PARENTING June 10, 2002 ISSUE

He was a good boy (A true story)

By Curt Snider

ONCE THERE WAS A LITTLE BOY who did things that weren't very smart. He stole school-bus tickets. He and his friends stole cigarettes. He broke windows. He started fires that did a lot of damage. Once he beat up a friend of his while another boy held his friend so he couldn't get away. And he kicked a girl down some stairs. He always fought with his sister. He was arrested twice for breaking into a train station to fill balloons with water to drop on cars going under the train viaduct.

And he wasn't even ten!