SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY -- A San Joaquin County mother is taking a different approach to punishment after her son was suspended from school.
“I just thought of something, you know what can I do for my son as a punishment," mother Nyia Williams said.
Williams, a mother of four, decided to teach her son Amaurryon Johnson a valuable lesson when she found out the 10th grader had been suspended from school for five days.
Instead of a more typical punishment for a teen, Williams wanted something more.
“My yard is already done, he’s done the yard perfect all summer since the first time he’s got suspended,” Williams said.
So, instead of taking away a laptop or his phone, she put up a post on Facebook offering her son's lawn mowing services -- free of charge to people in need.
To her surprise, dozens of people responded to the offer.
“I just thought it was such an awesome thing that she was doing," Stephanie Cruz said. "I just thought we can help and save a couple of hours to help her teach her son what she wanted to do.”
So, Amaurryon hit the ground running, one lawn at a time.
“I really appreciate this from [his mother], I don’t really know what to say," Amaurryon said. "After doing one or two I started liking it.”
His mother is hoping this lesson in hard work keeps her son out of trouble while also teaching him the value of giving back.
"But at the end of the day I still felt great about teaching the lesson to my son," Williams said.
“I felt like I took from the community so it’s good to give back to the community," Amaurryon said.
He said he'll continue to mow lawns after his suspension to earn extra cash.
