There's a chicken egg problem here: when you were labeled a troubled teen, you already were a troubled teen. What happened to you after was bad, but it wasn't all peaches and cream before. Finding the appropriate way to deal with troubled teens (even if it did start with poor parenting) is not easy, and this discussion seems like a one-sided caricature.
>Picked off. Kidnapped. Taken. Call it what you wish, but trying to sleep each night with the notion that a pair of strangers could come to lift you from your bed, whether your actions were deserving of this treatment or not, haunts me, haunts thousands.
How can the response to that sentence be anything but horror?
Regardless of what people did, or someone perceived as bad behavior, there are things that should be totally, absolutely off limits and unacceptable as either "treatment" or punishment.
What the author, and other in this thread, describe falls so squarely into the unacceptable category as things can be. I always wonder how such things can happen at all. Until I read comments like yours, and when combined with the usual power imbalance and social pressure, it all falls into place.
Pedantry incoming, I have no serious criticism of your comment. I just think it’s interesting that we seem to agree but I thought your word choice was interesting.
Non-conforming is a funny word to use for this, so I’ll rephrase for clarity to represent a bit of a middle ground:
Even shitty kids should not be kidnapped or psychologically abused.
Brainwashing has lost all its bite in this day in age. I’m coming around to the opinion/usage that something as innocuous as public school can reasonably be understood to engage in the “brainwashing” of children. Same is true with ‘isolation, ‘surely, or is ‘No Recess’ no longer the most effective elementary school disciplinary tool?
This begs the question: Is everyone who is labeled a “trouble teen” actually a troubled teen? I sincerely doubt the system is 100% accurate in assigning this label.
There's a chicken egg problem here: when you were labeled a troubled teen, you already were a troubled teen. What happened to you after was bad, but it wasn't all peaches and cream before. Finding the appropriate way to deal with troubled teens (even if it did start with poor parenting) is not easy, and this discussion seems like a one-sided caricature.