A 32-year-old woman has been charged with one misdemeanor count of child abuse for locking her daughter in a closet for 6 hours because she earned bad grades, the Daily Pilot reports.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/09/woman-accused-of-locking-daughter-in-closet_n_1084641.html
This is really disturbing and sad. And obviously not a good way to punish her for "bad" grades. She clearly scarred her daughter and may or may not have messed her up. She should have chose to reinforce her daughter with good grades instead. Or if she was going to stick with punishment, make it something like taking away tv time. Not locking her away. My conclusion: The mom's crazy!
If we've learned anything, it is that reinforcement is better than punishment, but if punishment is necessary try to use positive punishment in a humane way. Add in extra chores or duties that eat into the child's free time. I would consider this a type of negative punishment because the mother is taking away not only the child's freedom, but her future ability to love or trust others. Perhaps this mother should have stuck to having pets instead of children.