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MOBILE, Ala. — A former Alabama judge was cleared Monday of charges accusing him of paddling and sexually abusing male inmates. Former Mobile County Circuit Judge Herman Thomas was found not guilty on seven counts after more than a week of testimony. A judge threw out the remaining 14 charges. Defense attorneys had painted the 48-year-old as a prominent civic leader who became a victim of felons lying about him to manipulate the court system. Prosecutors said Thomas brought 11 young male inmates to a private courthouse office and severely paddled their bare bottoms for sexual gratification. Some of the...

Spanking Lowers A Child's IQ, Researcher Says September 24, 2009 Being spanked as a child is linked to having a lower IQ, according to a study presented today at the International Conference on Violence, Abuse and Trauma in San Diego. The relationship between spanking and intelligence is found in children around the world, said the lead author of the study, University of New Hampshire professor Murray Straus. Children in the United States who were spanked had lower IQs -- by 2.8 to 5 points -- than those who were not spanked, Straus found. Straus studied 806 children ages 2 to...

Spanking can get kids to behave in a hurry, but new research suggests it can do more harm than good to their noggins. The study, involving hundreds of U.S. children, showed the more a child was spanked the lower his or her IQ compared with others. "All parents want smart children," said study researcher Murray Straus of the University of New Hampshire. "This research shows that avoiding spanking and correcting misbehavior in other ways can help that happen." One might ask, however, whether children who are spanked tend to come from backgrounds in which education opportunities are less or inherited...

A 31-year-old San Antonio police officer was indicted Wednesday on a child assault charge, the result of an investigation that lasted more than a year after he allegedly whipped his 9-year-old son. Patrolman Juan M. Delgado, a seven-year veteran of the Police Department, was initially being investigated for felony injury to a child, but grand jurors opted to indict him on a Class A misdemeanor assault charge, according to prosecutors. If convicted, Delgado faces up to a year in jail. Delgado agreed to surrender today during an arraignment set for this morning, prosecutors said. Meanwhile, the officer remains on administrative...

Wisconsin pastor has been charged with felony physical abuse of a child after he spanked his 12-year-old son for lying and a teacher notified social services. Barry W. Barnett Jr., 43, of Poynette, Wis., is free on a $10,000 bond, but he could face up to three years in prison and fines for disciplining his son, the local Portage Daily Register reported. At the pastor's hearing, Barnett's son said his father was right to spank him . "He gave me a chance to tell him the truth, and I just kept lying to him," the boy said. The boy said...

A noted child and family psychologist says spanking a child can be an effective form of discipline, despite a recent study that states otherwise. A new report titled "A Violent Education: Corporal Punishment of Children in U.S. Public Schools" shows that more than 200,000 children received corporal punishment in U.S. schools. Texas accounted for the majority of the cases, although 21 U.S. states allow the use of corporal punishment. The study was conducted by Humans Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union. According to a Reuters article on the study, "liberal groups regard corporal punishment as a barbaric relic...

An Ocoee police sergeant was arrested today after allegations that he pulled down a Seminole County woman's pants and spanked her with a belt at a party Monday night. Sgt. Thomas Maroney, an eight-year veteran, was charged with sexual battery, false imprisonment and battery, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office. He is being held at the Orange County Jail. . . The woman told deputies she was attending a party in an apartment with Maroney and other police officers when she left the apartment to speak with Maroney, said Sam Filler, the woman's attorney. At some point, Maroney threw...

A trial was scheduled Wednesday for an Elgin pastor accused of spanking a 12-year-old girl he thought had lied to him about being molested by a relative. The Rev. Daryl Bujak is set to face a jury starting Sept. 29, in what is expected to be up to a three-day trial in Kane County Judge Allen Anderson's courtroom. Bujak, 32, is accused of battery and failure to report a suspected sexual assault. He is free on bail and maintains he is not guilty of the allegations. The McHenry County girl first came to Bujak, a pastor at the First Missionary...

A police review shows that New Zealand's new anti-spanking law has not reduced the number of physical abuse cases against children, but it has deterred good parents from properly disciplining their children. The report is the result of a three month review that took place directly after the passing of the bill and a separate three month review which was initiated six months later. New Zealanders are today presenting parliament with a petition calling for the law to be struck down. Family First NZ National Director Bob McCoskrie explained that the police review, which shows an almost 300% jump in...

Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child is an axiom that Democratic Assemblywoman Sally Lieber apparently doesn’t recognize. She apparently believes that because spanking “Could Lead to” child abuse, that spanking should be done away with altogether. Let me ask you this Sally, Should every potential ‘gateway’ activity then be made illegal by our government? Should sugar be made illegal because it gives a child a buzz if too much is taken in, which ‘could then lead’ to a desire to experience more intense highs later on? Should alcohol be outlawed because it ‘could lead to’ a desire to use...

GOLDEN — A former day-camp instructor at a Lakewood recreation center was sentenced today to two years in jail with work release and up to a lifetime of intensively supervised probation for sexual assault on a child. Michael DiPalma, 33, of Centennial pleaded guilty in January to taking an 8-year-old boy into his car, driving to a nearby location and spanking his bare bottom. Prosecutor Matt Durkin told Jefferson County District Judge Jane Tidball that DiPalma selected the "smallest, youngest and quietest kid in class." DiPalma has refused to take responsibility, Durkin said, instead blaming the boy for "mouthy" behavior...

A nurse at a leading independent girls school was sacked after smacking her 10 year old son at home because he swore at her.

Spanking Raises Chances of Risky, Deviant Sexual Behavior Review found physical punishment of kids linked to unprotected, masochistic sex as adults By Amanda Gardner Posted 2/28/08 THURSDAY, Feb. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have uncovered another damaging consequence of spanking: risky sexual behaviors, or even sexual deviancy, when the child grows up. "This adds one more harmful side effect to spanking," said Murray Straus, a spanking expert who was expected to present the findings of four studies at the American Psychological Association's Summit on Violence and Abuse in Relationships in Bethesda, Md., on Thursday. Related News * Video: Health News...

Children who are spanked or given some form of physicial punishment by their parents may be more likely to have sexual problems as adults, a new study finds. An analysis of four studies by Murray Straus, co-director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire-Durham, found that children who suffer physical punishment in the form of spanking, hitting or slapping are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior as adults, it is reported by USA Today. The study, presented Thursday to the American Psychological Association, suggests that spanked children also are more likely to be "physically...

At lunch recently, a father of four who works in publishing told me he occasionally gives his children "a clip around the ear". The threat of minor violence, he said, was the fastest way to get his brood into the people carrier if they were all to get out of the house on time. It wasn't so much the fact that this otherwise modern thirtysomething father would slap his children that shocked me, but the fact that he spoke about it so openly. A decade ago, he might have been worried that I'd call social services - or at least...

LAKEWOOD, Colo. -- A former day camp teacher subcontracted by the city has pleaded guilty to sexual assault on a child for taking an 8-year-old student away from a Lakewood recreation center and spanking him 20 times. Michael DiPalma pleaded guilty last Friday. His trial was to have started on Monday. Authorities said DiPalma was teaching a Lego class for children at the city's Link Recreation Center, 1295 S. Reed St., in July 2006 when he lured the boy into his car, drove to a nearby apartment parking lot. Police said he climbed in the back seat, pulled down the...

Gwyneth Paltrow has vowed to stay away from the US. The actress' Coldplay star husband Chris Martin was involved in a scuffle with a paparazzo last week shortly after Gwyneth left a New York hospital where she had been treated for a gastrointestinal problem. The Los Angeles-born star - who mainly lives in the UK now with her British spouse and their two children, daughter Apple and son Moses - was so shaken up by the incident she has decided not to go back to her home country unless she "absolutely has to". A source close to Gwyneth said: "She...

A Johnstown man accused of using a modified wooden paddle designed to inflict more pain in disciplining three young boys has been charged by city police with child endangerment and simple assault. City juvenile Officer Julie Wagner said the paddle used by Christopher Ellis had six holes drilled into it so air would not cushion it "when used for spanking, (thereby) creating more force." The boys – ages 5, 7 and 8 – were struck numerous times, leaving their buttocks cut and bleeding, police said. The imprint of the paddle and one its holes was visible a day later on...

They’re at it again. Apparently, Massachusetts legislators feel that the nanny state is just not overwhelming enough already. Or perhaps they believe that the term “nanny state” is meant to be taken literally. A Democratic legislator recently filed a bill in the state legislature banning spanking. No no, the bill isn’t designed to ban child abuse or truly injurious behavior – there are already plenty of laws on the books and social services to cover those situations. House Bill 3922 would presume guilty of child abuse and neglect any parent who spanks little Timmy on the behind for repeatedly putting...

