Sally Lieber, the Democratic Assemblywoman from Mountain View, California, on Thursday dropper her proposal to ban spanking of children under the age of 4. Instead, the politician, who had previously been best known as the author of California’s minimum wage increase, is preparing to submit a revised version of her child punishment bill.
Lieber, who has no children, attracted attention nationwide last month with her proposal to protect children from being spanked. The idea was ridiculed on television shows, including “Saturday Night Live,” and “The Colbert Report.
The original bill, which was never submitted to the California legislature, would have banned any type of corporal punishment, including striking a child “with an open palm on the buttocks,” of any child younger than 4. The assemblywoman admitted that she knew the bill as originally planned would not have had the votes. It was opposed, she said, by members of both parties, and that many of her colleagues had told her in person that they could not support a ban on spanking.
The new bill, which was introduced on Thursday, will help district attorneys more easily prosecute parents who cross the line between discipline and abuse. The new bill, if successful, would attempt to clarify the current California law that makes it a crime to inflict “unjustifiable” physical pain. Among the abuses which would become explicitly illegal are: hitting a child with a stick or paddle or slapping a 2-year-old in the face.
In addition, the revised legislation also attempts to curb abuse for minors. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the bill seeks to “ban anyone from hitting a child with an implement such as a stick, rod, switch, electrical cord, extension cord, belt, broom or shoe. Throwing, kicking, burning or cutting a minor also would not be allowed. Striking a child with a closed fist would also be illegal, as would choking.”
Even among child safety and protection experts, there have been mixed responses to the new bill. Nadine A. Block, from the Center for Effective Discipline in Columbus, Ohio, congratulated Assemblywoman Lieber for “hanging in there” in the face of heavy criticism. Ms. Block called the legislation “very reasonable as a first go.”
But Richard Wexler, the executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, disagrees. “All of the things that she seeks to ban are already prohibited if they cause serious harm to a child. If you slap a 3-year-old on the face and you cause serious injury, there are already statutes that cover this,” he said. And Carol Miller, a clinical professor of pediatrics at UCSF, said the bill sounds redundant. Currently, if we see that a child has been abused in any way, we are mandated to report that to the police,” she said. “I’m not seeing how this helps that mandate.”
Even so, some who originally opposed the spanking “ban,” are now giving more positive responses. “I applaud Ms. Lieber’s effort to narrow the scope and make this bill more of a law-enforcement type of bill,” said Chuck DeVore, a Republican from Irvine.
