According to this news story, there is a move to outlaw spanking in California. Spanking is an interesting and controversial topic. When I Googled “Spanking” to find an illustration to go along with this piece, at least 99% of the images were of adults spanking each other. No cartoon images of children being spanked. Apparently, the soft porn of adult spanking far outweighs the child-discipline topic of spanking in interest via the internet.
I spanked my children when they were little. Not a lot, but when I felt their behavior merited a spanking. My daughter has never spanked her two young daughters. I wrote once about the time my daughter , in desperation, threatened to spank Sunshine, and Sunshine proceeded to stick out her rear and say, “Spank me! Spank me!” It was funny, although you wonder where she heard about spanking.
Now it appears that a California legislator is trying to outlaw spanking. Here’s the story.
Sphere: Related ContentSACRAMENTO, Calif. (Jan. 20) - California parents could face jail and a fine for spanking their young children under legislation a state lawmaker has promised to introduce next week.
Democratic Assemblywoman Sally Lieber said such a law is needed because spanking victimizes helpless children and breeds violence in society.
“I think it’s pretty hard to argue you need to beat a child,” Lieber said. “Is it OK to whip a 1-year-old or a 6-month-old or a newborn?”
Lieber said her proposal would make spanking, hitting and slapping a child under 4 years old a misdemeanor. Adults could face up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Aides to the assemblywoman said they are still working on a definition for spanking.
Some Republican lawmakers called the idea ridiculous. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he may be receptive to it even though he has concerns about how the ban would be enforced.
The governor said he and his wife, Maria Shriver, did not spank their four children and used alternative methods for discipline. For example, Schwarzenegger said they found it more effective to threaten to take away their children’s play time if they didn’t do school work.
“They hate that much more than getting spanked,” he told reporters Friday in Los Angeles.
California law permits spanking by parents unless the degree of force is excessive or not appropriate for the child’s age.
January 21st, 2007 at 9:59 am
Here we going spiraling downward again!
Spanking causes violence in children?
There may be some out there prone to violence due to being beaten, but the majority of those in prison today have never had a good spanking by a angry loving mother or father.
God help us!
January 22nd, 2007 at 8:56 pm
This is ridiculous! I am a believer in spanking… I was raised being spanked (not beaten) for improper behavior. I think this is whats wrong with todays kids… they need the shitty behavior knocked out of them…
January 25th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Does anyone ever look at how the world is getting worse by the day. How children disrespect their parents like crazy and are so out of control these days? Do they look at how parents had control over their children in the 80 and earlier times because they where spanked? Look and the generation of kids coming up right now that are not spanked and see how out of control they are.
I am 25 years old and grew up with spanking in our home and I will do the same with my children. the goverment might as well take and raise your kids them selves since they want to control everything you do.
I hate this subject because its so frustrating.
January 28th, 2007 at 3:20 am
They could learn a few things from Ohio.
Judge rules spanking of girl, 14, by man OK
By Sheila McLaughlin, The Cincinnati Enquirer
January 17, 2003
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MASON - A judge on Thursday acquitted a middle-aged psychologist of an assault charge for pulling down a 14-year-old girl’s pants and spanking her hard enough to cause bruises.
The prosecutor and children’s advocates expressed surprise at the decision in a corporal punishment case that raised questions about how far a nonparent can go in disciplining another person’s child.
Gary Freudenthal, 49, of Blue Ash, testified Thursday that he thought he had permission from previous conversations with the girl’s grandmother - her legal guardian - to discipline the child, who was a friend of his daughter.
On Aug. 31, Mr. Freudenthal, a single father, said he was upset because the girl was picked up by police the night before on drug and curfew violations when she was supposed to be spending the night at his house after attending a football game with his daughter.
So, he went to the grandmother’s Mason home about 9:30 a.m.walked into the girl’s bedroom after asking the grandmother where she was, took the girl out of bed, placed her over his knee and spanked her.
When the girl laughed, Mr. Freudenthal said he pulled her bikini bottoms down and administered another spanking. A police officer testified that the spanking caused bruising on the girls’ upper legs and buttocks.
“I spanked her hard enough so she could feel it … so it would sting, so she wouldn’t be able to sit down, so she would remember it,” Mr. Freudenthal testified. “She was so out of control.”
He said he hugged the girl after the spanking and told her, “I’m sorry it has come to this, but I want you to live.”
The girl’s grandmother said she did not give Mr. Freudenthal permission to strike the child, although she had discussed her granddaughter’s discipline problems with Mr. Freudenthal.
City Prosecutor Robert Peeler told Judge George Parker that the issue was clear-cut: “Did he commit an act where he caused or attempted to cause physical harm?” to the teen, which are the elements of a misdemeanor assault charge.
“This case was about whether a 49-year-old man has the right to go into someone else’s house and pull down the pants of the 14 year-old girl and strike her,” Mr. Peeler said after Judge Parker issued his verdict.
“It was undisputed there was physical harm. My position was that under any set of circumstances, (Mr. Freudenthal) crossed the line.”
Judge Parker alluded to a police report that included comments from the girl’s grandmother that the spanking was “appropriate.” The grandmother denied that statement from the witness stand.
Mr. Freudenthal said he was relieved by the verdict and insisted that he did nothing wrong.
“I was trying so hard to be there for this kid,” he said, adding that he felt he was acting in a parental capacity that day. “Parents should be free to do what is in their best perception to control their children.”
Yvette McGee Brown, president of the Center for Child and Family Advocacy in Columbus and a former domestic relations and juvenile judge in Franklin County, said she was puzzled by the verdict, given the circumstances of the case.
“It sounds like assault. There is no authority I’m aware of that gives someone who is not the parent the right to spank or hit the child,” she said.
However, if consent was clearly given, a judge or jury could lean toward acquitting the defendant, she said.
“You can’t hit a neighbor’s dog, so what was he doing hitting a teen-age girl?” said Nadine A. Block, executive director of the Center for Effective Discipline, a Columbus-based national organization that opposes corporal punishment.