Court Opinion

ID: 9515260
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:55:09.681577+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:06:27.082541
License: Public Domain

MEIERHENRY, Justice
(concurring specially).
[¶ 33.] In this case, we affirm an abuse and neglect determination based on a parent’s use of a belt to spank a child. The case of In re T.A. also affirmed a determination of abuse and neglect where a father spanked his child with a belt. 2003 SD 56, ¶¶ 2-11, 663 N.W.2d 225, 228-31. In that case, the spanking was unacceptable because the “[p]arents failed to intervene in any manner before resorting to spanking” and because no alternative discipline was attempted prior to the spanking. Id. ¶ 8. We also said that the evidence did not support the father’s claim that T.A. was “out of control.” Id. In addition, the spanking left bruising “on the child’s posterior, belt-line and arm.” Id. ¶ 9. Under the circumstances, the force was not reasonable in manner and moderate in degree under SDCL 22-18-5. Id.
[¶ 34.] This case, however, presents a different situation. Here, the child’s misbehavior leading up to the spanking started when she stole a music CD from a store. Mother required her to return the CD and apologize to the storeowners. Mother also grounded C.F. with loss of toys, television, candy, and treats. The child broke the rules by returning late from swimming and eating candy and pop-sicles. Additionally, the child scribbled on the carpet and walls of her room with a green marker. As a result, the child was directed to clean the markings and pick up the candy wrappers and other trash she *320had left on the floor of her closet and behind her bed. Failing to do so, she was admonished by her stepfather. According to Mother, the child’s crying and screaming and slamming doors got louder and louder. Mother testified, “C.F. was up there about five minutes or so, she was still screaming and slamming doors and I had had enough. There was nothing else to take from her. I had taken everything she had.” Mother saw the child’s behavior “as the final straw. There was no talking. Nothing else to take away and her behavior was way beyond unacceptable.” Mother said she got a belt, went to the child’s room and told the child to turn around and put her hands on the bed. She then spanked the child over her clothing with the belt six times, with a force of four on a scale of one to ten. Mother admitted to administering spankings like this about four times a year. The trial court found that under the circumstances hitting a child six or seven times with a belt was not reasonable in manner and moderate in degree and that Mother had overdone it.
[¶ 35.] In this case, the parents tried other methods of discipline before the spanking. Evidence indicated the child was out of control — screaming, crying and slamming doors. And despite the spanking administered by Mother, the child showed no bruising. What appears to be unacceptable in this case is that Mother used a belt and hit the child six or seven times with a force that did not leave bruises but made the child uncomfortable. This is certainly a very restricted interpretatipn of the legal force a parent can use under South Dakota law “in the exercise of a lawful authority to restrain or correct his child ... if restraint or correction has been rendered necessary by the misconduct of such child ... or by his refusal to obey the lawful command of such parent.” SDCL 22-18-5. Apparently the use of a belt and the number of swats rendered the spanking of C.F. abusive, that is, not “reasonable in manner and moderate in degree.” This restricted interpretation could be a very slippery slope for the trial courts. Spanking is out of favor under modern theories of child rearing, yet the Legislature still recognizes the parent’s right to enforce physical punishment. Thus, resolution of these conflicting theories is left to the individual judge on a case-by-case basis and indubitably does not give clear direction to parents who might be hauled into court on abuse and neglect claims.
[¶ 36.] That being said, our standard of review on appeal is whether the trial court’s findings are clearly erroneous. Those findings are not to be set aside unless we are definitely and firmly convinced that the trial court made a mistake. Under this standard of review, I agree this matter should be affirmed.