DiscussMormonism.com

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7387029n

CNN commentators were pretty conclusive about this stating, "The judge should be disbarred and lose his license to practice law." I fully concur that the beating looks really harsh, but my question is what makes it illegal or legal? Is the term "reasonable" force determined by the court of public opinion for each case after the incident has occurred, or are parents given explicit rules to follow in what is acceptable in terms of corporal punishment ahead of time?

I've seen parents beat their kids like this a lot, especially in Latin America. It seemed wrong to me, but as I always understood it, that was the law and the way it was. To strip the judge of his law license because of public outrage over the video and not an explicit and detailed statute seems very similar to an ex post facto law. The rules should be clear, consistent, and the same for every parent, not full of stretch clauses and up to the immediate emotions of an oftentimes tyrannical and fickle majority. I've found the same people that would call this beating savage child abuse probably have no idea how bad it looks when they're doing the same thing to their children.

There is a major difference here. For most children there comes an age, at about 8 or 9, where spankings and beatings as a punishment stops and is instead replaced with time outs and other punishments. Why does this occur? Because for most parents corporal punishment is a tool to reprim children who aren't at the age and maturity level to truly comprehend what they have done wrong. You can't have a conversation with a 3 year old about why its not good to run away from you in the store or steal. You punish the with a beating because its sends a message that they can interpret and internalize. This girl in this video is 16. She is waaaaaaaaaaaay beyond the age where what was done to her was appropriate. that's why it was child abuse.

I agree with you that it is of no benefit spanking a 16 year old. But what is the law? I know a lot of people who do this. For instance, even in some high schools I once taught at, high school students are paddled. It's not immediate either. It takes a parent permission slip and the paddling probably doesn't even happen until a month after whatever the rule infraction was. It's stupid, but it is done in Florida public schools.

I think it's child abuse as well. But I think the law should be clearly and explicitly stated as you did in your post above if they're going to disbar this man from practicing law because of this. In many peoples minds, they probably think, this is how it was done when I was that age and so they're just repeat parenting. Right and wrong in the minds of people is very much shaped by their culture and we're a multicultural country. If we can't agree enough as a country to pass a law about it through the normal legislative process, we shouldn't be dealing out harsh punishments based on one faction of the country's interpretation of "reasonable."

I know a lot of people opined that this beating would be legal and acceptable if the teenager were a healthy boy as opposed to a girl with cerebral palsy. Would you agree with that?

Actually, the judge wont ever be criminally charges over the incident because the time limit in which the girl could have reported this has passed. He should and will lose his law license though because the BAR association can essentially do what ever they want to any lawyer for basically any reason. And despite what you may think, lawyers and attorneys hold themselves to a very VERY high standard of personal conduct, and what he did in that video is a clear violation of that.

And despite what you may think, lawyers and attorneys hold themselves to a very VERY high standard of personal conduct, and what he did in that video is a clear violation of that.

I have no problem with that as long as it's explicitly stated by the bar association that this is a violation of the rules. People do need to be explicitly told that what their parents did to them is now considered child abuse according to whatever ruling authority be it government or employer and unacceptable. Does the Texas legal bar association state the age at which spanking becomes defined as child abuse?

When I was in Jr. High school, my teacher made me wear gum on my nose if I was caught chewing it in her class. I just read a story about a teacher being fired for doing that in Florida. I wouldn't have thought it wrong, since that's how things always were. There was no public outrage when it happened in my day. Now there was. But public outrage shouldn't immediately determine what the rules are. Rules should be made clearly before they are enforced.

He should and will lose his law license though because the BAR association can essentially do what ever they want to any lawyer for basically any reason.

Does this include discriminating on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation or religious affiliation?

I ask because of case when I was in college. I knew an Asian girl whose father hit her with a cane when she got her first B. Now suppose the father were an attorney. Could a private entity like a State law board revoke his license for this or would that be off limits since it's a part of his culture and he could claim that was cultural discrimination?

TEXAS law

Abuse does not include reasonable discipline by a parent/guardian/managing or possessory conservator if child not exposed to substantial risk of harm. Family Code Sec. 261.001.[Ci.] Parent/stepparent/person standing in loco parentis to child is justified to use non-deadly force against a child under 18 when and to degree the actor reasonably believes necessary to discipline, or safeguard or promote child's welfare. Penal Sec. 9.61.[Cr.]

From my point of view the catch-all phrase of "non-deadly force" is ludicrous in the extreme but that's what the law states.

I find it much simpler in the countries I'm most familiar with (Canada and Sweden) that spanking is not considered justified and in Sweden is considered criminal, even by parents. The law doesn't dally in interpretation, it is forthright and clear.

Most states in the US allow corporal punishment. I doubt it can be empirically stated that corporal punishment is effective since I've never seen any study that shows that spanked children behave better than non-spanked children. Spanking is not formative, only punitive.

The law doesn't dally in interpretation, it is forthright and clear.

That's the main problem I see with U.S. law.