Yahoo News - Earlier this month, Governor Jack
Markell passed a controversial Delaware bill--criminalizing the act
of recklessly or intentionally causing physical pain on a child.
Bill 234, sponsored by Delaware's Senate Majority
Leader Patricia Blevins, asserts that when a "person recklessly or
intentionally causes physical injury to a child through an act of abuse and/or
neglect of such child" it is considered third degree child abuse and a
class A misdemeanor.
The ambiguity of the definition of "physical
injury" has prompted the law to be unofficially dubbed a
"spanking ban" by some and has sparked debate over the state's right
to interfere with personal parenting practices.
But one of the bill's biggest proponents, Attorney General Beau Biden, son of Vice President Joe Biden, has been adamant that spanking isn't the target of the law. "This will not do anything to interfere with a parent's right or ability to parent as they see fit, but it also makes it clear that if you abuse a child in any way, shape or form, we're going to have a statute that we're going to be able to use to protect kids," he stated.
So why didn't they include a clause that protects parents who spank from prosecution? It's not that simple, Patricia Dailey-Lewis, of the Attorney General's Office, tells Delaware WBOC news. "If we said it's okay to spank your child, and then we have a child who ends up dead from spanking, well, gee, we didn't mean that, we didn't mean kill. We didn't mean break their arm. It's such a vague area."
But one of the bill's biggest proponents, Attorney General Beau Biden, son of Vice President Joe Biden, has been adamant that spanking isn't the target of the law. "This will not do anything to interfere with a parent's right or ability to parent as they see fit, but it also makes it clear that if you abuse a child in any way, shape or form, we're going to have a statute that we're going to be able to use to protect kids," he stated.
So why didn't they include a clause that protects parents who spank from prosecution? It's not that simple, Patricia Dailey-Lewis, of the Attorney General's Office, tells Delaware WBOC news. "If we said it's okay to spank your child, and then we have a child who ends up dead from spanking, well, gee, we didn't mean that, we didn't mean kill. We didn't mean break their arm. It's such a vague area."
"I can't say that no one's ever going to be
prosecuted," Dailey-Lewis continues, "Because like I told you, we
have children who have been spanked and have died from it."
In the wake of the backlash, the Attorney General's office plans to launch a campaign outlining exactly what's considered reasonable discipline, and to inform parents of their rights.
In the wake of the backlash, the Attorney General's office plans to launch a campaign outlining exactly what's considered reasonable discipline, and to inform parents of their rights.
Plain & simple:
Proverbs 13:24
He that spareth his rod hateth his
son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.
smh..maybe this guy is really concerned for the well-ware of children? It's says in the post that the bill (not a law) is vague and that the unofficial banner is "spanking ban". These people are doing what they think is right..which brings me to say that this particular scripture doesn't apply here...as they are of the world and therefore are not trying to be Biblically correct; however they are trying to be morally correct by protecting children from abuse.
ReplyDeleteChildren have been getting spanked for years...they will continue to get spanked for years to come. I think this is one we can let go. There are all types of laws against "abuse" people are going to continue to raise their children as they see fit-spankings included.