Dozens of neighbors in the Minneapolis suburb of Fridley watched Monday evening as the distraught girl was made to pick up trash along the street as punishment for poor grades and failing to do her homework, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported. She had been outside for about a half-hour when police arrived after being alerted by a neighbor.

"When the officer found her she was crying and hysterical," Fridley police Lt. Mike Monsrud said. 

"They [the mother and boyfriend] told her if she didn't they would shave her head and put her on 'diaper duty,' which I guess meant running up and down the street and cleaning up trash as a form of public humiliation.

"Through the whole contact, and even on the way to jail, both were laughing and thinking it was ridiculous police would get involved in what they said was their parental decision."

Stephanie Ann Broten, 38, and Darnell Alan Landrum, 34, were arrested on suspicion of gross-misdemeanor malicious punishment of a child, the newspaper said. They were being held at the Anoka County jail Tuesday afternoon and formal charges were expected to be filed Wednesday, the newspaper said.

The girl and three younger children found at the woman's apartment were placed in foster care. (UPI)