them to headquarters,'" according to Zierdt. "And then me and my friends started crying our eyes out, My9News reports.

Her dad says the situation "has snowballed into this giant catastrophe."

Thats because police say Kellys dad, unlike the other parents, refuses to pay a $250 fine to her middle school to pay for the vandalism and refuses to sign the parent/child and police agreement as punishment.

Lt. Mike Colacci of the Middlesex Police Department says that the parents help to come up with what they believe is a suitable punishment for the action of their children, like a 5 oclock curfew, or chores around the house. In this case they had to write an essay as to why they did this, Colacci told My9News.

But Zierdt's father says his honor student daughter has already learned her lesson and so he will fight in court.

I feel scared, Zierdt said when asked about appearing before a judge.

Jesus, don't the police have anything better to do? Wet concrete is an attractive nuisance to any kid. How can you not resist the urge to at least put your initials in it?

Yeah, wet concrete is like a puddle to kids. They can't resist.

I think the parents are wrong here.

Pay the $250 and make the kid work it off. If the money is a hardship then ask for community service.

Having kids, it amazes me how many parents think their kids can do no wrong. Not coincidentally, those kids are usually the worst behaved. My kids are little bastards, I happily admit it. :p

If they caught kids in the act, then they had enough time to smooth out the concrete:eek:

Has anyone here not put your name in wet cement?? We aren't talking destroying anything, just adding a name so the future students will know they were there..

You sound like a lawyer, ;) . When I lived in NH I had my own bridge over a brook. Kids loved playing under & on it. I contacted a lawyer and that's what he called it... an attractive nuisance. Wet concrete. give me a break.

I can pretty much guarantee that if/when my kids come across wet cement they WILL do something to it.

I think the punishment in this case is fair.

We had some heathens vandalize a local Christmas store recently. They caught the 5 young men responsible. 1 or maybe 2 are honor students and 1 is a firefighter.Five men charged with Christmas day vandalism at Bronner's

$250???

her punishment should be to fill up the grooves with some suitable material

doog poo comes to mind...

OK so the kids wrote in cement...big deal...arrested? Jeez.

Obey the law. If you choose not to, there are consequences. Make the kid work it off.

I don't think they were "arrested", but they did get taken down the PD and parents called from there. I think what ever it takes to repair the concrete and a token punishment of some kind for each is the correct answer. I've had to repair concrete where kids, dogs, etc. have walked on it, etc. Not too many homeowners wanted it on their brand new driveways.

BTW: You'd be amazed at how many dogs walk on fresh concrete for some reason.

Ask the contractor who had to fix the calligraphy.

wet concrete? really? our society has lost all sense of perspective.

Was there a sign indicating that one shouldn't put your initials in wet cement? Did the kids know that they were "vandalizing" anything?

Perhaps those who poured the cement should be reprimanded for not putting out appropriate warnings or methods to keep kids out of the cement. ;)

Dumb all around.. kids, cops, parents and school.

Give me a break. The cops, if they were in their commen sense mode, would have made the kids cover it up. Cover it up, say you're sorry, move on to the next big crime in the streets. Somethimes I think the cops are the problem, not the kids.

I pored a slab for a A/C unit in the backyard

when I returned the next day
there was a set of bird tracks
and a set of cat tracks intersecting at the center
where there was a swirl of action recorded
and some feathers

on the original post
kids names donot hurt anything on a sidewalk
and cops extorting 250 from each kid is theft
FIGHT THE POWER

The cops didn't fine anybody. the school district did.

Well, if someone breaks the law, it isn't really up to the parent to determine the punishment. While many of us probably wrote in wet cement, that doesn't mean it wasn't illegal, and that someone didn't have to spend time/money to fix it. I suppose the dad could tell the guy who has to redo the patch of cement that he has to do it for free since his daughter is already punished. That seems fair...

first, post a lookout.
second, wear a mask and don't use your right name next time.

or.... gasp.... they could just let the initials remain.

There's something to be said about teaching your kids that authority can be abused and isn't always to be trusted.

