Parental controls and dock modification
I created a test user, using the default settings.  "Prevent the Dock from being modified" was unchecked, and I left it that way.  This was the only way I found to adjust that setting.  

My original problem was not being able to create shortcuts on the desktop of the new user and I figured it was due to the dock settings.  I tried to adjust those and found that it was grayed out.  

With my test user (created with default settings) I was able to create shortcuts on the desktop like normal.  

I hope this helps if anyone has a similar problem.  

I haven't tested out this test user much, but I did notice that the new user with "Prevent the Dock from being modified" checked and grayed out had alot of bugs in it.  I might not use that user at all because of this.