I remember reading that centuries ago in Britain animals were sometimes put on trial. A cow that had broken into a neighbouring farmer's fields would be charged with breaking and entering, plus theft. A bull which gored a person could be charged, found guilty and sentenced to death.
It sounds about as rational as this.
I wrote recently in Watercooler about how cultural differences are the biggest differences between us, not race. I simply can't understand how any system could allow this. But that's because we don't have anything like that in Australia. A child as unruly as that - difficult child 3 has been that bad, only a few years ago (a few weeks before I pulled him out of mainstream). They didn't call the police - they would have done nothing. Instead, they removed the other kids from the room and called his teacher to talk him down from his rage. if he hadn't calmed down they would have called the school counsellor who would simply have watched and waited until it was safe to go in. Ignoring it, leaving him in isolation, was the best thing they could have done. later, once he is no longer raging, is the time to deal with it. As it happened with difficult child 3, "later" also told the class teacher WHY the problem had occurred. Although difficult child 3 shouldn't have raged, it had been triggered by another teacher badly mishandling a situation.
If a six year old can be charged with assault for hitting an adult, at what age do we continue this? Many two year olds hit their parents in rage - maybe if we charged them it would provide a deterrent. Because clearly, abusive two year olds are a big problem, it does happen a lot. Maybe it's our failure to deal with them to the full extent of the law that is the reason for so much violence from toddlers and two year olds.
But then, why wait until they're two? I was breastfeeding my six-month-old easy child when she bit me on the nipple. Now THAT is assault, should I have had her charged? Using the logic clearly in the mind of the DA in this case, it would follow. Then there was the time she bit me on the finger, repeatedly, when I was trying to feed her a pear... she laughed that time, too, it really was deliberate.
I'll leave it now before I say something REALLY rash.
Marg