When I was a kid, our neighbors were like this kid's parents. They thought their kids could do no wrong. Their criminal-in-waiting son was hitting golf balls toward our house one day as my dad came home from work. My dad told him to change directions so the balls weren't coming at our house. An hour later my dad went outside to the sound of breaking glass, found a golfball in the front seat of our awesome '77 Dodge Aspen wagon and a broken windshield. The golf ball was monogrammed with the kid's dad's initials. When my dad knocked their door, the mom said her son couldn't have possibly done it.

HardDrive- Do we really need a law against writing in concrete?

To me that is a rite of passage. I would be a lifer for all the times I wrote in concrete. When the kids were caught the coppers should have had them smooth it out. Take the kids to the station and call the parents. I agree with the dad I think the kid got the message. I don't think writing in concrete leads to drug dealing and a life of crime.

When I was younger 8-9-10 years old we used to do some stupid things. Not because we were deviant or delinquents but because we didn't know any better and were having fun. This was the early middle '70's. Times were different then. In October after people decorated for Halloween we would take scarecrows from the lawns and throw them in the street as cars passed or throw snow balls at passing cars after a storm not realizing we could cause an accident. We just though it was fun to try and hit a moving target and funny when a car would slam on the brakes and skid. It wasn't until one snowball broke a car window that we realized what we were doing was dangerous. Fortunately nobody got hurt and we didn't get caught.

There are a lot of kids at 11 years old these days selling drugs and doing really bad things. writing in concrete ain't one of them.

this

+2

I doubt the concrete was wet enough for them to just smooth it out. If it was, the finishers would still be there. After the concrete has started to set up, you can still scratch your name it, but "fixing" it might not work. It might be at the point of no return. Filling it in with a filler just accentuates whatever was written or carved in there.

Parents pay for the repair bottom line.

yep, because god forbid that there be some initials in some concrete at the school. the horror.

I woulda pressed in my buttcheeks. Kids have no imagination these days AND I would not have been caught.....



Hey, it could happen......

Had to go to jury duty yesterday (got eliminated by the defense lawyer) and was surprised at some of the people there. I was wondering about one lady in the jury pool and how much she enabled her son. The trial for our pool of prospective jurors was about a 19YO kid accused of arson - travel trailer and a house. This lady in the prospective jury pool originally told the judge she didn't feel comfortable there because her son was on trial for something in the same court house. Later on she also admitted her son had been convicted of arson a couple of years prior. I suspect messing up somebody's cement was low on his priority list.

Yet when punks spray paint bridges and buildings we elevate it to an art form and call it "graffiti art".

Oh but wait - they're minorities so it's okay. My bad.

This makes perfect sense! While it isn't the crime of the century, I would bet if it was your new driveway that the kids wrote on we would be hearing different comments.

In my old 'hood they poured nice new sidewalks to replace the broken ones.

Local kids wrote the big F word, drew male sexual organs, the whole gamut.

The city came back and tried to grind it out and they mostly look like crap now, and will for the next 20 years.

there oughta be a law

To me, a few initials or a name is not a big deal. Scrawling the F word, or the N word, or some other real damage that would be an eyesore for years would be a big deal.

Since when do school districts have the authority to levy fines?
I think the $250 fines must have been imposed by the police, not the school.

Appropriate action for the father is to file a suit in civil court against the school for having an "attractive nuisance" that was improperly secured.

How many people who think the petty vandalism is no big deal absolutely flip when someone lets a dog poop in their yard? Would you get uptight if a neighbor constantly parked in front of your house in the development so their company ins't inconvenienced? How do people come to believe that rude or boorish behaviour should be accepted and not carry consequences? A smart parent would petition the district for a landscaping/janitorial job for their kid to work to pay the measely $250.

Instead of taking the opportunity to drive home the idea of right and wrong and the consequences of our actions?

Where's that puking smilie...

How about kids and parents taking responsibility for their actions? It might be one thing for a 3 year to do it, but an 11 year old? They knew better...

Taking the opportunity to drive home the idea of right and wrong, and the consequences of negligence.
The school and contractor knew better.

we need to bring back capital punishment

Hey, at lease the cops didnt taze the kids.