Why does this story make me so mad! Is it the mom or the teen offender?

photo by Mindy Moss

Imagine going to McDonald’s with your three year-old daughter and you allow her to play in the indoor playground (I know yuk!). Then, out of nowhere a 13 year-old girl takes out scissors and cuts a chunk out of her hair. I would probably be arrested. No, I would be arrested. The teen, Kaytlen Lopan, was charged with assault. Worse, she even had an accomplice – another teen girl.

Lopan stood before District Juvenile Judge Scott Johansen in May and ordered to pay damages, serve 30 days in detention and 276 hours of community service. But…Judge Johansen gave Lopan an alternative. He would cut 150 hours off of her community service if she agreed to cut off her ponytail right there in the courtroom, the same thing that she did to her three year-old victim. Of course, she would be given a choice and not assaulted by some stranger, like Lopan did to her victim.  Lopan’s mother, Valerie Bruno agreed and cut the ponytail herself. The accomplice  was also given the option to cut her hair, which she did later at a salon. Now the Bruno has filed a complaint against the judge. According to the New Daily News, “the reason behind her formal complaint against the judge is that ‘an eye for an eye’ isn’t how children should be taught ‘right from wrong’. ”

“She definitely needed to be punished for what had happened,” Bruno told the Deseret News. “But I never dreamt it would be that much of a punishment.” [HUH?!]

Oh, and according to the News, “Lopan also admitted during the hearing to threatening a Colorado teenager with rape and mutilation over the phone for a period of eight months.”

[This space officially left blank] – because I think there’s very little to add.

 

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