Stephanie Ann Broten and Darnell Alan Landrum. (MyFoxTwinCities.com)
A Minnesota couple was charged Wednesday with malicious punishment of a child after they allegedly admitted to shaving a 12-year-old girl's head and making her run sprints outside in a diaper as punishment for poor grades and not completing her homework.
Up to 50 people were on the street gawking at the girl as she ran up and down the avenue in a tank top and an adult diaper.
When police arrived Monday, they found her "crying and hysterical," MyFoxTwinCities.com reported. Responding officers were told she had been outside for nearly a half an hour before a neighbor called 911.
The girl's mother, Stephanie Ann Broten, 38, and husband Darnell Alan Landrum, 34, allegedly told police they were punishing the girl for not bringing home good grades and for failing to do her homework.
Broten reportedly told police that she was disciplining her child by embarrassing her. The couple reportedly laughed while in the back of a police car as the girl and three siblings were taken into protective custody.
Landrum allegedly told investigators the 12-year-old was warned several times about the punishment if she did not improve her grades.
Broten and Landrum face up to a year in jail if convicted. The girl was back in school after the incident, wearing a bandanna and in good spirits, the report said.
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