Little Haiti shop owner says he's justified in spanking teenage girl

Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel ^ | 12.29.03 | Diana Marrero

[mhking]

MIAMI -- The 13-year-old girl has a pretty face and a slight frame. But to Lonnie Grigsby, 52, her sweet appearance masks an unruly attitude.

Grigsby, who runs a mini-mart just blocks from the girl's middle school in Little Haiti, says the teenager sassed him one too many times this month.

So Grigsby took off his belt and gave the girl what he thought she needed: a "good whupping."

"She's beyond sassy; she's out of control," said Grigsby, who said he hit the girl after she called him a number of expletives and threw two coins at his head. "I bet her parents never gave her a whupping. She needed it."

Grigsby's actions landed him in jail and set off a firestorm of debate in a community divided by both generational and cultural differences when it comes to disciplining children.

[rbessenger]

The worst whipping I ever got as a kid was from the man across the street (I accidently shot him in the nose with a rubber tipped dart gun when he had told me several times not to point it at anything I did not intend to shoot. He was a prolific gun collector and was trying to teach me gun safety). I went home and told my mom expecting her to give him hell. She took me by the hand, took me back over there and whoopped me in front of him.

It used to be that every adult in the neighborhood looked after all of the kids and took a little responsibility in doling out discipline. No more.

[Khurkris]

...uh Huck...story is from Miami, Florida....USA.

[looscnnn]

He is most likely white and she was probably hispanic, that would make it racist. Haven't you figured this PC crap out yet?

Me neither.

[annyokie]

Spanking with other than an open hand is child abuse.

And, yes, my mother beat me with a belt, the buckle end.

[FormerLib]

Ultimately, it is the certainty of punishment, not the severity, that is most effective.
A "time-out" that consists of sitting with your chair facing a corner while the rest of the children are running around playing is pretty effective.

But I do have to laugh at the stupid yuppies at the grocery store saying "no-no" again and again as their little darling has a tantrum about not getting the candy that they want.

[Arpege92]

My hubby and I spanked our son when he needed it. He's eleven now and it's been a long long time since his last spanking....we give him the evil eye now. It works too!

[looscnnn]

Would you have gotten your butt beat if you had intended to shoot him with it?

Just kidding, I was raised that way too. Time outs/sending me to my room did not have any affect on me, I had a tv and games, etc. in my room. Spankings did not really work either, come to think of it. My dad broke one of those paddle ball paddles on my butt and I laughed at him, so he broke out a wooden spatula with a hole in it.

[trussell]

But Joseph's cousin, Nancy Joseph, said she would never hit her two children, much less someone else's child.

"Kids need to be disciplined, not spanked," she said.

I thought spanking was discipline. "Spare the rod, spoil the child". My children may be spoiled with love, and excessive material things, but they are brought up with discipline and knowing right from wrong.

I'm willing to bet that my children will avoid doing time.

[CyberCowboy777]

I agree in part.

First - this is Little Haiti, in Miami.

Second - I too have great concern about ANY adult being able to whoop ANY kid--including teen aged girls, on their own judgment.

BUT - We all know that the shopkeeper could have called the parents or the police and nothing would have been done about it.

And that is JUST as wrong.

If nobody will hold the child or the parents responsible, how long until vigilantism takes the matter into it's unforgiving hands?

[looscnnn]

Not quite, my wife is a dainty thing and needs to use a belt to get her point accross from time to time.

[go star go]

If he had hit my daughter I'd beat him to death with his own belt.

[SoftballMominVA]

Although I don't doubt that she may have needed a spanking in the past, 13 is way too old, even for your own child. Just ban her from the store and don't let her get under your skin. Striking a child that is not your own is a fast ticket to jail. Of course, I also believe that one day it will be illegal to spank your own child. Sad

[Jaded]

In some areas spanking with an open hand is considered abuse.

[Bon mots]

THE SAVAGE!

Whatever happened to the shoe or the hairbrush?

[looscnnn]

That would not have worked with me, I would have made shadow puppets, did the Oobie thing with my hands, picked my nose, picked at the carpet (would have gotten spanked for ruining the carpet), try to hit the shadows of the other kids. I was a creative person, still am. Love to push buttons, that caused the majority of discplines.

[looscnnn]

That look works for me, my wife can't seem to get it right. She is constantly screeching at the kids, I just look at them or start to get up and they obey.

[stylin_geek]

The funniest and saddest thing I ever witnessed in regards to liberal "time out punishment" occurred in a restaurant I was in.

A husband, wife, and their two children came in. The wife was obviously on her way to work, and her family sat down to eat. The oldest child, probably around 4, started whining about it being cold in the restaurant. Mom promptly started offering the kid stuff if he would be quiet (soda, oj, etc) Shortly after mom got kid to be quiet, the Dad started whining about it being cold in the restaurant. (I'm sure the youngest would have started, too, but he/she was not old enough to start talking.)

My point being, what are these parents teaching these children? Whine long enough, and you get something you want? As for Dad, what a wuss..yes, it was a little chilly, but my God, man, be a man.

[FITZ]

Some 52 year old, non-family-member hitting my daughter of that age??? Let's just say they'd better not try.

[50sDad]

"Oh, wicked, evil Zoot!"