Police Come To The Scene After Neighbors Complain About Tent; Shocked About What's Inside
By Mike-Ross
Police responded to a call from neighbors about a tent in a couple’s back yard. When they found out what was inside the tent, they understood why they were called.
A couple in New Mexico were trying to teach their son a lesson by forcing him to spend his days in a tent out in the back yard. The neighbors noticed and reported the couple to the police for child abuse. When police came and investigated the matter, they agreed with the parents.
Jacob and Angela Boggus decided to employ some tough love when their 16-year-old son started getting out of control. The young man had taken up the habit of stealing from his parents, and they made several attempts to stop him. The latest, most extreme attempt was to pitch a tent for him so that he could spend his days outside in the yard.
“We are trying to do the best that we can,” said Mrs. Boggus.
The parents aren’t making their son sleep in the yard. He’s brought in every night at 9 p.m. to sleep in his room. He’s also allowed to use the bathroom inside the house. They don’t deprive him of food, either: they bring him his meals to the tent. He has water and shade. The purpose of the punishment is to teach him a lesson by depriving him of comforts in hopes that he’ll come to appreciate what he has a little bit more.
“We’re not doing anything wrong here,” Angela said to KRQE. “We’re simply trying to teach our child a lesson.”
“If he doesn’t learn that now, it’s gonna be the whole world’s problem, not just ours, in a couple of years,” said Mr. Boggus.
But a neighbor felt differently. One of the neighbors noticed the boy spending his days out in the tent and called the police to investigate. Police arrived and didn’t think the parents were doing anything wrong.
“It’s not like he’s been banished out to the mesa a hundred miles away from civilization,” said Deputy Gary Hall, chief of the Valencia County Sheriff’s Department.
The sheriff’s office isn’t taking any action against the parents at this time. Considering the child is well fed, clothed, has access to the bathroom and a safe, comfortable bed at night, letting him sit in the yard all day is hardly an abusive situation. In fact, for centuries, before kids became dependent on electronic devices for socialization and entertainment, that’s what kids did: they spent their days outside.
The teen was sentenced to a month in the tent where he is supposed to catch up on homework, including five book reports. So far, he’s spent two weeks in it.
Some neighbors didn’t agree. “It’s an awful thing to do to a human being,” said a neighbor to the local news.
Others agree with the parents. “If you do something wrong, there are consequences; there is cause and there is effect,” said one local.
The Boggus say that anyone who wishes to come and try to talk some sense into the boy is welcome. But for the time being, the punishment stands.
Source: Watch This
Photo: Paste/Wikimedia Commons
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