Honk if you hate bullies?
On Tuesday, a boy accused of bullying his schoolmates was forced to stand on a street corner with a humiliating sign as punishment for his behavior, NBC affiliate KCEN-TV reports.
The fourth-grader's father, Jose Lagares, made his son hold a large homemade sign that read: "I am a bully. Honk if you hate bullies."
"Bullying is also a form of public humiliation," Lagares, of Killeen, Texas, told the station. "Maybe he understands that when he humiliates someone publicly that doesn't feel good. Hopefully he'll take that with him so the next time he tries to bully someone he'll think about it twice."
Lagares is following in the footsteps of a long line of parents who have publicly shamed their children for transgressions ranging from sneaking out of the house to twerking.
Responses to Lagares' actions were mixed on KCENTV's Facebook page, with some applauding the father's actions, and others wondering if perhaps is wasn't the most effective approach. Indeed, in the past, several experts have voiced concerns about the issue.
In an April 2012 column on public shaming, The Huffington Post's Lisa Belkin spoke with Alfie Kohn, author of Unconditional Parenting: Moving From Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason, about the tactic.
"It's not just that humiliating people, of any age, is a nasty and disrespectful way of treating them," Kohn said at the time. "It's that humiliation, like other forms of punishment, is counterproductive."
For his part, Lagares has so far stuck to his guns. In fact, the Texas dad returned to the corner on Wednesday to defend his decision, this time holding up his own bright orange sign that said, "I'm not sorry. Honk to stop bullying."