Constitutional Law

Mom Probed After Making Teen Son Stand by Road Wearing Sign About Poor Grades

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A Florida mom says she doesn’t want any of her children to have to stand at the side of the road begging for change.

So 33-year-old Ronda Holder ordered her son, James Mond III, 15, to stand at the side of the road for several hours on Wednesday, wearing a sign about his poor grades. She hopes to impress upon him the need to focus on school, reports the St. Petersburg Times.

“Honk if I need education,” the message on the sign concluded. Lots of motorists sounded off their agreement, the newspaper says, and publicity over the incident also apparently helped Mond get enrolled in an after-school tutoring program at Franklin Middle School.

Holder and the boy’s father say they tried talking to their son and conferences with the school, to no avail. However, experts reached by the Times said the sign punishment was emotionally abusive and ineffective and the Department of Children and Families has opened an investigation after someone complained.

A DCF spokesman said the sign punishment, legally, could be considered a bizarre form of maltreatment.

Holder, who works as a hair stylist and herself did not graduate from high school, feels she has done nothing wrong.

“You can’t resort to spanking,” she tells the Times. “I want my child to have an education and have his children be able to look at him and say I can get an education, too.”