Question:
May 24, 1998 Text:[ 299 words (Copy) Editor Letters THE POST-CRESCENT Richard Pack claimed in his "IT’S YOUR CALL" contribution of May 24 that the Springfield, Oregon shooting spree on the part of a fourteen-year old adolescent, which resulted in the deaths of at least two students and the wounding of many others, and similar exercises in cold- blooded murder and mayhem that have occurred around the country, occurred because morality, God and religion are no longer taught in the schools of our country. May I suggest that the schools cannot serve in place of parents as moral and especially religious guides for the children they are supposed to educate. Moreover, they cannot exercise the kind of stern but loving discipline that parents may be obliged to exercise on their children from time to time. Stern here being defined as the use of physical force. Many parents have abdicated their responsibilities respecting the need for the occasional use of physical means to discipline their children. They have done so because Big Brother, the political state, especially in Wisconsin, is engaged in a crusade to prosecute parents of children who dare to physically discipline their children. One such case recently occurred in Wausau. Walt Hornik, a father, was prosecuted for physically abusing his daughter during the course of disciplinary action taken against her because of her verbally abusive behavior toward him when requested to perform a simple household chore. The trial ended on May 15 with a mistrial because the foreperson of the jury was suddenly taken ill at the conclusion of deliberations. The shooting in the school in Oregon has nothing to do with the public schools and God. It does have a lot to do with the imposition of the state between parent and child and its refusal to clearly differentiate between reasonable physical discipline and physical abuse of a child. Robert E. Nordlander 333 Lopas Street Menasha, WI 54952 Telephone: 920 715 1864 Posted by Robert E. Nordlander To: alt.parenting.solutions, alt.support.step-parents, alt.support.single-parents, wi.general May 25, 1998
Response:
As I think back to my childhood, I can think of many times that my mother SHOULD have been thrown in jail according to Wisconsin law. But I can say that I know that I had screwed up BIG when I got a spanking, and 9 times out of 10, I wouldn’t do it again. Shannon http://members.wbs.net/homepages/c/o/b/cobaltheart.html
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