Ban Lifted on 'Spanking' Trial Details

AP | 6/29/02

[kattracks]

ST. THOMAS, Ontario June 29 — A judge has lifted a ban on publishing details of the trial involving the right of social workers to remove children from their parents.

The so-called spanking trial involves a fundamentalist Christian family whose parents citing biblical teachings regularly discipline their seven children with belts, sticks, electric cords, clothes hangars and a broken metal fly swatter.

Social workers, backed by police, removed the children from the family home a year ago, setting off a case that attracted widespread attention due to video footage of the crying, struggling children being taken away.

A few weeks later, the children were returned to the parents. But the refusal of the parents to promise they would stop hitting them with objects brought on the trial.

In Canada, reasonable corporal punishment administered by parents or caretakers is legal, with the use of objects considered excessive. Several countries, including Israel, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, ban corporal punishment. In the United States, only Minnesota has restrictions against corporal punishment in the family, and 27 states ban it in schools.

At the trial, the judge imposed a sweeping publication ban of any details of the evidence to protect the children, all of whom are minors. On Friday, Ontario Superior Court Justice Thomas Granger threw out the publication ban on appeal by social welfare groups and media outlets.

Saturday newspapers and television broadcasts were filled with details from the case, such as evidence that the parents who cannot be identified to protect the identities of the children hit their offspring with various objects.

The family belongs to the Church of God, a Mennonite congregation that adheres to biblical teaching that calls for physical discipline using a rod or other implement.

To Church of God worshippers, the case amounts to discrimination for their beliefs. A Web site on the case it set up questioned how a country such as Canada could challenge its beliefs and practices.

During the trial, videotapes of interviews with the children showed them defending their parents, saying physical discipline was administered with love. In a May 2001 interview with the mother, a German speaker with little command of English, she said she hit the children with objects.

None of the children had marks or bruises when interviewed by social workers, but all said their parents hit them with a variety of objects.

In Aylmer, a rural community of 6,000 people about 90 miles southwest of Toronto, some people left to join other Church of God communities in the United States out of fear their children would be removed from the home.

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[ContraryMary]

My dad had a paddle for us kids. But electrical cords and hangers is going a bit too far.

[Illbay]

...regularly discipline their seven children with belts, sticks, electric cords, clothes hangars and a broken metal fly swatter.

Of course if you went after an ADULT with those things it'd be called "assault."

But a twisted reading of the Bible, and it miraculously turns into "proper discipline."

Here's hoping someone gets locked away for a very, very long time.

[LenS]

If they're not leaving marks, then does it really matter if they use an implement or a hand?

[elephantlips]

While not advocating any form of excessive punishment for children, I would compare the children of the era of punishment to today's spoiled, ego-centric, arrogant, bullying, self-indulgent brats.

[patton]

My mom spanked me with a hairbrush, when I was 7 years old. Should I sue her?

(Hint; I just bought her a house.)

[TaxPayer2000]

My dad used his belt. The school I attended had a paddle on a hook under the clock on the wall in every classroom. These paddles were just a reminder of what you got when sent to the priciples office. The paddles were taken down when I was in the fifth grade. The school shootings began about 7 years later. Coincidence???

[Rodney King]

Theres is nothing wrong with the rare little smack on the tush for a 3 or 4 year old. How anyone can hit their kids with an electrical cord or broken metal fly swatter is beyond me.

The fact that the kinds don't mind doesn't matter. You can beat the crap out of them and they will blame it on themselves and still cling to you until they are 15. That they trust and love you so is all the more reason why this kind of thing is evil.

[Illbay]

Y'know, it's interesting. I can only recall one occasion in which I was whipped so severely that it sticks with me to this day. It was when I was seven years old, my mother was a divorced mother of four, and very tired, and she just lost it with me.

The whipping was very severe; it truly was "child abuse." But I know my mother didn't mean to lose her temper with me. It was just one of those things, and as far as I can recall it was never repeated (note: She DID employ corporal punishment, but not to that extent).

But anyway, I don't spank my kids. I am EXTREMELY strict, and they get consequences, but not physical punishment.

To me, corporal punishment is the easy way out. Strict discipline by other means is tougher, because it's not "there and gone." If it is a grounding and extra chores, you have to be on them constantly to see the sentence through. It'd be easier to hit, and then go on.

I just don't believe in it. Marjorie Hinckley, the wife of Gordon B. Hinckley, the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, stated "You don't teach a child not to hit by hitting. We cannot expect to be respected if we treat others in demeaning ways."

I guess that reflects my belief.

[Eagle Eye]

We cannot expect to be respected if we treat others in demeaning ways."

Great words. Too great not to bring to this forum.

[patton]

In a lot of ways, I agree with you.

But I also have an adhd son, who the school wanted to put on drugs...I objected.

I got tough instead.

My Da' said, "don't act the drill seargent."

For this kid, it works.

[ThinkingMan]

My mom used to break wooden spoons over my butt. When she got tired of wasting those, the hairbrush became the tool of choice. (and no-there was nothing wrong with it- I deserved it!)