Posted on 04/30/2005 6:19:34 AM PDT by holymoly
PLYMOUTH - A father who used a belt to spank his 12-year-old son over forgotten homework is facing a felony assault charge and an investigation by the state Department of Social Services.
Charles S. Enloe, 42, of 4 Cortelli Court, Plymouth, hit his son on the buttocks three times with a belt after the boy forgot his homework assignment at school, police said.
He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon.
Enloe said he was surprised at his arrest, but that he doesn't blame police for doing their job.
‘‘I never knew it would be considered assault with a deadly weapon,'' Enloe said. ‘‘And it shouldn't be. It shouldn't be a crime if it's discipline. I know there are parents out there that abuse their children, but I'm definitely not one of them. But police have to follow the letter of the law. My father was a police officer. I'm not angry at them, and I don't blame my son.''
Enloe said he hopes the courts will dismiss the charge after reviewing the facts. ‘‘I have no previous record,'' he said.
He said his son is still living with him despite the incident. He and the boy's mother are divorced, according to the police.
The mother obtained a restraining order against Enloe on her son's behalf, but the order was temporary and has expired, he said.
‘‘The incident got blown out of proportion,'' Enloe said.
Police Capt. Michael Botieri said officers have more leeway about arresting a parent for domestic violence when an open hand is used for spanking.
‘‘When a parent uses an instrument to discipline, it makes it more difficult for us,'' Botieri said. ‘‘The belt pushed this over the edge.''
The incident happened at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, and left no marks or bruises, according to police.
The Department of Social Services is investigating the complaint after its Cape Cod area office received a report of suspected abuse on Friday. DSS spokeswoman Denise Monteiro said the allegation was made by a person or agency required by law to report any suspected incident of child abuse. She would not identify the person.
Police, teachers, health care workers and clergy are all required to report cases of suspected abuse in Massachusetts.
Monteiro said the case is not considered an emergency and said the DSS has up to 10 days to investigate the report. Monteiro said the department usually interviews family members, the child's pediatrician, school officials, neighbors and others. ‘‘The allegations have to be met with evidence,'' she said.
The boy told police his father hit him with the belt for forgetting his homework, and said he would be hit six times wearing just his underwear if he forgot his homework again, police said.
Fearing the promised punishment, the boy called his mother Wednesday when he forgot his homework a second time, police said.
The boy and his mother, Diana Dematteo of Sandwich, reported the incident to police Wednesday.
Enloe told police he used the belt to ‘‘lightly'' strike the boy three times on the bottom for disciplinary reasons.
His son had improved academically since coming to live with him in March and he ‘‘acted out of love,'' the police report quotes Enloe as saying.
Enloe was arrested and charged at the station.
Enloe pleaded innocent Thursday to the charge and was released on his promise to return to court on June 1.
Monteiro, the DSS spokeswoman, said that under the Massachusetts corporal punishment law, it is not illegal for a guardian to strike a child physically or spank a child so long as the child isn't injured or ‘‘left with a bruise, bumps, cuts and you would also consider the frequency of the punishment.''
In 1997, the Rev. Donald Cobble of Woburn found himself thrust into the national spotlight when his then 9-year-old son, Judah, asked a teacher not to send a note home about his school behavior because he feared that Cobble would spank him with a belt, as he had done before.
The teacher contacted social service workers, who found that this form of discipline posed a ‘‘substantial risk of injury.'' But two years and $62,000 in legal fees later, Cobble's name was removed from the state registry of child abusers after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court exonerated him, saying that Judah suffered only temporary marks as a result of the spanking. The case was closed.
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RE 11
My thoughts exactly!
Amen. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Might as well just give up raising our kids and turn them over to the government. That is what they want, afterall.
An article like this makes me aware that this is why there are so many bratty kids today
If he's otherwise a decent kid, he needs positive reinforcement training at that age, and small "groundings" or other denials of priveleges for repeated idiocy.
The Mom needs some counseling about enablement. Seems she taught the boy he can rat out his Dad the next time he doesn't want to do his homework or disobey the rules....putting the authority in the hands of the child.... The article also states that the boy's grades improved when he went to live with his Dad.....who obviously disciplines him properly. Maybe Mom is jealous that she didn't do as well?
My father once gave me a richly deserved attitude adjustment (only one was needed) and it came in black & blue.
There were 9 brothers and 3 sisters in my family, mother worked at home raising us. very often dad had to work a night shift leaving her alone to fend against us the best she could. We lived in the country, had to entertain ourselves, often inciting our mother's hand of discipline.
