Posted on 06/30/2016 10:43:43 AM PDT by Ketill Frostbeard
An Arkansas woman was taken to jail for using a switch on her great-granddaughter, who she says was misbehaving.
Police say the girl has visible welts on her arm.
Norma Toussaint, 70, says she's not a bad person, but says she did pull a switch off her front hedges, stripped the leaves and used it to punish her 12-year-old great-granddaughter.
"I went back in the house and whooped her on her arm," Toussaint said.
Upset, the girl threatened to dial 911.
"I asked, I said, 'You want to call the police on me?' And she said, 'Yes.' I said, 'Call them then,'" Toussaint said.
At least four Hot Springs police officers showed up to the home Monday morning, KARK-TV reports. According to an incident report, Toussaint and the girl both told police it stemmed from the 12-year-old not throwing away food and talking back.
"I said, 'You gonna give me some lip by what you're not going to do?' They do this to you; they think they can do anything with it and get away with it," Toussaint said.
KARK reports hundreds of people disagree with the decision to arrest the grandmother, commenting on the Facebook post about the arrest. The most-liked comments include one who said, "She has learned that she can be a brat and the grandmother or any adult can't punish her!"
Another wrote, "I had a switch used on me so many times when I was young that it kept the trees pruned in the yard."
Yet another wrote, "Reading this article just angers me. She disciplined her granddaughter. That's it. This world is backwards."
Toussant said an officer told her she should have done it on the girl's bottom, but she says she's not going to do it again.
"I don't think I want to go to jail again, but she got to learn some kind of authority, you know what I'm saying?" Toussaint said.
The great-grandmother is now facing a felony domestic battery charge. A no-contact order was also filed against her. She has more than two dozen great grandchildren, a number of whom she has helped raise. The girl is staying with another relative in the meantime.
The family moved to Hot Springs when BJ was four. He graduated from Hot Springs High School.
Pretty dumb. I had to go cut the switch that my Mom would use. If there was no switch available, she’d use her shoe, or a 2x4 or any old thing that was handy.
Pretty easy to have welts when there’s a switch, but not as likely to do real damage - unlike the 2x4.
>It’s legal in Va to spank but if the cops or CPS get called in and there are marks, you’re going to be arrested and charged.
And, thus, a toothless punishment.
Up the ante grand-ma, go w/ the tazer next time...no marks.
My great grandmother was married at 17 for 62 years, her daughter was married at 17 for 50 years, my mom got married at 21 going on 34 years. So she was my great grandmother at like 56. We always called em country generations. I remember my great great grandmother...she only ever knew Creole french
When I was 22 I wanted to date a hot granny from Mississippi who was 35, so I told her I was 26 so she could comfort herself that only a single digit seperated us in years, not a double. Ahh, youth...
A dire need for Common Sense (Thomas Paine, 1776):SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.What we have here, precisely as with LBJ’s “Great” program, is exactly the conflation of “society” with government, distinctly to the the disadvantage of society.Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one . . .
Cops are punishers, not patrons. It’s their job; they are unsuited for any other. You can try to swat flies with a hammer, but you are unlikely to do any good and are certain to fix something in the house that wasn’t broken before.
I’m a grandmother @ 49. And he’s 3.
I was 19 when I had my youngest. My daughter was almost 27 when she had my grandson. I fail to see the shock factor here.
Sadly, I have to be up-to-date on what constitutes child abuse. The welts on her arms would be enough to justify a report. In former days, cops could let someone go by giving a bit of advice. Things are so over-controlled, so many small things are crimes, most of us are suffering through this unannouncd Depression era, that losing a livelihood is to be feared. Yeah, government, government, everywhere you turn, the government is watching.
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