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Local J.P. Sued for offering spanking punishment.

June 9, 2008 | News

 
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A local justice of the peace is being sued for offering spanking as a punishment in his courtroom.
The parents of a 15-year-old Los Fresnos girl is suing the judge for allegedly acting outside his authority. Efren has more details in our Fox 2 news top story.
Good evening, a Cameron County judge is being sued for his unorthodox approach to dealing with truant students, we get to the bottom of it.
Cameron County Pct. 6 justice of the peace Gustavo Garza is currently being sued by several families who are seeking his removal along with unspecified damages. They claim he does not have the right, as a Texas justice of the peace, to make parents discipline their children with a paddle in lieu of paying a monetary fine.
“The family code says that it is the duty of the parent to reasonably discipline the child.”
However, this is not always easy. Garza explains that this all evolved out of Los Fresnos parent’s fear of disciplining their children.
“Discipline them, I can’t, ill get arrested.”
Judge Garza claims that this allows parents to reclaim the reins from their children, unfortunately his brand of castigation is not being warmly received by all.
“I’m surprised that parents complained, as you can see I’m here with const… ask them if anyone is forced.”
At no point is any parent forced to spank their child. they are given the option to pay the $500 fine for their child’s truancy ,also known as failure to attend school, or they can choose to spank their child. A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday morning.

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Local J.P. Sued for offering spanking punishment.

4 people have left comments

This judge has some serious mental problems for having a girl be spanked with a paddle in front of guys and other people. At least no one should of seen this, when people think of spanking, they also associate it with sex, i am woundering about if this judge is perverted or just has some mental problems. Personally, i think any person who hits kids that arent theres, has a big problem, along with Judges, Police men, Teachers, Principals, people who propose laws to beat kids as a punishment and anyone else who likes to hit kids that arent theres is a discrace to our society and vigalantes should take action, or stop hitting kids.

The Truth wrote on June 10, 2008 - 2:33 pm | Visit Link

“Spanking”, “beating” and “hitting” are totally different things and no one is doing either of the latter. This is about corporal punishment by parental figures, Truth; there’s no one “beating” kids who don’t belong to them in this story.

And frankly, the JP is right: “it is the duty of the parent to reasonably discipline the child,” and if my parents hadn’t loved me enough to spank me when I was a bad kid, I absolutely believe I wouldn’t have turned out as successful as I have today. There is a huge difference between child abuse and corporal punishment. The biggest difference is the one doing the punishing is not enjoying the act. My dad would go off and cry somewhere after I got my spankings. And my mom certainly didn’t like it. But, damn it, I never did whatever I did that warranted the spanking again.

And man, you have some issues assuming everyone thinks of sex when they think of spanking. I don’t. Does everyone think of sex when people talk about car rides, kitchen counters, plastic bags and duct tape? No! Usually, when people talk like that, they’re actually talking about themselves.

So it’s great that you think spanking is sexy, Truth, a lot of people do, but not when you’re talking about corporal punishment. I’m pretty sure the JP isn’t getting his rocks off having these truant little bastards walloped by their parents in a courtroom with a bunch of adult, professional officers of the law taking note. It sucks! It sucks for the parent, it sucks for the people watching and it sucks for the kid (who is actually more embarrassed than physically hurt).

You seriously need to do your research. Just ask around. You will find that a great deal of the well-behaved, well-adjusted adults in the world (and who also believe in corporal punishment) were spanked when they were kids. They know spanking, nay: the FEAR of getting spanked, works better than harsh words or grounding or time outs. What happens when you tell a misbehaving kid that you’re going to punish him in three seconds if he doesn’t settle down, then you count to three and then you don’t punish him, you just say “I’ll count again, and THIS TIME I’ll mean it”…what happens? The kid just keeps misbehaving! Bad deeds without punishment means the kid will grow up knowing that he can be a total jagweed and no one will do anything to stop him. This is why there’s so many douchebags in this country: parents have wussed out and don’t want to properly discipline their kids out of fear of hurting their relationship with their “perfect little angel” when all they’re actually doing is making the kid resent the parent for giving them an improper childhood: something that kid won’t realize until he’s 40…if people like me let people like them LIVE to see that age. Douchebags…

Jason R. Johnston wrote on June 11, 2008 - 11:13 am | Visit Link

This is really unseemly and reckless. Judge Garza should be advised that there is a black market for images of minors (teenage girls especially) being spanked. If one of his courtroom paddlings ever gets recorded on a cell phone or something and the video gets out, the victim will have a cause of action that will make the current lawsuits look like a walk in the park.

Besides, this form of punishment is arguably unconstitutional because its impact is not gender-equal. Unlike boys, girls would have to reveal intimate personal information to avoid the chance of the beating being compounded by menstrual discomfort. Hardly seems fair, anyway.

As much as people cry foul over the use of “beating” in talking about this, Webster’s dictionary will back me up. (As for “hitting,” I think if a student whacked of one his classmates five times hard with a wooden plank, wouldn’t school rules against hitting apply?)

Tom wrote on June 12, 2008 - 11:36 am | Visit Link

im an 8th grader at middle school in Atlanta Ga. I have been spanked 4 times by the vice principal. Spanking is better than detention because its over with, but i dont think the school should tell my parents .

buffy rawton wrote on October 20, 2008 - 7:15 am | Visit Link

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