– Mom and Dad Convicted of Assault After Spanking 14-Year-Old Daughter for ‘Sexting’:
Salmon Arm, CA — On February 14, 2015, parents caught their daughter sending nude photos of herself to a man over the internet, the mother and father reacted by spanking the 14-year-old girl’s buttocks.
Upon confiscating the cell phone used for the young girl’s sexting, the mother and father gave her a choice — you can either be grounded, or we can spank you — the teen chose the spanking.Using more than their hands, the British Columbia parents took turns doling out two to three spankings to her bottom with a miniature hockey stick and a jump rope on the outside of her clothing.The parents and the daughter agreed to have reached a mutual decision, and the 14-year-old girl returned to school the next day. The situation was resolved — or so they thought.When the 14-year-old went to school, her friends told the administrators what happened and in turn, the administrators called the cops.The mother and father were subsequently charged with assault with a weapon, and their case went to trial.
According to the Vancouver Sun,
The father testified during the trial that he had no clue that the law doesn’t allow corporal punishment or that he might be breaking the law when he spanked his daughter.
Judge Edmond de Walle said he was troubled by the father’s denial of the girl’s bruising as described by her friends and there was no evidence he looked at the girl’s injuries after the spanking.
In spite of the judge agreeing that any reasonable parent would be upset and concerned about their young daughter sending nude photos over the internet, he said that the use of spanking to educate the girl is simply not believable or acceptable.
“In this day and age, any reasonable parent would be concerned about a teenager sending nude pictures of him or herself via a cellphone or any other electronic device. The pitfalls and dangers of such activities are well-reported. Such behaviors can lead to bullying and even suicide,” de Walle wrote.
“To suggest that responding to such acts by a teenaged daughter (14 going on 15 years), by spanking her with an object, would be educative or corrective, is simply not believable or acceptable by any measure of current social consensus.”
When questioned as to why the parents used objects instead of their hands for the spanking, “He testified that the hand is used for compassion and love, not for discipline,” de Walle wrote.
This week, both parents were convicted of assault.
In the US, corporal punishment is legal in all 50 states.
The very idea that someone thinks they must ask permission from the state to discipline their child is despicable.
Although this author personally believes that the act of spanking teaches children that violence is okay in a loving relationship and is a causal factor in making children more aggressive later in life, the manner in which parents interact with their children, is personal and private, and most assuredly no matter of the state.
Obviously, causing grave physical harm to a child is child abuse, which can be argued as a separate issue.
However, the very idea that a person should have to rely on an institution, who owe their very existence to the monopoly they hold on the initiation of force, to supervise the private familial act of discipline, speaks volumes as to how much today’s society has aligned itself with the dystopian fictions of the past such as Huxley’s Brave New World, or Orwell’s 1984.
Although the parents have yet to be sentenced, which is scheduled for March, it is possible that they will serve time in jail. And, their 14-year-old daughter faces the possibility of living with foster parents. All the while, the state will refer to this procedure as ‘justice.’
What do you think? Do these parents deserve to be locked up for their actions? Sound off in the comments below.
Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world.