Spot the Fake Shemp

This morning one of our regular kids came in to use the internet. He signed the clipboard as usual, but Mrs. A was manning the desk and carded him. Surprise of surprises, he didn't have a permission slip on file.

Our policy is that children under 16 have to either have a parent with them while using the internet or have a parental permission slip on file saying it's okay for them to use the internet. We're only mostly strict on this. Sometimes, a kid will sneak through, but not because we don't care. It's usually that we've assumed they have a permission slip when they don't.

"But I use the internet here all the time!" the kid protested. This was true. I've been logging him on at least twice a week since school let out and all he ever does is surf the Magic: The Gathering website. Still, Mrs. A didn't care how much illegal surfing he'd done already, he would be doing no more without a permission slip.

Kid asked if he could take a permission slip outside where his dad was waiting and have him sign it real quick.  Mrs. A gave him one, let him leave, allowed him enough time to start incriminating himself, then went outside to see what he was up to. 

Outside there was nary a dad in sight. Instead, kid was sitting at our picnic table filling out his own permission slip. He even looked up and saw Mrs. A watching him do it, then had the sac to come back in with it and try to pass it off anyway. 

"Um, my dad had to go run an errand, but he signed it first," kid said. He pointed to the parental signature blank where the letters "J.D." had been scribbled.

Mrs. A looked over his sad little forgery and then verbally pounced on his head. She told him she'd seen him fill it out himself and knew his dad was never there in the first place.  No, if he wanted to get on a computer ever again, he was going to have to drag Dad inside in person and have him fill out the slip with witnesses.  The kid then left, sans slip.

This all happened while I was down picking up lunch and they told me about it upon my return. I'd even passed the kid on my way back up the hill so I knew exactly who they were talking about.

Around 10 minutes later, kid returned with his mom and little brother in tow. Mrs. A explained to her about the earlier forgery, but Mom seemed unconcerned that her son had tried to forge Dad's name on the permission slip. She signed him right up and put him on a computer then signed her other son up while she was at it.
 
That's right, Mom--reward the bad behavior!  Why not, indeed?  After all, he's only just entering his teens, so it's only gonna get better from here on out.