My thoughts? No way is someone else going to put their hands - or anything else - on my child!
Unfortunately, this mother stood by and "allowed" it, as she was in a position she felt as if she had no choice. In Georgia, corporal punishment is legal in schools. And, considering the facts that she's spent time in jail already for her son missing too much school (truancy) and the school called the police when she tried to take her son home to avoid the spanking, she gave in and allowed it.
According to her post on Facebook, the mother was told if she did not allow the paddling, her son would be suspended and if he was suspended, she would go to jail again for truancy.
Here's the video that mother, Shana Perez, captured while pretending to text:
That, in my opinion, is punishing her child physically without her consent. Perez absolutely did not give her consent, despite the fact that Jasper County School's Superintendent, Mike Newton, Ed.D said in a written statement that corporal punishment is used with parental consent.
I would not call be threatened and given an ultimatum - jail or we get to hit your child with a large wooden paddle - giving consent. On the contrary, correct me if I am wrong, but is that not a form of duress?
Someone is going to have to hogtie me to some alloy and cement before they get my permission to hit any of my children in any shape, fashion, or form, believe that!
The county sheriff also says nothing illegal has happened.
But, that's America for you! And, more specifically, the South.
I bet if the tables were turned and the principal video taped the mother paddling her son, and then called Child Protective Services and showed them the video, this would be an entirely different story. The mother would be criminalized and law enforcement would be singing a song of child abuse.
Immediately after the paddling incident, the principal is heard telling the mom not to console her child.
He Spit On a Teacher
Yes, he did. He was misbehaving. And he was way out of line. Even his mother says what he did was wrong. BUT it is up to Shana Perez to raise her child with the type of discipline she feels is best for him. She is his mother. It is up to CPS to decide whether she is a fit mother. Not the school's!
What was the principal trying to do? Teach the mother and the child a "lesson?" We know that was wrong!
What Needs to Happen Now?
Obviously, it is not going to happen, but this is what should happen.
The school should "listen" to the comments on Facebook and the news. Feel out how the pubic is reacting. It is not good, Superintendent Mike Newton. Your school was wrong and the least the mother deserves is an apology. The school's policy on corporal punishment seriously needs to be rethought, based on the observations of the outcries of parents publicly.
As for Shana Perez and your son...pull your son out of that school and put him somewhere else or home school him! He is acting out at school, and that tells you right there something is wrong. I am not dogging out teachers here, just saying that maybe it is not the right environment for him right now. Check out your options!
Weigh in, I know you are itching to say something!
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