Stunning and shocking are understatements in this situation, yet so appropriate.

A total of 43 children were blasted with stun guns as part of an "educational" program during visits at three state corrections facilities during "Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day," a state investigation revealed Friday.

What's more crazy is that in every case, the parents or grand parents gave permission to the guards to shock the crap out of their kids. It's no shock that three guards have been fired and two others resigned as part of the fallout of the April 23 incidents. Another 16 employees, including the warden at one of the jails, will receive some disciplinary action, said Department of Corrections Secretary Walt McNeil.

''I can't imagine what these officers were thinking to administer this device to children, nor can I imagine why any parent would allow them to do so,'' McNeil told the Miami Herald. "This must not happen again.''

We wonder is there a program for shocking some sense into the parents who authorized the use of stun guns on 8- and 9-year olds.

None of the children were seriously harmed by the stun guns, which is hard to believe considering the electric charge that is sent through the target's body is enough to make a grown man have to change his pants. McNeil said the stun-gun execise only happened at three of the 55 prisons, but acknowleged that stunning childen probably happened regularly.

The officers apparently don't get much of a chance to use the stun guns and probably had an itchy trigger finger. According to McNeil, the guns have not been used on any of the 100,000 inmates so far this year.

Now that's a shocker.