Florida mom Ronda Holder uses humiliation to get teen son James Mond III to do better in school
A frustrated mother in Florida is using some tough love to push her teenage son to get better grades.
Ronda Holder forced her son, James Mond III, to stand on a Tampa Bay street corner with a sign stating:
"I DID 4 Questions on my F-Cat AND Said I Wasn't Going to Do it!" said the sign, written in black marker on a large piece of paper hanging around the 15-year-old's neck. "GPA 1.22... Honk if I NEED [an] Education."
The 33-year-old mother said she wanted to embarrass her child into taking his education seriously.
"You take the phone. You take things from them... It don't work," Holder told Fox 13 News in Tampa Bay. "So embarrassing is the best thing. He don't like to get embarrassed."
She plans to make him continue standing on the corner every day until his grades improve.
"Until he straightens up his grades and gets his education on track, he's going to work this corner," Holder said.
The hair stylist and niece of a former Tampa Bay police chief didn't finish high school herself, and neither did the teen's father, James Mond Jr. But both parents were angry that no matter how hard they tried, James Mond III wouldn't put in the effort.
"He'd tell us, 'That school doesn't give homework' or 'That teacher has a problem with me,'" James Mond Jr. told the St. Petersburg Times. "He just sat there looking up at the roof like he wasn't listening."
Not everyone thinks Holder's harsh stance with her son is a good idea.
"Embarrassment and shame is not really healthy for a young person's mind growing up," psychologist Stacey Scheckner told Fox 13 News.
For Holder, she just wants her kid to get an education so he can get a job and have a shot at a real future.
"I don't want any of my kids to stand by the side of the road asking for change," Holder told the St. Petersburg Times.
