You be the judge…
A mother in Texas who got arrested after spanking her toddler received five years’ probation and a stern lecture from the judge this week, reports KZTV. “You don’t spank children today,” District Court Judge Jose Longoria told Rosalina Gonzales. “In the old days, maybe we got spanked, but there was a different quarrel. You don’t spank children. You understand?” Gonzales, who also must attend parenting classes in Corpus Christi and pay a $50 fine to a children’s center, responded, “Yes, sir.”
Police arrested her on charges of causing injury to a child in December, after the almost-2-year-old girl’s grandmother notice red marks on her rear and took her to a hospital to be checked out. Prosecutors described it as “pretty simple, straightforward spanking case,” reports WVLT-TV. Gonzales has lost custody of the girl and her two other children, though it’s not clear whether the spanking charges figured into that.
Hawaii: Court allows ‘parental discipline’ defense
The State Supreme Court ruled 3 to 2 that a man convicted of punching his stepson should have been allowed to raise parental discipline as a defense. The decision allows for Cedric Kikuta to be retried because the trial judge refused to allow jurors to consider the defense that he was disciplining the 14-year-old boy. The trial judge had rejected the defense because the boy’s nose was broken by Mr. Kikuta, who wanted him to clean a carpet stain.
(Newser) – A mother in Texas who got arrested after spanking her toddler received five years’ probation and a stern lecture from the judge this week, reports KZTV. “You don’t spank children today,” District Court Judge Jose Longoria told Rosalina Gonzales. “In the old days, maybe we got spanked, but there was a different quarrel. You don’t spank children. You understand?” Gonzales, who also must attend parenting classes in Corpus Christi and pay a $50 fine to a children’s center, responded, “Yes, sir.”