A father-of-three will have to sign the sex offenders register for five years after getting his au-pair to dress in school uniform before spanking her. Damien McColgan, 38, a former British Transport police officer was given a two year community supervision order yesterday at Isleworth Crown Court, and told to attend sex offenders community group meetings. He was found guilty of sexual assault by a jury at Isleworth Crown Court last month after denying charges relating to a spanking incident involving the 17 year-old from Austria. But he admitted that when the youngster was late bringing his children home, he...

Should Parents Be Allowed To Spank Their Children? (POLL)

BOSTON -- Lawmakers on Beacon Hill are set to consider a proposed ban on spanking children in the commonwealth. NewsCenter 5's Shiba Russell reported that the issue is set for debate at a Statehouse hearing Wednesday morning. The Boston Herald reported that State Rep. Jay Kaufman filed the spanking ban petition at the request of an Arlington, Mass., nurse who wants Massachusetts to become the first state in the country to stop corporal punishment.

Parents who spank their kids - even in their own homes - would be slapped by the long arm of the law under an Arlington nurse’s proposal to make Massachusetts the first state in the nation to outlaw corporal punishment.

A teenage schoolboy was pulled around his classroom on a lead and spanked by a stripper after a birthday surprise blunder. The pupil's mum had ordered an agency to give her son a "surprise" on his 16th birthday - and the teacher had even agreed to film the prank. But it all went wrong when the unnamed company sent a stripper dressed as a policewoman instead of a "gorillagram" - in what it called a booking error.

Authorities are investigating allegations that now-suspended Mobile County Circuit Judge Herman Thomas periodically removed prisoners from Mobile County Metro Jail and spanked them in a room at the courthouse, according to courthouse sources involved in the inquiry. Once inside the room, according to the sources, the judge would ask the young men to drop their pants and prepare to be spanked with what they described as a wooden or fraternity-like paddle. These new allegations arise as Thomas prepares for an Oct. 29 ethics trial in Montgomery that could permanently remove him from the bench. When contacted by telephone Tuesday by...

FORT WORTH -- A Fort Worth police officer arrested last week on accusations he spanked the rear of a woman he caught engaging in sexual conduct in a car in Oakhurst Park was charged with official oppression. If convicted of that charge, a Class A misdemeanor, officer Craig Murrah faces up to one year in jail and a $4,000 fine. Prosecutor Kurt Stallings confirmed Thursday that Murrah had been officially charged but said the case will also be presented to a grand jury. Police have said that at about 1 a.m. on June 22, Murrah found a couple engaging in...

OTTAWA, June 19, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In response to a debate on spanking that took place yesterday before the Senate Committee of Human Rights (SCHR), the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada (IMFC) presented a research report indicating their disapproval of the proposed new legislation. The debated bill, S-207, would take out Section 43 of the Criminal Code (allowing spanking), thereby forbidding parents to spank their children, effectively making it criminal behaviour.  The IMFC report begins by outlining some of the evidence in favour of spanking. After Sweden outlawed it in 1979, for example, links were established between the...

A Sellersburg man was arrested and charged with battery for allegedly spanking his son with a leather belt. Sellersburg Police Department Deputy Chief Donnie Ross said the 7-year-old child’s mother called police Sunday night when he wouldn’t stop crying after suffering a spanking from his father, 46-year-old Ernest E. Haycraft of the 1900 block of Lincoln Drive. Haycraft told police the boy was being punished for purposely breaking one of his toys and that he only struck him “three or four times,” Ross said. Officers, however, arrested Haycraft after seeing a raised, red welt on the boy’s buttocks. “(The officers)...

FORT WORTH -- She says the paddlings began when she was in the sixth grade. Her family's pastor, the Rev. Sherman Clifton Allen, would order her to grab her ankles, she said, and he paddled her until her bottom turned purple. The woman, now 41, says she was punished if Allen was told that her room was messy, that she had made a bad grade or that she had committed some other infraction. In the beginning, the woman said, the pastor made her pull her dress tight. Later, he ordered her to drop her panties. Finally, she said he made...

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...

