State Journal

When a Wisconsin 2nd grader returned school library materials that were damaged beyond repair, and repeated letters to his parents went unanswered, the school librarian proposed that the youngster work off the debt of $8.25.

The punishment—the student was to help out in the library during 15-minute morning recesses for 17 days—was a lesson in responsibility, Annette Eismann, the librarian at Maywood Elementary School in Monona, reasoned. She estimated that each session would pay off 50 cents in restitution. But the boy’s father, Larry Volkey Jr., called it forced labor and filed a complaint with state labor officials.

The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development ruled this month that the arrangement did...