Spanking Child With Wooden Spoon Not Child Abuse, Says State Court [View all]

[cali]

Last edited Sat Oct 12, 2013, 01:27 PM - Edit history (1)

A California state court ruled on Tuesday that a woman who spanked her daughter with a wooden spoon did not commit child abuse.

According to court documents, Veronica Gonzalez was labeled a child abuser by the Santa Clara County Department of Social Services after striking her 12-year-old daughter with a wooden spoon with enough force to leave visible bruises. However, the Sixth District Court of Appeal in San Jose overturned the ruling, writing, “we cannot say that the use of a wooden spoon to administer a spanking necessarily exceeds the bounds of reasonable parental discipline.”

Fox News reported the court said the spanking came close to abuse, but the Department of Social Services did not originally consider all of the circumstances, such as whether Gonzalez meant to inflict bruises.

According to court documents, Gonzalez and her husband were “gravely concerned about their daughter’s declining academic performance and alarming social tendencies.” The parents alleged that they found pictures and text messages with references to gang culture on her cell phone, and had “many discussions” about her behavioral changes.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/11/spanking-child-abuse_n_4086265.html

edited to add pnwmom's post in this thread:

The social worker responded properly. The fact that there were significant bruises supports the girl's initial story to the social worker, not the one she later changed to -- no doubt out of fear of and for her parents.

These abusive spankings were carried out by both parents at different times, but the mother is the one alleged to have used a spoon.

http://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/H038241.PDF

stated that her butt is very sore today and her friends asked what was wrong and she talked to them what happen , even though her parents told her to never tell anyone about the spanking. started to cry and said she was scared of causing more trouble for herself.” According to the social worker, Daughter attributed statements to Mother that “she needs to smack her with a spoon so it will hurt more.” Daughter also supposedly reported that when receiving the spanking, “she had to remove her clothes and bend over the bed.”5 Daughter reportedly “stated she is scared of and knows she needs to be good to avoid getting a smack, but sometimes she has a hard time.” The social worker also reported that Daughter “asked if she could stay her paternal grandmother tonight because she was scared to go home,” and that Daughter “ha thought about staying with her paternal grandmother because she seems to get along better with her and things are not so scary.”6