All children are entrusted to adults — people who are charged with their care and protection. How then, does a mother stand idly by and watch her husband abuse her 24-month-old daughter because he claims she is ‘spoiled?” If indeed the child was “spoiled,” the parents or other caretakers are to blame, not the child.
A Pennsylvania man admitted repeatedly punching and kicking his wife’s 2-year-old daughter because he believed the girl was a spoiled princess who needed to be toughened up. ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania man admitted repeatedly punching and kicking his wife’s 2-year-old daughter because he believed the girl was a spoiled princess who needed to be toughened up.
Twenty-five-year-old Brandon Bishop pleaded guilty Wednesday to aggravated assault for a series of assaults between March and May.
Police say the abuse was reported by a relative who noticed the girl was limping and missing clumps of hair. Officers who interviewed Bishop say he told them he beat the girl to make her tougher.
Matthew Falk, a Lehigh County prosecutor, says Bishop made no effort to hide the abuse from his wife.
The girl’s mother, Candace Watts, pleaded guilty Wednesday to child endangerment and agreed to testify at Bishop’s Jan. 25 sentencing.
The couple got married a few days before their arrests in June.
No child should have to fear an adult in their own home or endure beatings of any sort. Corporal punishment inflicts physical violence and humiliation on the child, and is therefore unacceptable.
This leads me to ask, if the parents aren’t protecting the children, then who is? In this case, an astute observer noticed the child limping and reported it. This reminds me of how state child “protective” services removed little Adolph Hitler Campbell and his younger siblings from their parents, originally initiated as a result of the child’s name.
Removal of a child from his or her parents should be a last resort in cases where the child is in imminent danger. Sometimes I think people are so quick to advocate removal of a child because they disagree with the parents’ ideology — as in the case of the Campbells — even when such a move is not in the child’s best interest. At the same time, we see children who are abused, and even killed, and are never removed from the home. This cannot stand. Something must change.
Effects Of The Abuse
A parent who allows her child to knowingly endure abuse is endorsing that abuse, and in turn reinforcing the notion that physical violence is an acceptable and reasonable means to facilitate behavior modification. Not only does this have negative psychological effects, it leaves the individual ripe for authoritarian rule. As we’ve discussed before, children who bow down, become adults who bow down.
0 comments »