My sense is that the current law already covers it. What do you think?

Paddling debate shifts to the home

Bill would give parents the right to use corporal punishment on errant children
By MELANIE MARKLEY
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle



One Houston woman whipped her 14-year-old granddaughter with an extension cord after the girl left for school on a Friday and didn't return home until Sunday.

A Brazoria County minister used a belt to discipline his teenage daughter, and a Houston lawyer gave his 16-year-old daughter a swat with a board when she disobeyed and talked back to him.


All three cases of corporal punishment were investigated, either by police or Child Protective Services. In time, all were dismissed, though it took prolonged hearings and the help of attorneys to do it.


Eight years after Houston school officials curtailed paddling in the classroom, the debate is shifting to the home front, where a state legislator wants Texas to join other states in reinforcing the rights of parents to paddle their misbehaving children.


State Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, has filed a bill that gives parents the right to use corporal punishment for "the reasonable discipline" of their children.


"If your 14-year-old granddaughter leaves for school on Friday and doesn't come home until Sunday, you don't send her to timeout to get her to change her behavior," said Dutton, a father of seven and the attorney for the grandmother accused of abuse. "You've got to do something rather drastic."


Corporal punishment remains legal in all 50 states, though 28 of them, not including Texas, have banned the practice in schools. Although corporal punishment is not mentioned in Texas law, "reasonable discipline" is listed as an exception in the state's definition for child abuse, which is "a physical injury that results in substantial harm to the child."


National surveys show that parents are divided over the use of corporal punishment, though most admit they have physically disciplined their children at some time.


Those who support corporal punishment, including Dutton, often point to their own upbringing, saying the swats they got as children were well-deserved and kept them well-grounded.


Sheryl Marshall, the mother of an 11-year-old boy in Acres Homes, said parents need that option: "I believe that if I can do things to correct his behavior early on, then I will decrease his chances of being caught up in the justice system."


Many who oppose corporal punishment point to other ways to curb inappropriate behavior, including timeouts and taking away privileges. Hitting children, they say, only teaches violence.


"Why is it right to hit someone who is 3 feet tall, but it's not all right to hit someone who is 6 feet tall?" said Molly Carnes, a Cypress-Fairbanks mother of two who doesn't believe in spanking. "It doesn't compute in a society where we try to protect people from assault."



Divisions among experts
Researchers, too, are split on the subject. Some argue that corporal punishment is nothing short of child abuse and can lead to criminal behavior and depression. Others say occasional swats aren't harmful and can be effective.



Regardless of the debate, surveys indicate that corporal punishment is commonplace in many American homes.


Murray Straus, professor of sociology and co-director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire, said his last survey, compiled for a 1997 study, showed that 94 percent of toddlers nationwide had been physically punished by their parents, usually by hand-slapping or spanking.


The survey also found that more than one-fourth of parents physically disciplined their 5- to 12-year-old children with objects such as belts and paddles.


Because the paddling debate is so contentious, Dutton's bill is likely to draw loud objections. In the last session, when a similar bill he filed passed the House but not the Senate, he said he received about 4,000 angry e-mail messages.


Some of them came from members of the Houston-based Parents Opposed to Paddling Students, led by Jimmy Dunne.


Dunne, who actively fought to end corporal punishment in schools, said he is not trying to make it illegal for parents to paddle their children, as 11 European countries have done.


He said he thinks Dutton's bill undermines efforts to educate parents about alternatives to corporal punishment.


"I'm totally opposed to that," he said. "That would make parents feel like it's OK to whip their kids or encourage them to whip their kids, and we would have that much more child abuse. It's a very bad bill."



Some blame agencies
Dutton and others, including Houston attorney Chris Branson, argue that the law is needed because some agencies have been overzealous in going after parents who paddle and spank.



"There are those in CPS, and outside, for that matter, who believe that spanking is inherently violent and should be stopped," said Branson, who has started an organization called the Family Rights Foundation.


"The fact that the Legislature doesn't agree with them seems to be an inconvenience that they overlook as often as possible."


Diana Wilson, a supervisor with Child Protective Services in Harris County, said CPS does not tell parents that they can't use physical discipline, though foster parents are forbidden to spank.


When an abuse allegation is made, she said, investigators consider a number of factors, including the child's age, the severity and location of the injury ? if there is one ? and the family's history of conflicts.


For example, CPS did step in when a nurse reported a mother spanking her prematurely born baby in the hospital nursery. Such physical punishment, Wilson said, was clearly out of line.


"You try to consider everything before you make that final decision," Wilson said.


Texas is not the first state to debate the issue. Oklahoma approved a similar law in 1999, partly in response to the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colo.



Sending a message
Oklahoma's law orders the state's child welfare agency to stop all investigations of incidents that are "the result of the reasonable exercise of parental discipline ... including, but not limited to, spanking, switching or paddling."



In Texas, Dutton's bill, labeled House Bill 383, is not quite so specific. However, Dutton hopes it sends a message.


"We've got to help children understand that choices lead to consequences, and bad choices lead to bad consequences," said Dutton. "If you don't learn that at home, you have a difficult time out on the street."