If you’ve ever wondered what happened to the kid who wrote down the names of classmates who acted up when the teacher left the room, I think I know. That kid is still taking names, only now it's for some faceless bureaucracy.

The California officials in this Los Angeles Times article display all the intractable qualities of the hall monitor and all the benevolence of a classroom snitch under the guise of preserving law and order. Sound familiar?

Briefly: After being cleared of false charges of child abuse (brought by their own daughter, which makes you rethink becoming a parent, but that’s another tirade) the couple in this article tried to get removed from a California county’s child abuse registry and were told to contact the deputy who filed the original report.

But the detective said the complaint was “substantiated” at the time he filed it, so the county said, “Nyah, nyah,” their names could not be removed.

Of course, you’ll say, child abuse is intolerable. And I agree. But shouldn’t people, real people, say, with hearts (for mercy) and brains (for thinking) be in charge of keeping track of offenders?

Or are we becoming a nation of (cue scary music) Hall Monitors?