Wednesday, July 05, 2006
You Pick the Punishment
I'll describe the crime you pick the punishment. But don't peek at the answer until you've made your choice; that wouldn't be fair.
A teenaged boy had a crush on a girl he knew. Lacking the common sense to simply ask the girl out, the boy instead chose another way to convince her to go out with him: one day, while she was walking to school, he snapped a photo of her with his cell phone's camera. Obviously she must have been doing something outrageous and embarrassing like picking her nose or walking with one of the uncool kids, because he felt that threatening to post that picture on the internet would somehow convince her she should go out with him. It is also fair to assume she was not walking to school in the nude, of course.
Well the girl didn't fall for it. She complained to her parents and the authorities were brought in. What do you think the boy's punishment was?
If you really, really liked this -- or even really, really hated it -- there's lots more:
A teenaged boy had a crush on a girl he knew. Lacking the common sense to simply ask the girl out, the boy instead chose another way to convince her to go out with him: one day, while she was walking to school, he snapped a photo of her with his cell phone's camera. Obviously she must have been doing something outrageous and embarrassing like picking her nose or walking with one of the uncool kids, because he felt that threatening to post that picture on the internet would somehow convince her she should go out with him. It is also fair to assume she was not walking to school in the nude, of course.
Well the girl didn't fall for it. She complained to her parents and the authorities were brought in. What do you think the boy's punishment was?
- Required to transfer his cell phone to the girl and stay 150 yards away from her at all times for 6 months, except when attending the same class.
- Forced to go out with the girl's unpopular sister and post details of the date on his blog in order to gain a sense of empathy for the embarrassment he threatened to inflict.
- 3 months of community service as a Big Brother so that he might also gain some social skills.
- Nine months in jail, and 49 lashes because that's the only number of lashes anyone knows how to give.
- A two week sensitivity training workshop to be attended every weeknight after school, and a year's worth of monthly one-night followups and counseling sessions, with a test to be passed on completion in order to avoid a hefty fine.