Paris Hilton is calling on her fans to help her stay out of jail - by endorsing an online petition they can sign. The desperate socialite, who was sentenced to serve 45 days in jail last week after violating terms of her 2006 drink-driving arrest, has teamed up with a pal called Joshua to urge fans to help her. In a post on her MySpace blog, Hilton, who is also asking California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to pardon her, writes, "My friend Joshua started this petition. Please help and sign it. I love you all!" The petition, which is addressed to...

MARYSVILLE Nancy L. Simpson told police her 12-year-old nephew was "being bad," so she spanked him with a wooden back scratcher wrapped in electrical tape while the boy's mother watched, court records state. The two women then left the screaming boy alone in Simpson's Marysville home and attended a parent-teacher conference on Nov. 9 at the Susquenita School District, the records state. The boy's screaming was so loud that neighbors called for help. He was admitted to the hospital with severely bruised buttocks, the records state. Simpson, 37, of the 400 block of Valley Street, was charged with simple assault...

ALBANY, Ore. - The arrest of an Albany pastor on assault charges stemming from the spanking of his son with a paddle has raised the issue of corporal discipline and child abuse. Pastor David Lee Fink of the Potter's House Christian Fellowship in Albany was charged with assault after police say his 17-year-old son called authorities to report an incident involving his younger brother and his father. Police say they found "extreme" red marks, welts and bruising on the buttocks, thighs and arm of Fink's 13-year-old son on Monday. Police took a 16-inch wooden paddle into evidence. The cracked paddle...

Prince George's County public schools officials are investigating an incident in which the aunt of a second-grader at a county charter school ordered him to remove his pants and underwear and whipped him in front of his teacher and classmates Friday. Kenneth Jones, principal of Turning Point Academy in Lanham, a charter school founded last year, acknowledged in a letter to the regional superintendent that the incident had taken place. Jones said the aunt would write a letter of apology to the parents of the students in the class. . . Prince George's schools spokesman John L. White said the...

The California Legislature won't be cracking down on spanking after all. Assemblywoman Sally Lieber has abandoned her plans to push for a legislative prohibition on parents spanking their children under age 4. Lieber, D-Mountain View, will introduce a bill Thursday morning that will target the use of physical force on children, but not spanking, an aide said.

By DAYNA WORCHEL Sunday, February 18, 2007 The centuries-old question of whether to use spanking as a form of discipline continues to challenge American parents and educators. And as they have for centuries, the answers remain varied and divided.In Austin, a legislator has proposed a ban on corporal punishment in public schools. In California, a lawmaker has proposed a ban on spanking children younger than 4. Already in Texas, children in foster care cannot be disciplined using physical punishment, according to Shari Pulliam, a spokeswoman for Child Protective Services. She said physical discipline crosses the line into abuse when there...

Critics of a proposed ban on spanking in California claimed victory Thursday after the lawmakers who sponsored the measure failed to introduce it in the California State Assembly for the second week in a row. Assemblywoman Sally Lieber of San Jose proposed the measure, which would make spanking a child under the age of four a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail, a $1,000 fine, or both. According to reports, Lieber was planning to introduce the bill no later than Thursday. When she didn't, pro-family groups, who had criticized the ban, claimed victory. "This home-invasion bill has...

Leigh Bailey will never forget the day her daughter, then 2, pulled her small hand away and darted into a busy street. Brakes screeched. Bailey ran to her. Then came the consequence. "I got her back to the sidewalk, I took her over my knee and spanked her and said, 'Don't ever, ever do that again.' " The Berkeley mother of two said that was one of very few times she has spanked her children. "To keep my daughter safe," she explained, "I had to make sure she knew it was wrong and dangerous." But was what Bailey did equally...

A resolution of support for Assemblywoman Sally Lieber's bill to ban spanking, from the Organization of Oafish Parents (OOPS): Whereas Assemblywoman Sally Lieber is a Democrat who represents much of Silicon Valley, and who is only the third woman since 1849 to serve as speaker pro tempore; and Whereas she is in her last term as an Assembly member, unless of course legislators persuade voters to get rid of term limits; and ...Whereas notwithstanding the existence of current laws against child abuse, Lieber has proposed a new state law that would prohibit parents from whacking, smacking, spanking or forcefully impacting...

