Posted on 04/30/2005 6:19:34 AM PDT by holymoly
PLYMOUTH - A father who used a belt to spank his 12-year-old son over forgotten homework is facing a felony assault charge and an investigation by the state Department of Social Services.
Charles S. Enloe, 42, of 4 Cortelli Court, Plymouth, hit his son on the buttocks three times with a belt after the boy forgot his homework assignment at school, police said.
He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon.
Enloe said he was surprised at his arrest, but that he doesn't blame police for doing their job.
‘‘I never knew it would be considered assault with a deadly weapon,'' Enloe said. ‘‘And it shouldn't be. It shouldn't be a crime if it's discipline. I know there are parents out there that abuse their children, but I'm definitely not one of them. But police have to follow the letter of the law. My father was a police officer. I'm not angry at them, and I don't blame my son.''
Enloe said he hopes the courts will dismiss the charge after reviewing the facts. ‘‘I have no previous record,'' he said.
He said his son is still living with him despite the incident. He and the boy's mother are divorced, according to the police.
The mother obtained a restraining order against Enloe on her son's behalf, but the order was temporary and has expired, he said.
‘‘The incident got blown out of proportion,'' Enloe said.
Police Capt. Michael Botieri said officers have more leeway about arresting a parent for domestic violence when an open hand is used for spanking.
‘‘When a parent uses an instrument to discipline, it makes it more difficult for us,'' Botieri said. ‘‘The belt pushed this over the edge.''
The incident happened at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, and left no marks or bruises, according to police.
The Department of Social Services is investigating the complaint after its Cape Cod area office received a report of suspected abuse on Friday. DSS spokeswoman Denise Monteiro said the allegation was made by a person or agency required by law to report any suspected incident of child abuse. She would not identify the person.
Police, teachers, health care workers and clergy are all required to report cases of suspected abuse in Massachusetts.
Monteiro said the case is not considered an emergency and said the DSS has up to 10 days to investigate the report. Monteiro said the department usually interviews family members, the child's pediatrician, school officials, neighbors and others. ‘‘The allegations have to be met with evidence,'' she said.
The boy told police his father hit him with the belt for forgetting his homework, and said he would be hit six times wearing just his underwear if he forgot his homework again, police said.
Fearing the promised punishment, the boy called his mother Wednesday when he forgot his homework a second time, police said.
The boy and his mother, Diana Dematteo of Sandwich, reported the incident to police Wednesday.
Enloe told police he used the belt to ‘‘lightly'' strike the boy three times on the bottom for disciplinary reasons.
His son had improved academically since coming to live with him in March and he ‘‘acted out of love,'' the police report quotes Enloe as saying.
Enloe was arrested and charged at the station.
Enloe pleaded innocent Thursday to the charge and was released on his promise to return to court on June 1.
Monteiro, the DSS spokeswoman, said that under the Massachusetts corporal punishment law, it is not illegal for a guardian to strike a child physically or spank a child so long as the child isn't injured or ‘‘left with a bruise, bumps, cuts and you would also consider the frequency of the punishment.''
In 1997, the Rev. Donald Cobble of Woburn found himself thrust into the national spotlight when his then 9-year-old son, Judah, asked a teacher not to send a note home about his school behavior because he feared that Cobble would spank him with a belt, as he had done before.
The teacher contacted social service workers, who found that this form of discipline posed a ‘‘substantial risk of injury.'' But two years and $62,000 in legal fees later, Cobble's name was removed from the state registry of child abusers after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court exonerated him, saying that Judah suffered only temporary marks as a result of the spanking. The case was closed.
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I was taught a belt is better than the hand because the hand should always be used for giving love, and punishment should be done with an inanimate object.
I was schooled with a strap right across my back.
Four Yorkshire Men Skit in wav format ... be still my heart! One of the funniest bits I ever heard. Thanks Jonx6!
My mom lost custody about that age, and yes, she delivered two disciplary nightmares, and yes, she would have had the CPS on him if she thought she could cause him some problems.
This was over thirty years ago. Hell hath no fury...
Yeah, but it's a good idea, hard to argue a wooden spoon is a deadly weapon. I'd like to be the lawyer to defend that one.
Time out should be BEFORE they do something they'll regret later, something that's going to hurt them more than it hurts you.
Speaking of escalation and sharing funnies, you need to see post #35. :)
Looks like he wanted to be a grownup and then got treated as one.
And I bet he got off rather easier than any other man who would treat your wife in such a manner.
If you are still rebellious at 12 then you will more than likely end up society's problem ultimately unless you are very fortunate; luck has nothing to do with anything. If you are left to your own devices with no spiritual guidance in a bad environment and circle of friends with the same experience you don't have a lot going for you. This condition breeds Theodore Bundys or worse sociopaths. Tough love and a strong Father figure active in the family is what is needed. I am a strong advocate of Tough Love that runs counter to stupid liberal propaganda that ends up in all the wrong places. Societal misfits need Mr. Belt applied in tough love long enough to stimulate the Gludious Maximus and send a direct message to the Brain just like Jehovah God intented in the first place. Spare the rod and spoil the child is as valid now as it ever was. Don't blame society just go take a long look in the mirror. This is how problems are solved.
I didnt get any tough love.
I was shown what was right and wrong. It had nothing to do with tough love.
My brother was rebellious when he was 13 and 14, but that was the same time I was having issues when I was 15 and 16. But that was more because we were moving than anything else....
Who showed you Right from Wrong? Was your Dad your diciplinarian? Most adolecents & children need some form of tough love! Jehovah God designed the Family and put a man in charge. If not will you step up and be the diciplinarian in your own family or will you abdicate authority to a female figure of lesser authority and suffer the consequences?
actually it was my Mom more than my Dad.
Dad would sit down and talk with me. He would help me see the logic behind this and that or whatever.
My mom, the former MP, one time handcuffed me and my brother to show us what woudl happen if we did something stupid. at 8 and 6, it stuck....
As for the rest of that, I dont know. It depends. My uncle John had 7 kids and was away 85% of the time when his kids were young. All of them have turned out just fine, with families and careers and all that.
5-Year-Old Handcuffed By Florida Police On Camera
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1394137/posts
Yet we ask why.
I don't understand some wimmen.....and yes I know their are different circumstances... but I'd have given anything if my ex would have participated in adequately disciplining the kids. The job is to get the kids raised as best you can. If you focus on that....you'll find you have no time or energy to waste on vindictiveness.
I've spanked my son about 5 times -- and then just a quick swat on the rear -- 3 times for running away in public, one for refusing to go in "time out," then trying to bite me, and I forget the reason for the 5th, but it was some physical misbehavior, since I consider physical punishment only appropriate for physical misdeeds.
But the most effective punishment I ever gave him, to judge by how repentant he was, was when I told him that I was so angry with him that I wasn't going to read to him at bedtime.
Damnation! Both my mom and dad would've been serving life sentences...
You wouldn't happen to be one of my wife's siblings? Except for the paddle it sounds like her family. Nothing was more devastating than her father shaking his head and saying, "I am so disappointed in you."
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