Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Back in March, a Tampa woman boarded her child’s school bus and encouraged her to fight another student. She was convicted of trespassing and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Apparently, Karen Barber doesn’t read the newspapers or watch the news. Karen is a St. Pete mom, and she too got on a school bus to resolve a conflict with violence.

Her son (let’s call him Punk) picked up another boy’s (we’ll call him Joe) folder. Punk decided to keep Joe’s folder, so Joe punched Punk, and got his folder back. Even-Steven.

But Punk’s ma failed to ascertain that the situation had resolved itself, so she decided to head over to Joe’s house and threaten to shoot up the house. Joe’s mom rolled her eyes and went about her business. Of course, this didn’t sit well with Punk’s ma. The next day, she followed the kids’ school bus, and encouraged the driver to pull over. Punk’s ma boarded the bus with another of her children, a daughter. Before they left the bus, both the mom and the daughter gave Joe a couple of slaps on the face.

Where on earth are these people learning their parenting skills?

Parent of the year nominee: Police Say 3 Gave Gin To Toddler. Nope - not just a sip, not just by accident. They kept feeding a 10 month old gin until he was drunk. And they videotaped it. The sixteen year old mom was one of the three.

We live in a sick world.

I’ve always thought that children have little respect for those around them because the parents fail to demand respect for themselves and other people - adults and peers. But I really don’t want to believe that some parents literally teach their kids to be violent.

Mother got on the bus with her daughter, and told the young girl to hit another child. From the article:

Officers charged [Mom] with battery, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and trespassing. The battery charge stems from her daughter striking the other girl at [Mom]’s direction, Davis said. [Mom] did not hit anyone.

The mother is 26 years old, the daughter 9, so the child was born while mom was still a child. I wonder how Mom was raised. And how will the nine-year old do when she becomes a mom?

I’m sure you heard about the high school student who mooned his teachers. TBT* Basically glorified the kid on their front page. Not so enamored was the school, which suspended him and wants him to finish his high school career somewhere else. The parents have now sued to let the punk stay at Palm Harbor University:

A high school senior acknowledges he went too far when he mooned a teacher.

He thinks the decision of school officials to send him to a new school for the rest of the year was too harsh, however, so his family is suing.

Tyler Tillung, 18, mooned a teacher “suddenly and without thinking about the consequences” in February, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday…

“We’re talking about his graduation,” said Tillung’s lawyer, B. Edwin Johnson. “That’s an important event in a guy’s life. … This kid deserves a break.”

No, the kid does NOT deserve a break.

You wanna know why young adults are soft these days? Because they are spoiled. They are taught that there are no consequences. This is a perfect opportunity to hold the kid responsible for his own actions. But the parents are too weak. And they are not helping Tyler at all. In fact, since this punk has no respect for the school, teachers, and himself, I’d guess the parents have not taught the child well enough his entire life. But then again, the so-called “parents” are not in charge - the kid is obviously running the family. Read the second paragraph again:

He thinks the decision of school officials to send him to a new school for the rest of the year was too harsh, however, so his family is suing.

The school says they will stand by their decision, and I hope they do.

Two close friends of mine entered the covenant of marriage this past weekend, an event the details of which I may share with you later. As I have only one sibling (who is not, as of yet, the marryin’ type) the opportunity to be a part of weddings is still new and exciting for me. I really love wearing tuxedoes.

More exciting, for a young and single lad as I am, is the bachelor party. I have experienced bachelor parties fraught with bacchanalia (several trips to Las Vegas) and those so subdued the alcohol had to be surreptitiously secured in back-pocket flasks.

Through all the golfing, paintballing, drinking, [ACTIVITY REDACTED]ing, and lap dance-enjoying I have participated in during previous bachelor parties, I have never been led to consider sociology of an urban community during one. Yet it was easily the primary thought in my mind for several hours Thursday night.

The stretch SUV limo dropped the fourteen of us off at the Centro Ybor Gameworks for an evening of college basketball, beer, and video games. The sight upon entering led me to turn to my schoolteacher friend Brian, who responded to my stunned expression with a simple, “Hillsborough County Spring Break.”

To say Gameworks was crawling with rugrats would be a severe understatement. I am not particularly fond of children, except those belonging to close friends who do not mind my attempts to brainwash their progeny with left-wing ideologies. Thus to be confronted with hundreds of unaccompanied minors and their sticky fingers was a bit unpleasant. I was, of course, with my friends and we quickly found the bar where I could angrily curse my hated Ohio State Buckeyes and assume that, given the late hour of 10:00, parents would be hauling their screaming butts to bed posthaste.

Yet that never happened. The volume of 9-12 year-olds didn’t decrease. The volume of parents or guardians never increased. Perhaps I am old-fashioned, or perhaps I am from a farm in Ohio and thus grew up with very different values. Or maybe I am getting older. I was, either way, appalled at how late these young children were allowed out in a place where a large number of adults were consuming alcoholic beverages. Where are their parents? At the age of these children, I was in BED by 10:00, let alone rambling around a bar.

Around midnight, we loaded back up into the SUV and headed toward a more adult-oriented establishment (yes, Tampa Ale House, what were you expecting?) yet I couldn’t shake the cognitive dissonance of my usual egalitarian attitudes butting heads with the judgmental feelings swarming around my mind.

I suppose I would have been more comfortable if there had been any supervision whatsoever, but there wasn’t. I iterate: Where are the parents?

That’s right… to make a sale.

The principal of Van Buren Middle School has been arrested and charged with buying crack cocaine in his office from an undercover police officer, Tampa Police said.

Anthony Giancola, 40, has been taken to police headquarters for questioning.

In other role model news,

• Two East Hillsborough moms bring their three children with them to purchase some pot.
• A mom with her baby in the car sat passed out at the traffic light, car in gear. She got a DUI.
• That Tampa Prep swim coach was charged with more felonies. Remember that teacher was busted for videotaping unclothed students.
• A stumbling-drunk woman tried to drive home from the bar with her 9-year-old in tow. An heroic bystander kept the little girl out of the car. Mom crashed the car a couple of times on her way home.

We don’t really dig the crime news here on Sticks, but these parents and educators… Well, they just suck.

On the heels of a pre-ten outlaw, comes another. 

A Hillsborough County deputy arrested a 7 year old on Wednesday for throwing a backpack at another kid’s head. Apparently the mother of the “victim” insisted that the deputies press charges, despite the lack of any injury, etc.  The deputy also claims that the mother of the aggressor consented to her sons arrest.  From the St. Pete Times:

Deputy Gary Craig was sent to check out the complaint. He contacted Bob Petschow, deputy chief of intake for the Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office. Petschow told the deputy that there are many problems with charging a 7-year-old and advised him against arresting the child, said Bondi, the assistant state attorney.

“The deputy did anyway,” Bondi said. “We explained to the deputy the competency issues with even attempting to charge a 7-year-old.”

But Carter said the deputy’s account is slightly different from what the State Attorney’s Office says. According to Carter, the deputy talked to the 7-year-old’s mother, who consented to her son’s arrest.

“The mother said, ‘Take him,’ ” Carter said.

There are almost too many problems in this scenario to delve into.  Police incompetence, parental incompetence, the lack of media outrage, etc.  This ain’t normal folks.  If your kid throws a backpack at my kids head a) I hope he at least deserved it, b) if he didn’t, I hope he defends himself and kicks your kids ass. C’mon, these were 7 and 11 year olds. What next, dog jail for doggies who poop on the sidewalk?  This is ludicrous.

Fantastic! The eight year old boy can preach, but no one has yet taught him how to tie his own shoes.