Being a good parent

Sometimes being a good parent means being the bad guy! Right before Christmas our oldest did somethings that he shouldn't have done. He knew this and because he chose to go ahead and do them we took him down to the police station and turned him in. There really wasn't much they could do, but to give him a breath test, and all that did was give him a court date to go before a judge, So we thought.
We as parents were trying to save a good kid. I personally have dreaded this court date, not really knowing what to expect.
Yesterday was the big day. Big Josh took the day off because we just didn't know how it was going to go. We were hoping that the judge would be a little hard on our son, to teach him a lesson. What we got was not was I was expecting. It was a room full of kids and Probation officer teaching a class to the kids on why they shouldn't break the law. It went through criminal mischief, stealing, shop lifting, drinking and drugs. Also each child was assigned a fine. Ours was $200.00. So why on earth do you fine a child, they have no job and half of them are too young to have a job any ways. When I left yesterday I was beyond mad.
I have no faith in the Courts all they want is some easy money!! They forget that some people work and had to take time off to bring their kid up there in the first place.