A South Carolina mother is under investigation after forcing her son to wear women's clothing while being paraded through a Walmart as a means of public punishment.
Rock Hill Police were called to the local Walmart on Oct. 4 over a boy wearing a tutu, women’s boots and a woman’s undergarment with his head shaved “in an unusual manner, bald on top with a patch of wig on the front of his head” and "BAD" written on the back of his head, according to the Herald. The mother told officers she was “punishing her son for fighting and making homophobic remarks in school."
Police reported the incident to the county's Department of Social Services.
“We’re not going to charge the mother with anything,” Rock Hill Police spokesman Mark Bollinger told the Washington Post. “The incident apparently shocked some customers and some some of the staff, and they gave us a call.”
While the mom might have intended to teach her son a lesson, experts warn public punishment does more harm than good. Alfie Kohn, author of Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason, previously told The Huffington Post: "It's that humiliation, like other forms of punishment, is counterproductive. 'Doing to' strategies -- as opposed to those that might be described as "working with" -- can never achieve any result beyond temporary compliance, and it does so at a disturbing cost."
H/T Gay Star News
