Time Out

April 7, 2011

In February, police in Lakewood, Colorado pepper-sprayed an eight-year-old boy who was threatening other students and teachers, and also threatened police when they came to the school to deal with the situation. They squirted twice, but he blocked the first shot with a cardboard box, so they did it again. Now his mother’s crying foul. (Although at first she said he probably deserved it.)

On the “Today” show, the boy himself said he probably deserved it.

So the big question for me is not, “Mom, why is your head in the sand (or somewhere)?” (although it is a major question). It’s not even, “Why, since the boy had a history of behavior problems—police had been called to the school before to deal with him—was he still in that school?”

No, for me the big question is, “Why are ABC and NBC rewarding both the mother and the boy by giving them national attention in the first place?”

(Side question: Did either show interview the teachers or kids who were driven into the storage closet by the rampaging youngster? Or don’t the terrorized would-be victims have good publicists?)