Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
If he had doctors notes, it would seem the absences would have been excused and she would not have been charged with truancy although states differ. In Texas, they sometimes pursue truancy even when a child is being treated by a doctor for serious illnesses.
I can't speak for the entire state of Georgia (where this incident took place) but in our district, a note from the parent submitted within 3 days of the child's return to school is enough to excuse an absence.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and speculate that the mother is now claiming all those absences were due to doctors appointments...yet for some reason she never had the sense to turn in a note before this?? Suspicious.
Build a bridge and get over it people. Maybe if the kid got spanked at home, he wouldn't need to be spanked at school. You gotta learn sometimes.
I believe spanking should be an option of last resort. A good bare hand/bare butt spanking can be all that is needed for years. My son who is now a young adult father was spanked very few times as a child. As a teen suggesting taking his car keys and making him ride the school bus only needed to be hinted at.
First, for a parent to say that they 'don't have a choice' in whether someone does something to their child is ridiculously stupid. As a parent, it is your right and DUTY to protect your child. If you're too dumb to understand that and are willing to allow someone to put their hands on your child without your permission, then you shouldn't be a parent in the first place. And no parent should be willing to allow their child to be harmed in any way in order to save themselves from some real or perceived consequences.
Second, why does this child have so many UNEXCUSED absences? If the child has a medical issue, then provide the requisite proof and don't put your child in a position where they could possibly be suspended or 'paddled' when he/she doesn't deserve it. Again, this woman doesn't seem like she should have a child at all.
I have no problem with the paddling punishment at all. God knows I received my fair share from my mother when I was a child and it didn't turn me into a serial killer. But it seems that this whole situation could have been avoided by the mother being a more capable parent.
Obviously there is a line one can cross in being too intense with discipline, but it's ridiculous where some draw that line nowadays. All they seem to care about is a child supposedly not having his/her feelings hurt. That child loses that right the minute they disobey their parent's or teacher's orders. To me, short of branding with an iron like we do to cows to "mark" them, whatever it takes to get a child to listen, you do it.
Our daughter is just shy of 9. I like for her to learn how to do things, but I like it done reasonably well without a lot of chaos. To wit, in feeding our dogs, I think she's old enough to help with that, but when it takes it upon herself to feed them on her own, she makes a huge mess of it, using way too much dog food and spilling it all over the ground vs getting it in the bowl. Then she'll leave the bag out where it becomes ruined by the elements, I typically have it in an old cooler for protection.
Anyway, I've told her NICELY that until this is no longer the case she was to no longer feed our dogs herself, she was to do it alongside of me. However, she'd had occasion to not obey me and do it anyway. I would gently remind her, GENTLY mind you, to again AS I'VE ALREADY TOLD YOU do not feed the animals on your own. One day she did it AGAIN. This time I fixed it. I scolded her harshly, she put the dog food back in the container, but then she could not pick up the heavy cinder block that I had on top of this storage container to keep the lid shut. Mind you, this is probably a 40-50 lbs cinder block. She kept trying to pick it up, and it was causing her grand anguish doing so, and she was screaming. I stood right there, watching, and refused to help, and even trash-talked her "oh you think you're grown huh, well go ahead, let's see it."
She FINALLY got it up there, upon which I knocked it off and made her do it again. She grunted and cried even more, I trash-talked her even more "think you're something don't you, going against my orders when you HAVE NO RIGHT TO DO THAT EVER!!!! Now you're paying the price, isn't this fun?" FINALLY she got it up there.
I knocked it off again.
This time, I intervened "do you want to keep doing things your way, or my way?" She said "your way," I quickly picked up the cinder block myself in barely a second and then I say "good answer, because doing things YOUR WAY and going against me is ALWAYS going to be unpleasant, and the next time I catch you near this dog food again it will be more of the same."
It hasn't happened again since.
Problem solved.
In the days since, she's been wonderful and we've been very loving in our relationship. Anyone who hears of this and says "oh poor girl, she's scarred for life," I say "phooey." She learned a lesson, and that lesson is, DO WHAT YOUR PARENTS SAY. A child has NO RIGHT to disobey their parents. I expect 100% obedience every single second of the day, ALWAYS. Is it going to be that perfect? No, but in EXPECTING it and standing up to it (and 99.7% of the time it doesn't look anything like this), I sure see to it that it's darn close to that, and no our children have not been scarred for life. "They'll grow up to hate you," probably not, but even if they do, that's on THEM, (a) for not obeying and bringing this all on themselves and (b) for not having the right attitude about it all. Short of floggings etc, your job as a child is to obey your parents, it is in fact the very reason you EXIST. Disobey, and short of floggings etc they are well within their rights to do whatever they have to do to fix the problem.
So don't tell me this woman can't straighten her brat out. All she's got to do is deliver a strong message about who the boss is around there and I can guarantee you all of this will end on a dime.
Let me guess. You were some kind of drill sergeant in this or a previous life?
I don't think it matters if the mom was a saint or a neglectful mom in this case. Really the bottom line is that under no circumstances should anyone from a school be using physical violence on a child for any reason whatsoever. I realize it is still legal, but it is barbaric and disgusting, and should be made ILLEGAL immediately. It is wrong, period.
Barbaric, disgusting, should be made illegal.... hmmm.....
The child is obviously a troublemaker. Moderator cut: delete
I wonder how many successful historical leaders suffered the fate of spanking at the hands of their parents?
Last edited by Miss Blue; 04-18-2016 at 03:36 PM..
Reason: Inappropriate comment
I watched the video and wish I hadn't. I'm not someone that gets upset easily but that made me sick to me stomach. I can't believe that such a thing is allowed in a civilised country. There are other, much more effective, ways of dealing with bad behaviour and the truancy should have triggered CPS investigation if they really were un-excused - how is jail going to help with that?
All I'm going to say is forced my ass.
I'd have picked up MY kid and walked right out.
I almost took on a massive aggressive off leash dog the other day on walk with my dogs. Some front office no one wouldn't scare me.
I watched the video and wish I hadn't. I'm not someone that gets upset easily but that made me sick to me stomach. I can't believe that such a thing is allowed in a civilised country. There are other, much more effective, ways of dealing with bad behaviour and the truancy should have triggered CPS investigation if they really were un-excused - how is jail going to help with that?
I cried. Having said that, mom saying I can't help you (or whatever, it was a few days ago and I can't watch it again), so I went to her Facebook page, there is so much wrong going on here. I suspect, from what I've seen, that the absences were truly unexcused and this is probably a mother who sometimes doesn't manage to get her child to school. The child is spitting and hitting (why he was being punished, not because of the absences), I agree 100% that paddling is not an effective way of dealing with that behavior, or any misbehavior of a 5 year old, but something is going on in that family. That child hardly has a chance in life.
I cried. Having said that, mom saying I can't help you (or whatever, it was a few days ago and I can't watch it again), so I went to her Facebook page, there is so much wrong going on here. I suspect, from what I've seen, that the absences were truly unexcused and this is probably a mother who sometimes doesn't manage to get her child to school. The child is spitting and hitting (why he was being punished, not because of the absences), I agree 100% that paddling is not an effective way of dealing with that behavior, or any misbehavior of a 5 year old, but something is going on in that family. That child hardly has a chance in life.
Definitely that family needs social worker involvement. That's what happens here if children miss school too much - she probably needs help, and her son needs help with managing his behaviour.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My son who is now a young adult father was spanked very few times as a child. As a teen suggesting taking his car keys and making him ride the school bus only needed to be hinted at.
hmmm..... 
