It’s one thing for a parent to spank their children — people make valid points both for and against the practice. However, having the cops come to supervise a spanking is another matter.
Two days before Christmas, an unnamed dad in Okeechobee County, Florida wanted to paddle his 12-year old daughter but didn’t feel comfortable doing it without police oversight so he called the Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office to come supervise, and yes,?the sheriff’s office sent a deputy to do just that. The father felt that his daughter had earned a spanking after getting into a war of words with her sister. He waited until the deputy arrived and administered the spanking with the deputy observing that everything was kosher. The deputy decided no law had been broken and went on his merry way.
In his incident report, the deputy wrote:
“[He] wanted me to stand by while he spanked her with the paddle. … I stood by as [he] spanked [her] 4 times on her buttocks. Since no crime had been committed, this case is closed.”
If that isn’t enough, the department says this is not a rare occurrence. Undersheriff Noel Stephen says he has personally supervised about a dozen spankings. Stephen told a reporter:
“It happens. It’s definitely not something we advertise to do, and even though law enforcement has been willing to help out in this situation, watching a parent discipline their child is something that’s done only when a deputy has no other calls to handle.”
Like all 50 states, Florida considers corporal punishment (spanking) as legal, as long as it is done by a parent or guardian and does not result in harm. A recent poll shows that 81% of Americans support spanking in at least some circumstances, though many parents are reluctant to spank for fear of legal repercussions. Another poll taken after the Adrian Peterson incident shows almost 70% of Americans approve of spanking as long as it does not involve an implement such as a belt, cane or switch.
On the other hand, many studies show that physical punishment leaves long-term psychological and emotional scars (not to mention physical), and promotes?a cycle of violence that can and does perpetuate itself into generations to come. As our own Autumn Alston noted in the above Liberal America article:
“…if the goal is to actually teach our children important morals and how to act in a civilized society, this method is not doing the job.”
Some countries such as Sweden,?have banned corporal punishment altogether.
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Naturally, Fox News had to weigh in?with three “parenting experts” addressing the issue on Fox and Friends Weekend. The comments were not as off-the-rails as you might expect. Stefanie Weiss noted:
“Calling the police? I’m sure the child was extremely mortified and embarrassed. Spanking a child and calling the police to watch them, is he trying to cover his tracks? … He must have really then thought that he had to spank the child that hard.”
After noting that cops have more pressing duties that supervising a spanking, Fox expert Scott Ventrella noted that many child-rearing experts believe spanking does not work. He also wondered if it was appropriate for a father to spank a daughter that old.
Jezebel’s Mark Shrayber shared his thoughts:
“My thought on this is that if you’re even worried that something you might do to your child could warrant legal action against you, you probably shouldn’t do it. You don’t have to call a police officer to supervise a timeout or any other myriad of punishments you can dole out without getting physical, so maybe let the idea that it’s cool to spank go.”
And SheKnows.com’s Maria Mora expressed outrage:
“On what planet is it not completely creepy for adults in positions of authority to come over to a home and watch children being hit by their parents? This sounds like something out of a dystopian young adult novel, not regular police proceedings. A 12-year-old girl shouldn’t be spanked on her butt by her father in the first place, let alone in front of another man. Talk about causing a warped sense of what authority figures should be allowed to do to your body.”
From a civil liberties and governmental standpoint, the Free Thought Project’s Mark Agorist made this pertinent observation:
“When people are so dependent upon the police state that they have to actually call and ask police to come over to their own house to supervise the discipline of their own child, there might be a problem.”
I won’t go heavily into my own personal and family experiences with corporal punishment. I have a close family member who was tortured and abused by her parents, far beyond the scope of any legal corporal punishment statutes. She did not perpetuate that violence onto her own children, a testimony to her remarkable strength of character. As for me, I can testify that a swift rap in the mouth is humiliating and leaves marks on the psyche that don’t go away.
You can watch the news report here, courtesy of WPBF-TV:
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Michael has been writing about politics, history and Web development since 2001. His first book is in development.
