Discipline your own freaking kids...

Oh, come on, people: South Carolina mother has son arrested for playing with Christmas present

Focus quite:

"It was only to teach my son a lesson. He's been going through life doing things...and getting away with it."

My question is simply, who has let him get away with it. It is your responsibility as a parent to raise your kid. This includes punishment. Police shouldn't be involved at this level. I've heard of effective use of police for "at risk kids" and those with serious disciplanary issues...but playing with your Christmas gift? I've got a simple fix for you. Return the gift. Exchange it for a lump of coal. Doing this results in a lesson learned, and less public humiliation.

The other issue is here:

The mother said her son was diagnosed in the last year with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder but his medicine does not seem to help.

I soilidly believe that ADD and ADHD are horribly over diagnosed. My sister has both...and those that have *real* experiance with it understand the Jekle/Hyde type of change that occurs when on medication. To me, this says he doesn't have the disorder. He's probably just being a 12-year old male...like many of us have been before him...