"The Walkway Pooh"

Let me give you a hypothetical situation...

You are walking along the road and see a pile of fresh dog crap on the side of the walkway. You think, "I'm going to go step in that." As you walk closer, you begin to smell it and it's bad. But, you decide, "I'm going to check it out anyway." You keep walking towards it and just plant your foot right in it. It sticks to your shoe and you begin to realize, "this is gross. It's sticking to my shoes, it won't come off and with every step I take, it follows me and gets everywhere. It stinks too." You get home, find a hose and clean it off. Finally, it's clean. You tell your mom and she says, "watch your step next time."

You leave the house and walk down another path. As you're walking, you see another pile of "pooh" along the walkway. What do you do? Make a "B" line right for it and plant your foot in it again.

What happens? It stinks, again. It gets messy, again. It follows you, again. You have to clean it up, again.

I use this as an analogy to an incident I dealt with yesterday and one that I frequently come into contact with. I have this kid on probation with me and he is the one stepping in the "pooh." He has so many supporters from so many different people. He gets advice to stay away from "the walkway pooh" but steps into it anyway. He has people to walk with him on the walkway and even those to help clean "the walkway pooh" off his shoes but he chooses not to listen.

Here's my issue. I don't really know when it's time to recommend not letting this kid walk on his own. He just keeps stepping in crap. I hate recommending that a kid needs to be taken from his family and put into a place where there is less "pooh." I hate to punish the parent too.