Little girl who lied takes public punishment in La Mesa

At 6 p.m. on September 26, people driving on Lake Murray Boulevard in La Mesa were slowing down to see a small, cute girl, about ten years old, holding a big yellow sign that declared her to be “bad.” She looked embarrassed as she tried to hide herself behind the sign. It was clear to see that the girl’s punishment was humiliation.

Her mother said that after school, her daughter, named Landon, was ordered to stand on the corner of Lake Murray Boulevard and Maryland Avenue with a sign that declared that she had lied to her teacher and made her mother sad enough to cry.

Landon was situated in front of a popular restaurant, the Lake Murray Café, which is also close to Maryland Avenue Elementary School, which the girl attends.

As the mother sat on the curb with her two friends, she was holding her other child on her lap. As pedestrians walked by, a few commented about the originality of the punishment. The mother stated that everyone would know if Landon was good next week: if she was not standing on the corner, she had been a good girl.

Her mother stated that Landon had been “bad” for three weeks and nothing else had worked.