Charge Dismissed In Case Of Teacher Charged With Beating Son Over Game Of Hopscotch

This is precisely why parents should wait until they're not angry to punish their kids.. I think, and this goes for people in general as well, its best to deal with something when you're not seeing red.. I also believe a lot of parents wouldn't hit their kids at all if they gave themselves time to cool off and think.. Spanking is kind of a lazy solution when you think about it..

I am sure he does want to get on with his life. I totally agree with Minjofu….spanking is a lazy solution.

I think this father is totally full of shit. I agree with you that a cool-off period is always a good idea if you can manage it. But the fact is that no one needs to “punish” a child for FAILING TO HOP ON ONE FOOT CORRECTLY WHILE PLAYING HOPSCOTCH. That's why he hit him with a belt! So, his statement that he won't use corporal “punishment” again is not the sole issue. He clearly cannot control himself. Hit his kid over nothing, for being a little kid and not getting hopscotch exactly right. Total LOSER.

As long as the father does not face the fact that this was not a situation that needed “punishing of any kind,” he is a just a douchebag in need of anger management and swift kick in the ass, too…because he is in denial, which does NOT bode well for this not happening again.

He did not punish the kid over hopscotch, he punished the kid because the kid back-talked him. I do find it curious at all the calls to kill, maim, beat people featured on this site, and how people remark some kids that are put up on here did not have enough discipline, and how people long for the days of corporal punishment in schools as that's the issue with students getting away with murder in the classroom,,,but a father spanking his kid for mouthing off at him and he is Satan.

Whether or not you agree with corporal punishment or not, what this man did was not legally child abuse and was not a felony. Not even remotely close.

They've determined that he was punished for talking back to his dad. Was whipping him with a belt over the top? Yes. Remember there is a custody battle that this little boy is in the middle of… people are going to try to show the other parent in a bad light for their own gain. None of us know all the particulars.

I agree with Morbid 100%. People the key here is this is an on going custody battle. Mom help push this into something it was not. You keep dwelling on the hopscotch thing it wasn't true.

I think this father did the right thing. There is a big difference between abuse and discipline. Sorry, but sometimes a kid needs a spanking. You can only talk to a kid so much and than it turns into blah, blah, blah. I have tried the get down to a kids level and talk, I have tried the time out, and all the other stuff that “Super Nanny” wants you to try. Sometimes those things don't work. I remember when my daughter was in the 4th grade and the school called me to tell me that they were kicking her butt out of school for 3 days due to her mouthing off to 2 teachers. And yes, I spanked her, grounded her and talked to her about her actions. Needless to say this never happened again.

If I was him, I'd sue her for libel. She knew he didn't abuse that damn boy.

it is ultimately up to the parents how they choose to discipline their child, but i do not think that using a belt to whip a five year old's ass over mouthing off is appropriate.my sperm donor's favorite thing to use was a belt, and i got it as early as three years of age…..let me tell you what – i had no respect for him – only fear. there is a HUGE difference in the two, just as there is a HUGE difference between punishing your children and abusing them. i personally would not choose this method, however, that is me. as long as there was no bruising or tearing, then i guess it's none of my business whether or not this man should use corporal punishment, nor was what he did against the law.

i agree with you – it was not illegal, and in my opinion, more investigation should have been done before this man was arrested. just because i do not agree with someone else's method of discipline does not mean it is wrong. it just means that i think he should have used his hand……and proudwife – i TOTALLY agree with you that sometimes a child needs a spanking, but i think that using an object to hit your child is nothing but wrong.

Even after the man was forced to go on air to explain his side of things, stating:

“If he continues to do it and doesn't listen to me, not mind what I tell him to do, argue with me and telling me he will not do it, then I make the threat of spanking him,” Robison said. “If that doesn't do it, I actually follow through with the spanking.”

Wow, what a monster.

