Parents have been telling their children to get a job for ages, but when a judge does it, that's definitely new.
A Western Massachusetts boy who spray-painted graffiti onto his neighbor’s homes as an 11-year-old was ordered Wednesday to get a job so he can pay the victim’s $1,000 restitution – and learn a life lesson at the same time.
The boy, who was identified in the Massachusetts Appeals Court ruling by the pseudonym of “Avram,” had previously had charges of juvenile delinquency put on hold for one year in return for his promise to make restitution to his Easthampton neighbors.
After he failed to pay a single penny within that year, Juvenile Court Judge James G. Collins extended the now-12-year-old boy’s probation for four years and ordered him to get a job – an order defense attorney Craig R. Bartolomei said was contrary to juvenile law and to the reality of society today.
Problem is, what kind of job can a 12-year-old boy legally do? The kid's defense attorney pondered:
“The state itself limits what they [12-year-olds] can do,’’ Bartolomei said in a telephone interview. “They can be actors, with a permit. They can work a farm, and they can basically deliver newspapers. But kids don’t deliver newspapers any more.’’
John Ellement of the Boston Globe reports: Link
If an 11-year old can't come up with a single penny of income during the course of a year, then he didn't even try.
If he didn't even try to mow lawns, shovel snow, or do odd jobs for the neighbors then that's as much his parents'/guardians fault as it is his. I can understand if he flat out refused to the point of force, but then the responsible adult parties should have spoken with the judge after the first month of his refusals. Obviously, the kid has issues and doesn't realize that being ordered to do something as simple as mow a lawn for cash to pay someone back is getting a break compared to the alternative of going to juvenile detention.