Potty training can be incredibly hard for both parents and kids. Patience can often run thin, but two Florida cops have taken their frustration to an extreme level. The parents, a lieutenant and a detective sergeant, allegedly handcuffed their 3-year-old son to "discipline" him after he was struggling with potty training back in October. Lt. Michael Schoenbrod of the Daytona Beach Shores Police Department told a caseworker from the Department of Children and Families that he took his son to police headquarters and put him behind bars, the Daytona Beach News-Journal originally reported, citing body-cam footage.
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“He was crying. I was getting the response I expected from him,” Lt. Schoenbrod told the caseworker in video footage from a Volusia County sheriff’s deputy.
After his time behind bars, the little one vowed never to poop his pants again, but of course he did, accidentally.
Apparently this isn't the first time Schoenbrod has put one of his children in jail to "teach" them a lesson. He did the same thing nine years ago with his then 4-year-old after the child hit a little girl at school, according to the News-Journal.
"So that’s why I did it with this. He didn’t hit anybody, but I figured the same thing, discipline. And he didn’t want to go back, so…," the lieutenant explained, according to the report.
The News-Journal was unclear if the couple will be charged with anything, but the outlet reported that Schoenbrod said, “It’s just disgusting that somebody would drag our family through the mud like this.” Long could be heard calling the investigation "insane," according to the outlet.
The couple has declined to provide any comment regarding the probe into their actions. The couple also filed a case against R.J. Larizza, a state attorney, in May, but that has been marked as confidential.
Lonnie Groot, a former city attorney, reportedly sought out records talking about a police officer putting a child in a cell. Additionally, he looked into investigations mentioning “alleged child abuse by an officer.”
“This whole matter just does not pass the basic smell test from a transparency and governmental openness perspective,” he wrote to city attorney Becky Vose, according to the News-Journal.
Another former police officer from Daytona who is a self-described civil rights activist requested the findings of the standards probe into the couple's actions, and was told it would cost several thousand dollars to access.
“It’s a severe matter of public interest when you have strong allegations of that kind,” he told the News-Journal. “Rumors are being brought to you by fellow law enforcement… and you want to make sure the stuff they’re saying isn’t true.”