You may recall those embroidered yardstic holders, she had one magnetized to the refridgerator. She wood have us lay over her kitchen stool and wail our asses.
We took that wooden yardstick, broke it up and burn it with the trash.
We discovered in it's place was a 4 ft steel ruler, this was very quickly spirited out of the house by us boys.
A 4 ft piece of 1/2 inch nylon rod was next.
We left that be since we recognized the pattern of escalation. ( we suspedted dad was involved in the procurement) Mom seldom had to use it. And when she did, we well deserved it
Just a funny story I thought I'd share.
Police states crush rights,
Spare the rod spoil the child,
Leftists rule the world.
As much as we need the police, there are some stupid cops.(Terri Schiavo and the 10 year old handcuffs) They can't separate book learned robotism with common sense. And to get protective services involved means this will plague Enloe foever.
My Mom used to spank me with a wooden spoon on my buttocks. I'd take the belt (which was my Dads choice of punishment) any day over the wooden spoon. They really sting!
that is kind of the way my parents went with me, although I didnt really start having big time issues until I was 15 and 16 and that was because we were moving and I wasnt exactly thrilled....
Actually, though corporal punishment should be reserved for incidents of deliberate defiance, not childish foolishness and forgetfulness.
well by the time I was 12, I was 5'10 and 200 lbs, so sometimes hitting me with something wasn't the best ideas for my parents.
of course, if I smarted off, my mother would slap the taste out of my mouth, and now I am only a smart@$$ to people I dont know :)
Eric Idle: Who'd a thought thirty years ago we'd all be sittin'
here drinking Chateau de Chassilier wine?
Michael Palin: Aye. In them days, we'd a' been glad to have the price of a cup
o' tea.
Graham Chapman: A cup ' COLD tea.
EI: Without milk or sugar.
Terry Gilliam: OR tea!
MP: In a filthy, cracked cup.
EI: We never used to have a cup. We used to have to drink out of a
rolled up newspaper.
GC: The best WE could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth.
TG: But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor.
MP: Aye. BECAUSE we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, "Money
doesn't buy you happiness."
EI: 'E was right. I was happier then and I had NOTHIN'. We used to
live in this tiiiny old house, with greaaaaat big holes in the roof.
GC: House? You were lucky to have a HOUSE! We used to live in one
room, all hundred and twenty-six of us, no furniture. Half the
floor was missing; we were all huddled together in one corner for
fear of FALLING!
TG: You were lucky to have a ROOM! *We* used to have to live in a
corridor!
MP: Ohhhh we used to DREAM of livin' in a corridor! Woulda' been a
palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish
tip. We got woken up every morning by having a load of rotting
fish dumped all over us! House!? Hmph.
EI: Well when I say "house" it was only a hole in the ground covered
by a piece of tarpolin, but it was a house to US.
GC: We were evicted from *our* hole in the ground; we had to go and
live in a lake!
TG: You were lucky to have a LAKE! There were a hundred and sixty
of us living in a small shoebox in the middle of the road.
MP: Cardboard box?
TG: Aye.
MP: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a brown paper bag in
a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six o'clock in the
morning, clean the bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down
mill for fourteen hours a day week in-week out. When we got home,
out Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt!
GC: Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at three o'clock in
the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of hot gravel, go to
work at the mill every day for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad
would beat us around the head and neck with a broken bottle, if we
were LUCKY!
TG: Well we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of the shoebox
at twelve o'clock at night, and LICK the road clean with our tongues.
We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel, worked twenty-four
hours a day at the mill for fourpence every six years, and when we
got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.
EI: Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night,
half an hour before I went to bed, (pause for laughter), eat a lump
of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill
owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home,
our Dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves
singing "Hallelujah."
MP: But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't
believe ya'.
ALL: Nope, nope..
My Mom, from Ireland, had a flat, wooden hairbrush. Dad used the belt. I have a 4 an 6 year old now and merely mentioning a "belt swat" sends them into tears. I've only used it once. Now, I don't know if I'll ever use it again. Thankfully, the 4 year old can't read and while the 6 year old is an incredible reader, she doesn't read FreeRepublic--yet. ;^)
Yep wooden spoon from Mom....size 13 tennis shoe from Pop...spoon was worse.
LMAO, assault with a deadly weapon, LOL, if that's the case, my father should be doing life in prison! IMO every child needs a good whack once in a while, keeps them on the straight road, I don't believe in "time outs" PC liberal cop out. Thanks dad!
IMO teddy's the one that should have had the lobotomy, Mary Jo would still be here.
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