Punishment

When I was a kid, I tried not to get into trouble.  My sister was pretty rebellious, and she was a few years older than me - I saw it wasn't doing much for her, so I didn't make waves.

Two Arizona teenagers faced a choice after getting into a fight at Westwood High in Mesa: They could either be suspended for nine days ... or hold hands in front of everybody. Obviously, they chose the latter, and now the school is catching flak for it.

I was talking about this on the air this morning and there was so much response that I decided to post it here too.  My friend's young son called her "the B-word," so she said he couldn't go trick-or-treating for Halloween. Is that too harsh? Should she let him go? Or should she be consistent and make her threats of punishment have merit?