Suppose the parents were being real a**holes about this. Given that they were not detained long by the authorities upon arrival, nor is there any indication in the story that other passengers were questioned as witnesses, their behavior quite obviously fell far short of any criminal behavior conduct that might be associated with being an a**hole on a plane (e.g. disorderly conduct, terroristic threats, etc...).
So how big of an a**hole could they possibly have been?? What possibly could these parents have done to make the captain legitimately feel like they needed to be booted (and everyone else inconvenienced) if their behavior didn't even warrant a suspicion of criminality?
I ask this as a legitimate question to those saying we didn't get the full story. I agree, but what possible story would be consistent with the facts as we know them, but also justify the captain's actions. I usually give the crew (and it could have been an FA who heavily influenced the Capt's decision, so I don't think he should automatically get the blame) the benefit of the doubt, but I am struggling to come up with reasonable scenarios here, even though my first instinct on reading the complaint was that the parents seem annoying and self-righteous (yeah, I'm sure extra "the carbon footprint" of the flight kept them up at night).