I agree with you in all aspects of it....there's some underlying issues with the bully. But why wait till now to address it after the kid had numerous run ins with the law already. Made no sense to me.I agree, just like with our feathery friends, negative reinforcement is not effective. A child who is acting out (and even most adults) are probably suffering from something externally or internally. Children aren't born telling people to kill themselves. They learn it from others, and acting out aggressively usually comes from fear and neglect. Obviously the kid needs to understand what he did was not acceptable, but trying to dole out harsh punishment, especially for a child to be put in our horrible prison system? That's not effective for the desired outcome, which is positive change into becoming a better person. Our prisons in the US fail at that task completely and usually make people worse, giving them PTSD and the burden of a criminal record when trying to find a job and turn their life around.
People, especially children don't usually go through intense fear and pain then become more healed and gentler people.
But all in all, I have no control over those decisions or how they arrive at them. I'm just helping this family out that we've known since their child with autism was born. We're like his second family.