Posted on 06/17/2007 7:28:37 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3
A Sellersburg man was arrested and charged with battery for allegedly spanking his son with a leather belt.
Sellersburg Police Department Deputy Chief Donnie Ross said the 7-year-old child’s mother called police Sunday night when he wouldn’t stop crying after suffering a spanking from his father, 46-year-old Ernest E. Haycraft of the 1900 block of Lincoln Drive. Haycraft told police the boy was being punished for purposely breaking one of his toys and that he only struck him “three or four times,” Ross said.
Officers, however, arrested Haycraft after seeing a raised, red welt on the boy’s buttocks.
“(The officers) saw that it was bad enough abuse, and that he needed to be arrested,” Ross said of the incident.
Haycraft has never before been arrested by the Sellersburg Police Department, and Ross thought it to be “a singular incident that hasn’t happened in the past.”
The investigation has been turned over to Child Protective Services of Clark County. A phone call placed to that office Tuesday afternoon was not returned, but a spokeswoman did confirm that a caseworker was investigating the incident. Ross said officers took pictures of the boy’s injuries and submitted them to CPS.
Clark County Deputy Prosecutor Shelley Marble — who specializes in crimes against children — said these types of cases do come across her desk from time to time.
“I probably get about one or two of these (types of cases) a month,” she said from her office Tuesday afternoon.
The problem, she said, is that what police officers find to be probable cause for an arrest often isn’t enough for
prosecutors to get a conviction.
“If a mom whips a kid with a belt, and the kid says it happened and the mom says it happened but there are no marks, then that’s enough for (police) to substantiate inappropriate discipline, but not enough for us to file charges,” she said.
“These types of cases depend on a lot of different variables,” she continued. “You do have parents that are disciplining their child and then you have beating — there is a difference. You have to look at each case individually.”
Marble said she had not yet been informed of the charges preliminary filed against Haycraft and that she likely wouldn’t be until CPS completed its investigation.
Ross said Sellersburg police have, in the past, made similar arrests “where parents have, in our opinion, overreacted to misbehavior and gone above and beyond what we would consider normal discipline.”
“They don’t happen often, but they do happen,” he said.
“Belts, fly swats, hair brushes, you name it.”
Wire hangers? WIRE HANGERS?
“My 9th grade Algebra teacher had a frat paddle with big holes drilled in it.”
Our principal had one—it was called “the board of education.”
My wife used a wooden spoon. I used my hand, but I made them come to me to get it. I never went to get them,I called them and made them come to get it. Unless it was a major violation, only one swat. If they didnt come I waited till later when they forgot and they got double. They knew they were going to pay.
Oh yes, forgot about the wire hangers, yard sticks and switches cut from tree limbs.
I agree with the arrest.
Every principal's office had the required "board of education" back in my day. Used for both girls and boys, of course I didn't personally know. I remember even the Ag. teachers in high school had one and used it regularly.
If the mother thought the situation warranted bringing in the police, then I’ll take her word for it.
Pr 20:30 - The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil: so do stripes the inward parts of the belly.
“The blueness of the wound” refers to a bruise which may sometimes occur when using the rod on the buttocks or the meaty part of the back of the thigh. “Stripes,” of course, include those red welts.
This would make many American pastors diminish their teaching on child discipline. It will make us intensify ours.
What should the dead father be charged with when the kid burns down the house in the middle of the night?
I didn't see different names in the article. He may have been a proverbial rotten step-father who thinks he's a real dad.
That's the response I would expect from a government man. When in doubt, involve the government.
The boy broke a toy. One of his own, no less.
Well, I’m in at about 24 posts, and almost every one of them includes a reference to getting spanked at some time in their early lives. All turned out OK, and (at least in regards to participants in this thread) all turned out conservative.
Could that be part of what separates us from Dhimmis? Do libs share this experience or is it part of the fundamental breakdown in child development that twists libs into such rudderless “moral” relativists?
Doesn’t matter. If I thought my kid was being abused I would stop it or die trying.
I agree with both statements ... and that's the reason I'll back up the police officer for now. If the mom was upset enough to call police, she was probably upset while it was going on. Which to me indicates the father didn't care she was upset and was probably out of control.
I do believe in discipline and that physical discipline is sometimes warrented (and that there probably isn't a kid where physical discipline was never warranted.) But I also believe the parent has to be in control. To me that can often be the fine line between strong discipline and abuse -- the parent can not be out of control.
Although saying that, I'm reminded of an old Rosanne Barr line
"People say you should never hit your kids in anger. When should I hit them? When I'm happy with them?"
This marriage is doomed. Calling the cops on your husband under the guise of concern for a child who obviously will be fine ... wow, that must qualify for the textbooks.
Passive aggressive from hell.
Oh I agree, I’m not saying that real dads are entitled to “rage” or anything....
Did you ever have to cut your own switch for a spanking?
I hated that.
Been there, done that.
And, if you tried to play games by returning with some lame excuse for a switch, you were really going to get it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.