Posted on November 26, 2012

Woman Who Drove Car on Pavement Punished with ‘Idiot’ Sign

Nick Allen, Telegraph (London), November 14, 2012

An American woman who drove her car on a pavement in an attempt to pass a stationary school bus has been forced to stand in public holding a sign describing her as an “idiot.”

The unusual sentence was imposed by a judge in Cleveland, Ohio on Shena Hardin, 32, after she was caught on camera trying to circumvent the bus as it unloaded children.

The sign she was made to hold read: “Only an idiot would drive on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus.”

Hardin stood for an hour in freezing temperatures at a busy road junction, ignoring passers-by and drivers honking their horns.

Lisa Kelley, whose nine-year-old daughter uses the bus, said: “She’s an idiot, just like her sign says. She did this almost every day last year.

“She won’t stop laughing. She’s not remorseful, she laughed at every court appearance. She’s still laughing, so she needs to be humiliated like this.”

Bill Lipold, 37, a local resident, yelled at Hardin: “Why do you hate kids?” He added: “How else are you going to stop her from doing it again? She really didn’t show remorse for her action after being caught, so you’ve got to try something.”