Story Archive

Shame II

“Want to be my friend 🙂 Help me by not!!!” The T-shirt a Brooksville, Fla., girl showed up wearing to West Hernando Middle School said her social life was canceled until she raised her grades, and she wasn’t “aloud to have a boyfriend no time soon.” But of all the things officials say the girl’s mother had written on her shirt, the one that really got the mother in trouble was the warning to “back off before I get another good woopin like I got last night” — that and the marks and bruises school officials observed on the girl’s back, legs, arms, and neck. School officials got the girl a new shirt. Melany Joyce Alexander, 31, was arrested for child abuse and released on bail, but barred from contact with the girl. Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis said Alexander confessed to using a belt with metal parts to hurt her daughter. His spokeswoman noted that the department has seen child-shaming before, but the beating makes this case especially bad. (AC/WTVT Tampa, Washington Post) ...Sometimes we need school officials to protect kids from their parents.