Spank Your Toddler, Go to Jail
She doesn't have any children, but she wants to make spanking a crime. The California Assemblywoman, Sally Leiber, introduced the Child Abuse and Infant/Toddler Protection Bill, and has decided to abandon the proposal citing mass ridicule of the legislation. Although the bill makes criminal obvious acts of child abuse, it would also make spanking a child under 4 years old a misdemeanor. It would ban spanking children 3 years old and younger. That would make the terrible twos even more terrible.
Critics say the bill would be difficult to enforce. Gov. Schwarzenegger, when first hearing of the bill, asked the obvious question, "How do you enforce that?" Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, a Republican from Irvine, said, "To me, this is symptomatic of this nonstop trend toward a nanny state." This has consistently been the criticism of such legislation.
At present, numerous child abuse laws are on the books in California, but Leiber has found support from Lois Weithorn, who teaches family law at University of California's Hastings College of the Law. She claims there is room for "subjectivity" on the definition of abuse, "Most jurisdictions do not sanction parents for coporal punishment that doesn't result in physical injury."
We're grateful that was meager support for the legislation, but you can bet Leiber and others will return to promote modified versions of the bill. I'm sure she hopes to get it done before she gets recalled.
Critics say the bill would be difficult to enforce. Gov. Schwarzenegger, when first hearing of the bill, asked the obvious question, "How do you enforce that?" Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, a Republican from Irvine, said, "To me, this is symptomatic of this nonstop trend toward a nanny state." This has consistently been the criticism of such legislation.
At present, numerous child abuse laws are on the books in California, but Leiber has found support from Lois Weithorn, who teaches family law at University of California's Hastings College of the Law. She claims there is room for "subjectivity" on the definition of abuse, "Most jurisdictions do not sanction parents for coporal punishment that doesn't result in physical injury."
We're grateful that was meager support for the legislation, but you can bet Leiber and others will return to promote modified versions of the bill. I'm sure she hopes to get it done before she gets recalled.