Well my child is taught both. He doesn't understand the concept of respect as a toddler. Hell he might not understand it until he is a preteen. But he will fear the consequences of his actions in the mean time.

sorry – we will have to agree to disagree on this.i guess maybe i just remember what it was like to fear my father coming home and would not wish that on my worst enemy, much less my child. i am sure that you have wonderful children, and i am not trying to impose my will on anyone – to each their own.just because i would not personally do something a certain way does not mean that that way is “wrong”. please excuse me if that was how my post sounded – i was only stating my opinion……

If the TRUTH were reported in the first place, nobody here would be arguing. It's despicable for them to use their child as a pawn in their divorce. Children need discipline, and there are better ways to do it.
The mother of the child should have to make a public apology to her ex and her son.

LOL whoa, I am not the one who needs to relax.

if you didn't want your business discussed why make it apart of your comments?

I don't recall myself being in any way disrespectful to you. But if you took it offensively I apologize. I realize that must be a sore subject for you. But like I said this wasn't the wisest place to bring it up.

Also, I can remember MANY whoopins that I felt I didn't deserved. That is what inspires me to be a better parent. But to each their own.

Like I said in the forums, this is just one more reason why, if you opt for corporal punishment, you shouldn't involve an object, be it a belt, a switch, a shoe, etc. Fair or not, right or not, it's going to make it that much easier for the punishment to be interpreted as abuse.

That said, while I support a parent's right to spank, it's pretty archaic. Research shows that it is not particularly effective punishment. Hight risk, low reward, ultimately. Of course, I am speaking generally. I've always felt that there's a handful of kids who just don't learn without an ass whoopin'.

I'm surprised, with the initial report being made by an ex-wife, a little more scrutiny wasn't applied. Not to say ex-wives aren't trustworthy, but if there were to ever be a motive to exaggerate abuse, an ex-wife with shared custody would have it.

I think spanking are like a lot of things, to little is no good and neither is to much. I think each and every situation is different also so to have blanket ideas of what is the right way and wrong way is naive. As kids I carried a lot more spankings than my younger brother, because I was more likely to deserve them! My brother would honestly tear up if he new my parents were upset with his behavior, even at a young age. I was not like this. I might tear up …. long enough to get them out of my face so I could get back to my shenanigans.

I'm not putting anyone here down because they had bad experiences from their childhood due to spankings, I am just offering the flip side to that sentiment. I think back to my spanking with appreciation as I see many peers fall to the wayside because they now lack the self control I attribute to my parents disciplining me as a child. Again, my point is some children may need spankings and some might not.

…And this is exactly why this next generation of children is made up of little brats who don't comprehend the consequences of their actions.

Yeah, some of our parents went over the top by beating us badly. But some did not, and as cognitive beings (like Shay mentioned), we do not *comprehend* what respect is until our thought processes are older. Our world, when we are little, is pretty black and white, and we test our parents all the time to see what we can get away with. If you teach a child that there are no bad consequences for a certain action (just lovey dovey “talking”), then you are planting the seeds of a person who will think that they can just test the waters of everything they encounter in the world without serious consequences.

Scenario: Your toddler wants to put his hand on the (hot) stove. You keep pushing his hand away, saying “No.” (even though he might not yet comprehend that). He keeps trying to put his hand on the stove and you keep pushing his hand away, saying no every time. He does this around 20 times before you finally either

1) spank him for not listening to you, and he cries his ass off, but finally stops trying to put his hand on the stove

or

2) he puts his hand on the stove and receives severe burns, ends up crying his ass off, YOU have to take his sorry ass to the hospital to treat the burns and THEN he finally stops trying to put his hand on the stove (and sometimes in cases like this, he might develop an extreme fear of the stove)

Which scenario would you prefer? Which one has less pain involved for the child?

Do you even know how many kids these days end up killing themselves (on purpose or by accident) because they're raised by parents who never taught them about severe consequences? Do you even read this website? How about MyDeathSpace.com? Kids kill themselves every day because they're taught (by parents and society) that no one is ever going to hurt them and they are just SO invincible. It's just…sad to see how things have changed since I was a child in the 80's.

