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A 911 dispatcher in Watauga, Texas answered a mother's call about her out-of-control 12-year-old by asking whether officers should come to the house and shoot the girl, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and other news accounts of the April 2005 call.

The woman, identified in news reports only by her first name, Lori, said she had come home to find her two daughters fighting and that the younger girl, who she said has emotional problems, had kicked a hole in a door. When she told the call-taker the child was out of control, the dispatcher, Mike Forbess, replied, "OK. Do you want us to come over to shoot her?"

The mother fell silent for about five seconds before the call went on, according to the recording later released to the newspaper. Forbess told her he was joking and apologized while she was still on the line.

Forbess, who had worked as a dispatcher at the Watauga Department of Public Safety for five years, reported the exchange to his supervisor and later acknowledged it publicly. "I admit what I did," he told reporters. "It was stupid, it was inexcusable and I'm sorry."

The department issued Forbess two written reprimands. In a disciplinary letter, Chief David Van Laar wrote that "this type of response cannot be tolerated" and warned that "any future unprofessional responses while answering the 911 line will be cause for termination."

Lori said she considered the punishment too light. She told reporters the reprimand was "a slap in the face" and that it signaled her emergency "was not important enough" to be taken seriously.

Watauga is a suburb northeast of Fort Worth in Tarrant County. At the time the city ran its police, fire and emergency dispatch operations under a combined Department of Public Safety. No injuries were reported in the disturbance that prompted the call.