Public Punishment for 13-Year-Old Pot Smoker

LONGVIEW — A Longview father delivers a public punishment to his 13-year-old son after he was caught smoking marijuana. According to KETK, Travis Simmering made his son Christian stand in various public locations Thursday with a sign that read, “I’ve been smoking weed. I’m only 13.” Mr. Simmering says reaction was overwhelmingly positive. He remarks, “We’ve had a lot of response. We’ve had people pray with us. We’ve had people just come hug him… And I think he’s got a lot of information out of it, a lot of good out of it too.”

And according to Christian, the tactic taught him a lot. “For everyone who thinks what my parents did was wrong, it wasn’t,” said Christian. “Maybe you shouldn’t think that was the only punishment I got. It helped me realize that there is more to drugs than I thought. Complete strangers came to me and told me about their past troubles and now I can truly say people other than just my family love me.”