Seems like you could use a backhand right now….. relax

“If me giving her a few swats in her lifetime teaches her to be respectful, and careful in the things you do in life, then I have done my job.”

It might teach her that. Or it might teach her to shut up and toe the line when someone hits her. And/or it might teach her that hitting people is what you do when you mean business. If she ever spends a significant amount on time on the ass end of an abusive relationship later in life, you'll know what lesson she learned. And if you get reports from her kindergarten (etc) about her hitting other children, you'll know that she learned that lesson, too. Other methods are preferable to the one you've chosen, despite any defenses that can be mounted in favor of striking children. In you case, I hope it works out like you think it will.

But make no mistake in your thinking you are simply teaching her whatever you think you are teaching her. No matter what other lessons she may take in from your “swattings,” you ARE teaching her that HITTING is a reasonable solution to problems. Sorry if that bursts your bubble about the Utopian greatness of spanking, but that's just the way it is. And while you may be able to construct a fantasy in your mind about how spanking is different from other kinds of hitting, there's no actual difference, even if there's a gradation level of severity–and certainly there is no difference in the child's mind. That's why spanking “works”; is it worth it, though? For lots of people, yes. What a shame.

Hitting a child with a belt is UNACCEPTABLE for ANY reason.

But I guess hitting a defenseless toddler with a belt helps this guy feel like a real man. Pathetic.

From being hit with a belt you learned to hit your children. Lesson learned. Say what you will about it, the fact is that instead of learning lessons about how to inculcate desirable behaviors without violence, that is the lesson you learned.

Just so long as you know it's not the only thing being learned. Parenting is the hardest thing in the world, and I know it, but that doesn't change this fact (even though I'm sure I sound rather dramatic).

Read. The kid told the detective, and the detective testified that it was about hopscotch. This is a 4 year old. Probably not a real skilled liar.

THE CHILD TOLD THIS TO THE DETECTIVE. Damn, that little boy must be a pretty convincing liar. Sorry, but unless I have proof that the kid is a skilled liar, I believe the kid, not the person who admitted whipping the kid with a belt. And the father's own statements should give you pause.

The father said:

“It's his verbal arguing with me, acting like at 5 years old he's equal to me, telling me I can't make him do stuff,” Robison said.

If you put that with the kid's (not the wife's) OWN statement, it would seem what he was trying to “make” him do was keep playing hopscotch when he was too tired to keep at it. That is what the kid told the detective.

Also, the father said the bruising on his son's side was not caused by the spanking, but by an accident at the pool earlier that week. “The bruising on his side was there before I started spanking him,” Robison testified. That's good. Hit a kid with bruises. Real nice.

Fuck this dad.

I'm sure you're not heavy-handed, and I understand where you're coming from, too. Decisions about punishment are part of how children are raised and are part of the lessons they learn, so it pays to be truly thoughtful about it. Unintended consequences can ensue, and the consequences can vary. For instance, a child who gets in trouble for smacking another child at school is typically one who has learned that hitting is what you do when words don't seem to be working; often, they learned this lesson while the parent was trying to teach them something else entirely.

So, as I say, I just think thoughtfulness is important. You always think about things deeply, and not shallowly, as I know from your posts. But most people who avow the wonders of spanking do not.

I have never hit my child with a belt. It's very rare if ever that I have had to spank my child. And, yes, I did learn alot from being spanked as a child. I learned right from wrong, I learn respect, I learn how to be a responsiable adult. I do believe the las time my child had to be spanked was when she was 11? She is now 14. From being spanked when I was a child I learned that I better not do whatever it was that I did again because my ass was on fire.

That article also says this:

“Robison, 46, who shares custody of the boy and his 8-year-old sister with his ex-wife, testified that he is strict with the children because he feels his wife is too lenient.”

