Posted on 05/17/2007 10:55:00 PM PDT by Tom87
A woman who says she was spanked with a pingpong paddle is the latest person to file charges against a Baptist preacher in Culpeper.
Laura Beth Scott, 26, charged the Rev. Charles V. Shifflett with assault "with the intent to maim, disfigure, disable or kill."
It is the fifth charge brought this year against the former pastor of Calvary Baptist Church. All are related to Shifflett's former position as headmaster of the Calvary Baptist Academy, which was part of the church's outreach program.
Shifflett, who is no longer with the church, turned himself in about 9:30 a.m. yesterday and was released on a $2,500 secured bond later in the day.
According to court documents, Scott was 10 years old when the alleged incident happened sometime between Jan. 2 and March 31, 1990.
She accuses the preacher, acting as headmaster, of calling her into his office to find out if her sister was having sex and taking birth-control pills. Scott said when she told Shifflett she didn't know, he accused her of lying.
In the court documents, Scott accuses Shifflett of forcing her to stand with her hands on the end of a pew while he paddled her. When the first pingpong paddle broke, Scott alleges, the "pastor came back with another paddle."
Scott alleges that after "a few more minutes" of paddling, someone came into the sanctuary. She accuses Shifflett of then taking her into a hall and continuing the punishment, according to the court documents.
Scott's statement maintains the paddling stopped only when she insisted she had to go to the bathroom.
Scott said she "could barely sit" afterward. She said her father inspected her that night and found "red marks that looked like blood."
Scott said her father pulled her out of the small private Christian school the next day and enrolled her in public school. She said she now has nightmares about the incident.
Shifflett, 51, also faces two counts of child-endangerment and two counts of taking indecent liberties with a child. All were filed in mid-January and alleged that the incidents occurred between 1988 and 1993.
Shifflett resigned as pastor about four months ago over what he called a difference of opinion with church elders. He attributed the earlier charges to vindictiveness by some church members.
Misleading head line. He paddled a child, who is now a woman.
If only my dad had used ping pong paddles. What a blessing that would have been.
Ms. Scott’s father has a lot of explaining to do about why he didn’t go to police and press charges against this “preacher”.
Agreed. Very Misleading.
If she’s a hottie....NOT GUILTY.
Never mind, she was only 10 at the time. For making a stink about it now, she needs to be spanked.
2- Only parents should spank, and 10 is way too old for it.
3- Many spankers enjoy a sexual aspect, which makes them pseudo-pedophiles. And don't think that the child isn't instinctively aware of this... often consciously too.
Talk about cruel and unusual punishment !
I recommend an immediate ban on ping pong paddles.
I used to get the leather belt from my dad and the wooden spoon from my mom.
I have a 14 yr old, grounding does not work, restrictions do not work. The day I told him I would bring the house down around him, really got his attention, pronto. I do not tolerate lying, period. Fortunately for him, I did not have to do it, because he is bigger than I am. Since grounding & restrictions do not work, what do you suggest? I have considered grass drills, but DSS would surely be on their way.
What the hell? Where do you get this stuff, Opra?
Bummer with the out of control teen behavior.
When our first child was an infant, my wife and I attended a Systematic Training for Effective Parenting STEP course at our church. The behavior control techniques worked well, even many years later when they returned home as college students.
Perhaps this book is available at your local library.
God Bless and best wishes,
OLA
Call in the SWAT team on this one?
I now wish I had logged each time I was spanked by sister whats her name...I bet I wouldn’t need to worry about retirement funding....!!!
You really ought to lay off the dime store psychology books. Or are you implying that parents who spank are closet pedophiles? Gimme a break.
At some point menaingful discipline almost always takes on a physical form. Used sparingly, spanking is an effective means of establishing boundaries which otherwise would be ignored.
It is not a source of pleasure for the one administering the punishment.
It is not necessary for all children, but many.
I'm a great-grandpa.
I have seen what works and what doesn't, and most parents who have never spanked their child don't have to tell me. Better a swat on the butt now than prison later.
(Great-)Grandma would argue that no child is too old to spank--and none of the 'kids' push that--at any age.
“Scott said her father pulled her out of the small private Christian school the next day and enrolled her in public school. She said she now has nightmares about the incident.”
Public school did that to me, too.
Not to quibble, but I think the proper term would be crypto-pedophiles.
Sexual thrill? I have no doubt about that.
Correct. I was going to post that comment myself.
Carolyn
So spanking my six-year-old makes me a pedophile in your book? Great, I'll add you to the list of people that want to raise my children.
I hope you've been able to stay in the upstanding public school system, where the removal of the threat of corporal punishment has created a utopia of civilized behavior.
My oh My, What DRAMA. At least it wasn't a hickory switch or a specially crafted fiberglass paddle! (which my Jr High School coach carried in his back pocket)
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that just because you don’t get a sexual thrill from spanking your six-year-old doesn’t mean a male teacher wouldn’t get a thrill from spanking 15-year-old girls (especially with their skirts lifted).
Sorry you had to experience that, SoftballMom, that really sucks.
This is far far from spanking your own 6 year old for being naughty.
My parents used what we referred to as "The Board of Correction."
I can't tell you the name of the school because I don't remember it - but it was at a church/school about 1 mile from the Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta, Georgia. I was 8.
I took exception to the automatic linking of spanking with sexual perversity. Corporal punishment is not a de facto fetish.
Given your experience, which is heinous, I don’t blame you for being hypersensitive.
Corporal punishment is still legally on the books in Georgia public schools, and used rarely in the elementary schools. As a high school teacher, I have never heard of it happening, but I do know basically what happened.
Two children are sent to an administrator for discipline. Corporal punishment is an option. One parent elects for it, and is returned to class. The other parent refuses and is sent home for 3 days. Fair? Not really.
Not to mention the DFACS (child protection services) gets picky about this sort of thing.
As far as what happened to the woman, this is a private school and things like this happen. I would like to see that preacher/priest take one of the tough kids at my school and attempt to paddle them. He would not last long before being in the hospital or dead.
Perhaps if your "tough kids" had been put on their butts previously, they wouldn't be the problem they are now.
Youre not kiddin
I was spanked and paddled from the first through the ninth grade.
Maybe thats why i won’t send my kids to public or any mass skule.
She said. He said. Not guilty, on the preponderance.
Of course, if she's got video, that might be different.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.