(CBS 5 / KCBS) SAN FRANCISCO Do parents have the right to spank their children? It is a controversial issue, and while a Bay Area lawmaker wants it addressed in Sacramento -- a majority of those surveyed for a new CBS 5 poll expressed opposition to a spanking ban. In California, it's currently against the law for anyone but parents to spank a child. A proposed new law would make it illegal for them, too, if the child is 3 years old or younger. Assemblywoman Sally Lieber (D-Mountain View) wants the practice of swatting a child on the behind outlawed...

The CA State Legislature may soon take up a bill that would make it a misdemeanor for a parent to spank or slap a child younger than age 3, reports The Mercury News(San Jose). If adopted, the state will be the first to explicitly ban a form of discipline that many child psychologists – and parents - believe to be an effective form of discipline when used sparingly and does not escalate to physical abuse.Opponents of the proposed legislation point out that most spankings occur in the privacy of the home so enforcing the ban would be next to impossible....

Liberals are truly turning California into the Nanny State! State Assemblymember Sally Lieber (D) will be introducing a bill that would make it illegal for parents to spank their children. Read More...

SACRAMENTO — A new bill wants to outlaw parents from spanking their children. The assemblywoman sponsoring the measure wants to protect those who can't defend themselves, but is it taking governing too far? Spanking is a touchy issue for many people. Some use it. Others don't. An assemblywoman wants to ban all forms, even a slap on the hand. Speaker Pro Temp Sally Lieber plans to introduce a bill that would ban any form of spanking on kids less than three years old. That's includes spanking hands, faces or bottoms. Lieber said, "That would include slapping spanking smacking hitting punching,...

A North Carolina appeals court made a controversial ruling this week involving the corporal punishment. They said it's OK to spank your child -- even hit them with a belt -- as long as it does not cause serious injury. The ruling overturned a decision from a Pender County judge last year. The ruling stems from a case in which a 13-year-old boy told a Pender County social worker his father was beating him with a belt, causing bruises to his body. The case went to court where a judge convicted the father of child abuse. On Tuesday the North...

Link Only: One thing CEOs have in common: they were spanked as kids

Parenting: Anti-spanking crusades have triggered bans around the globe and are taking aim at the U.S.—but some defenders of spanking say that many parents do it unbiblically When Susan Lawrence sent away for a complimentary copy of Home School Digest three years ago, she never expected a life-altering shove toward activism. But an advertisement in the magazine for flexible nylon spanking rods propelled the Massachusetts mother to launch a full-on campaign against corporal punishment. She founded a website called Parenting in Jesus' Footsteps, encouraging parents to discard the methods of traditional Christian discipline in favor of simply modeling correct behavior....

Our enlightened schools: Ritalin replaces spankingAfter I read professor Judith Kleinfeld's report last week, exposing the feminist hoax of the early '90s that purported to show girls as disadvantaged in American schools, I discussed the matter with a friend who teaches "problem" children in a suburban Alberta system. The Kleinfeld report shows that the disadvantaged kids in American schools, as indisputably evidenced by dropout rates, university registrations and chronic behavioral problems, are not girls. They are boys. "How many of your 'problem' children are boys?" I asked my friend. Nearly all of them, he said. "How many of the problems...

First of three parts BETRAYAL OF TRUSTSunday, June 25, 2006 Betrayal of trust Attentive parents are best safeguard Monday, June 26, 2006 Six allegedly abused by coach say school officials share blame Abuser realizes his victims could wind up like him Tuesday, June 27, 2006 Background checks on coaches can help It comes down to a kid versus a respected adult Antonio DeJesus has no secrets left to hide, not behind prison bars and razor wire.  He readily admits seducing three boys. They were kids who trusted him, who looked up to him -- until he molested them.  DeJesus is...

The pastor of an Elgin church repeatedly spanked a teenage girl with a 3-foot piece of wood to make her stop making sex abuse allegations against a family member, police said today. The Rev. Daryl P. Bujak, 30, of Elgin, turned himself in to police Wednesday after authorities filed a misdemeanor battery charge against him stemming from the weekly beatings that occurred between March and May of 2005. Police now believe the 13-year-old McHenry County girl was telling the truth when she claimed a relative, Matthew Resh, molested her. Resh, 33, of Ingleside, was arrested this week on five counts...

See for example this thread first. A women spanked at work then went to a lawyer and sued. That fine gent won one point seven mill I'm sure that that will teach us all the meaning of 'her-ass-meant'...!