SWANSEA, IL (KTVI)– Amiyah White, 8, felt embarrassed wearing a cardboard sign to school on Tuesday, but her Dad says that was the whole point.
The sign read, “I like to steal and lie about it.” Montrail White says his daughter took items from her teacher and from home. “We tried taking away TV, but that didn’t work,” explained White. “This was the last straw.”
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The superintendent of the High Mount School District did have a problem with the punishment. Michael Brink says it was done in the middle of a very busy parking lot by a very busy intersection.
White says he was asked to remove the sign or move off school property. Brink says at that point White started cursing and his daughter was screaming.
“We didn’t know what was going to happen,” said Brink. He called the police.
“We fully respect his right to discipline his child,” said Brink. “Our concern is it should not be done in the middle of an extremely busy parking lot.”
White denies he started cursing and believes his daughter was safer on the parking lot than on a sidewalk across the street.
“I`m just trying to be a father, to prevent my daughter from getting in trouble down the road,” said White.
His daughter said the punishment will work. “He`s trying to teach me a lesson and he doesn`t want me to end up in jail,” said Amiyah White with her dad by her side.
Montrail White said his daughter will return to class without the sign on Wednesday but that he will make her wear it again if she steals again.
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