So I was on a build site today, and a 13 year old girl came into the site crying. She said she was afraid of her family, specifically her mom and godmother.
She said she did something bad but didn't tell us what, but that they would "lay hands on her."
I'll say that our immediate crew was all white, and the general reaction was that we should call the police. I was very hesitant to do so because I feel that if we did, her family might just take it out on her. Especially given the neighborhood we were in I don't think the police showing up at this girl's house would be a good thing for anyone.
This is sort of a tricky situation to describe, but one of the supers on the site happened to be of the same ethnicity as this girl.
This is all relayed from her after she talked to her and the girl left.
She came and talked to her and found out that this girl was talking to a boy she wasn't supposed to be talking to, and it was discovered that she had written some very awful things about her mom in her diary.
Basically her reaction was girl, go take your lumps. You don't talk shit about your mom like that who takes care of you and expect nothing to happen. You don't run away and there isn't anything for you here. You either go back home or you go somewhere else.
The girl actually did seem to kind of pull it together and stopped crying and went home.
Now, I think this is actually a good outcome, as I don't think calling the police would have done any good for anyone.
Like I said this is kind of a hard thread to make, as I don't really have a point. Just that it was an interesting experience. Like it made me think physical punishment is actually a lot more common than I would have thought. At the same time I don't think the police getting involved and then who knows what after that makes the situation better.
Also, in my state, limited physical punishment of a child is actually legal (and it apparently is in a lot of states). Given the lack of real detail we have here I can't exactly say if what this girls punishment would theoretically be legal or not. And I'd say that's another reason to not call the police. It's very possible they would have just made things dramatically worse for this girl.
Just kind of a story for the day I guess.
She said she did something bad but didn't tell us what, but that they would "lay hands on her."
I'll say that our immediate crew was all white, and the general reaction was that we should call the police. I was very hesitant to do so because I feel that if we did, her family might just take it out on her. Especially given the neighborhood we were in I don't think the police showing up at this girl's house would be a good thing for anyone.
This is sort of a tricky situation to describe, but one of the supers on the site happened to be of the same ethnicity as this girl.
This is all relayed from her after she talked to her and the girl left.
She came and talked to her and found out that this girl was talking to a boy she wasn't supposed to be talking to, and it was discovered that she had written some very awful things about her mom in her diary.
Basically her reaction was girl, go take your lumps. You don't talk shit about your mom like that who takes care of you and expect nothing to happen. You don't run away and there isn't anything for you here. You either go back home or you go somewhere else.
The girl actually did seem to kind of pull it together and stopped crying and went home.
Now, I think this is actually a good outcome, as I don't think calling the police would have done any good for anyone.
Like I said this is kind of a hard thread to make, as I don't really have a point. Just that it was an interesting experience. Like it made me think physical punishment is actually a lot more common than I would have thought. At the same time I don't think the police getting involved and then who knows what after that makes the situation better.
Also, in my state, limited physical punishment of a child is actually legal (and it apparently is in a lot of states). Given the lack of real detail we have here I can't exactly say if what this girls punishment would theoretically be legal or not. And I'd say that's another reason to not call the police. It's very possible they would have just made things dramatically worse for this girl.
Just kind of a story for the day I guess.
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