Thoroughly exasperated by her son’s misbehavior, a mother from Columbus, Georgia, came up with an innovative method to teach him a lesson. She teamed up with the local police force to stage an arrest of her fifth-grade son, hoping to scare him into behaving well at school.

33-year-old Chiquita Hill said that her son Sean’s teacher complained about him being “rude and disrespectful, not listening, talking back, and not doing his school work,” for the umpteenth time. She was running out of options and desperately looking for a solution, because she was scared that Sean’s behavior could escalate into serious disrespect for authority as an adult. That’s when she got the idea for a fake arrest.

“I knew I had to do something to shock him,” Chiquita said. “I was sitting there trying to decide how I am I going to discipline Sean because previously disciplinary actions didn’t work, obviously, so I made it up in my head I’m just going to call the police.”

So after the teacher left, she called the Columbus Police Department, and they immediately agreed to send officers to her home. When Chiquita told Sean that the police were coming to get him, he didn’t believe her. But when the cops turned up at the front door, the boy’s laughter quickly turned into tears.

The officers explained to Chiquita that they would be arresting the boy, after which they placed him in handcuffs. Then they stuck him in the back of their police car for five minutes. Photographs show the boy bawling through the car window, while being given a stern lecture by the cops. “Everything happened so fast,” Chiquita recalled. “He didn’t have time to react to anything. He was scared.”

Five minutes later, when the policemen opened the door, Sean bolted out of the car and ran to hug his mother. “One of the officers got in the car, flashed the lights and just stepped off the brakes to give him a scare… I don’t know what they said to him but he came running down the hill, gave me a big hug said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” After the police left, Chiquita says she spoke to Sean and explained to him how his behavior and his actions affect the people around him.

“I’m glad I did this,” she told the media. “He will be 11 this month. He’s hitting that pre-teen age. I understand that he will be going through changes, but with all the things going on in Missouri and in Baltimore, I want to stop anything from happening while he’s young and impressionable.”

Naturally, Chiquita has been criticised for her methods. Assistant Chief Lem Miller of the Columbus Police Department said he wasn’t impressed with what his police officers did. He even issued a statement that the ‘officers did that without any supervisory approval or knowledge.’

“We totally understand that they were trying to do a good thing, but in hindsight, we’re not in the business of pretending to arrest somebody,” he said. “It could very well scare the kid straight, but on the other hand, it could possibly hurt them and make them think even worse of us police down the road.” Miller said he has made it clear to his officers that they will not be permitted to ‘pretend arrest’ anyone ever again.

The Columbus Police Department also added that parents of misbehaving children need to call juvenile services instead of resorting to scare tactics with the help of the police.

But Chiquita is quick to defend her methods. “I was trying to get a point across to my son, if you want to be disrespectful and you want to be rude, this is what happens when bad people do bad things,” she told ABC News. “There are consequences for everything.” And she is happy to report a remarkable difference in her son’s behavior ever since. In fact, she said that even Sean’s teacher had called with ‘wonderful reports’ of his improved performance in class.

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