ponytailA few months ago, Kaytlen Lopan, 13, and her 11-year-old friend walked into a local fast food restaurant, found an unsuspecting 3-year-old girl, and cut off chunks of her hair for entertainment.

For that crime, Kaytlen was sentenced to 30 days in detention -- in addition to a $350 fine and 276 hours of community service. The judge offered to reduce Kaytlen's community service by 150 hours, however, if her mother cut Kaytlen's ponytail off, right there in the court room -- in front of everyone. 

Her mom did it.

And now, Kaytlen’s mother, Valerie Bruno, is filing a formal complaint.

Apparently, Kaytlen's mother regrets scalping her daughter in the middle of the courtroom. I imagine it was quite humiliating for the teen. But honestly, cry baby Mommy dearest, you were given an option to refuse. I'm detecting a little buyers remorse. No worries, mama, the hair will grow back. It wasn’t like Kaytlen was held down and taken advantage of, which is more likely what happened to her tiny victim.

Would I cut my kids hair off to reduce her sentence for a crime she committed? Probably not. I’d offer my kid the choice: You can either receive the same courtesy that you gave the 3-year-old or you can do the community service. But there would be consequences to that sort of unsavory behavior. You do the crime, you do the time.

Do I think Kaytlen deserved punishment? Hell, yes. She is old enough to know that she was being an asshole by cutting the little girl’s hair off but she chose to do it anyway. She made a choice and she needs to learn to be accountable for her choices. I think her community service should be spent learning to be more tolerant of small children.

It is completely ridiculous that Ms. Bruno is filing a complaint. She should have refused to cut her daughter’s hair if she didn’t want to do it. Maybe if she were doing a better job of parenting her own daughter, Kaytlen would have never had the opportunity to do such a heinous thing to this small child.

In my personal opinion, Kaytlen is a menace and dangerous. What kind of teenager patrols a local fast-food restaurant until they find a smaller, weaker child to hurt? Ms. Bruno should be thanking Judge Johansen because it seems to me that young Kaytlen may be one haircut away from killing small animals and then making the leap to full on sociopath.

Do you think that cutting off Kaytlen’s ponytail was excessively humiliating?

Image via Esparta/Flickr