Summer camp bare-butt spankings legal in Texas?

[elehhhhna]

Summer camp bare-butt spankings legal in Texas?


Anybody else heard about this?

May 27, 2005


Gov. Rick Perry
PO Box 12428
Austin, TX 78711-2428

Dear Governor Perry,

Please veto the bill to allow camp counselors to give bare butt spankings to teen girls.

I'm sorry for the shocking introduction, but that is exactly what the "parental right to spank" bill will actually codify in Texas, since a key term in the bill was never defined. It could actually be broadly interpreted as taking away the parent's right to prevent a whole host of people, many with little actual contact or care for their child, the same exact right to spank that child that a parent would have.

In working on a website, www.nopaddle.com, about school paddling as physical abuse, sexual abuse, and sexual harassment, I've heard several stories from Texas women who were given bare butt spankings at church camps and other similar venues, including into teen years. None wanted to talk about it and none wanted it to go into print, even anonymously. This bill, more than anything, makes that "right" official, whereas before it would have been a pretty murky thing that might have been subject to lawsuits.

At the very least the governor could veto this bill and allow the Texas Legislature to more closely define this bill as applying to a legal guardian, and not to those with passing temporary custody.

Jeffrey L. Charles