Teenage girl forced to hold 'I lied' sign as punishment by her parent
A debate about parenting and a call to the police were the result of a recent incident that took place at a busy intersection in Cape Coral, Fla. According to witnesses and a video shared on Facebook, a teenage girl was forced to hold a sign that read, "I lied. I humiliated my mother and me," by her parent who was standing nearby.
Onlookers witnessed the scene at Veterans Parkway and Santa Barbara Boulevard on Saturday in the Florida city, which has been the location of a number of accidents in recent years.
One woman, who wished to remain anonymous, told NBC-2 that she had seen the post on social media at around 2 p.m. that day. She had driven by the girl and her mother hours later at 4:30 p.m. She was so concerned regarding the girl's safety that she called the police.
Another man interviewed by that station believed that such a drastic punishment would probably have the opposite effect on the girl than what the mother intended.
Still, others defended the parent and suggested the girl would likely think twice about lying again.
"She's lucky...in my house, she would have gotten the belt. Leave these parents alone - nothing wrong with what they are doing more than if she would have been crossing the street," Ashley Domonique Atty commented on a Facebook post.
Atty, who also shared a video of the girl holding the sign on Facebook, went on to write that it was "parenting at its finest."
The Cape Coral Police Department did respond to the scene and confirmed that everything was fine. According to NBC, police also confirmed the girl had water nearby during the 89-degree day, and no one was hurt.
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