I realize the mother MIGHT be trying to alter the shared custody agreement, but you know what? Sometimes there's a good reason for that. If professionals and authorities in the case agree that his “training methods” suck, then they probably do suck (and their suckiness is apparent from the article I posted from above). They should have run it as a misdemeanor offense and not a felony one, that's my conclusion. And frankly I applaud the mother for bringing the boy to the hospital for his pool (or might I say alleged pool) injuries–if she knew how often the father was doling out these whippings, then she had every right to be concerned that he caused the bruises. My conclusion? Shitty dad, good mom. I hope he really did learn his lesson about hitting kids with belts throughout the day. If not, don't be surprised to see him here again.

I'm just waiting for the justice system to complete their assessment of this case. There was insufficient evidence for the charges filed. No new charges have been filed. In the meantime, I'm not going to try to determine who is in the wrong based on various statements reported in the media. I couldn't possibly.

I always, without fail, enjoy and learn from your posts! (And I probably give myself too much free rein in being strident and shrill, but what the hell.)

p.s. as far as laws go, it seems he did break laws, at least misdemeanor ones. This isn't a simple case where a kid got spanked because he kept trying to touch a hot stove (or backtalk his father). This particular father loves to dole this shit out–or at least he did. If he was convinced by this experience that he should stop hitting his kids all the time for shit like falling off a balance beam, then it's good that he was arrested. Seems like the only way for him to change his ways. So be it.

You may be right about it all, Morbid. I'm sure read more than anyone of the stuff out there. But I did read some of those articles, and watched a video appearance), and I did put things together and read between the lines. I do disagree with the beltage, yes, especially as a constant coping mechanism of the father's. But I don't think the fact of the fact that I don't lurve spankings or beltings as a disciplinary go-to is the whole issue. As to whether or not it's legally criminal in his state, aside from the level of a felony, it may or may not be. Regardless, basically, I just think he sucks. I guess it's that simple. Making his kid hop around the yard on one foot (or swim fast or walk on a balance beam) and then when the kid finally says “no! you can't make me!” he gets out the belt? And apparently this is a pattern with swimming, balance beam activities (weird), and more. So this business with hopscotch/hopping wasn't just about an understandable need for the kid to show respect. It's just lame. Jail-worthy, perhaps not. But still lame.

You're right, the shared custody that they have could well be a factor, true. The mother definitely could have ulterior motives, but I also think of all the stories on here about parents NOT reporting marks on children in situations where the other parent has been known to get physical consistently as a coping mode, and I have to wonder. At ate rate, I just hope he stops using physicality as a tool (whether by belt or hand) for every little thing. Because that WILL screw the kid up over time.

But, nevertheless, if the mom KNEW he did not cause the bruises or didn't have good reason to think he truly could have beaten him to that extent, that would then make her a huge and selfish asshole from hell for having done all this instead of asking for him to taking parenting classes.

Oh, well. In the end, I think your cyncism with this story just tends a different way from my cynicism on it: you think the mom is conniving and full of shit, and I think the dad is a secret serial killer who grew up pissing his bed, lighting fires, and torturing squirrels ; – P

“If, on the other hand, she'd responded to my curiosity by immediately spanking me, I would have perceived it as a random, senseless attack and would have retaliated appropriately. Nothing would have been gained.”

But that' not exactly the scenario I described. I didn't say that the scenario would involve a sudden, random attack/spank. The scenario was that the mother (or father, whatever you are) would keep telling this child “No” (and if you want to include “No, that's hot.” in there, you can) over and over again and it wouldn't sink in. It's the result of not listening to a verbal cue that was repeated after a bad/unwanted behavior was repeated that spawns the elevation in parental direction/cue (whether it be verbal or physical).

Of course, all children are individuals. So you, when you were two, were much more in tune with reason/logic than some other kids are. I was also one of those kids who listened to “No, that's hot”, so I never touched the stove either and was never whupped for it (and never got burned). But some other kids are pretty slow on the uptake and/or like to test the limits of their parents' patience and/or don't understand what the consequences of their actions could mean for them. That is why humans should tailor their parenting towards the child as an individual, rather than a blanket style (and I never, ever mean “beat the crap out of one child but not the other”).