Recently a video was posted online depicting a prominent Texas judge, Judge William Adams, beating his daughter with a belt. The video has come out approximately seven years after the incident occurred. Why? Judge William Adams daughter, Hillary Adams, felt it should come out because the judge is a family court judge in Texas and should not be passing judgment on family situations.
This situation has raised many questions about the Judge Adams ability to maintain his position. The Texas Penal Code §9.61 states that the use of force, but not deadly force, against a child younger than 18 years is justified if, the actor is the child’s parent or stepparent…when and to the degree the actor reasonably believes the force is necessary to discipline the child or to safeguard or promote his welfare.
Do you think that Judge Adams actions were wrong? What is a “Justified” reason for a parent to hit their child? Does the belt take it too far?
Judge Adams states that he is not sorry. “No, in my mind I haven’t done anything wrong other than discipline my child after she was caught stealing. And I did lose my temper, but I’ve since apologized,” Judge William Adams told KZTV
It has been admitted by both Judge Adams and Hillary Adams that the beating came after she was caught illegally downloading from the Internet? Last I checked the criminal punishment for illegally downloading something is not lashing? While many countries have now outlawed judicial beatings, the practice is still widespread in Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, the Bahamas, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Libya, Yemen, Malaysia, Brunei, parts of Nigeria and Indonesia as well as other countries. Should parents be allowed to use a form of punishment on their children when it has been outlawed because it is so cruel and inhumane?
Lets also not forget that Hillary took the time to acquire a camera, set it up, and make sure it was running because she knew a beating was coming. This implies this occurred fairly often in this household. Certainly, not a one-time event, where Judge Adams lost his temper. It sounds like this type of punishment was common place in the household.
I understand that spanking might be necessary, I am sure that all children are not angels (I know I wasn’t) but the problem with spanking, is control. You have parents that could be rightfully angry, allowed to hit their child, how do they control their force? I know I have been pretty mad, so angry that I could hit someone, and if I was socially allowed to hit that person, I don’t think I would just slightly hit them. When you’re angry it is extremely hard to control yourself. How do we make hitting or spanking ok but “trust” that people will keep control?
As you can tell by the reactions to the post on Ethiopian infanticide and the current media frenzy surrounding Joe Paterno and Jerry Sandusky, how people treat their kids is an emotive issue. I started to write my comment based on my limited experiences of being spanked with a slipper or the flat of the hand as a kid, when I realized I had no idea what it meant to be hit with a belt. So I hunted down the video – and could not get all the way through it. My mom and her brothers were beaten with a cat o’ nine tails when they misbehaved as kids; this has to be on par. If there is a fuzzy line on when physical punishment is legal, much less okay, this is absolutely nowhere near it: the point is to punish your child, not terrorize them; perhaps to cause some pain, but not leave bruises and whip marks. One should absolutely question this father’s judgment in family court.
Like Jennifer wrote above, I had also not seen the video but looked it up before writing my comment. I was shocked by the veracity of the beating. But what actually sickened me the most were the additional factors such as: that she has cerebral palsy and it was over downloading something she shouldn’t have. Apart from the debate of whether parents should hit their kids at all as a form of punishment, this punishment did not fit the crime at all. While I don’t think that parents should use hitting their kids as a form of punishment for humane reasons I also think that there is a strong argument to be made that it doesn’t actually teach the child what you hope to. Wrongful behavior becomes associated with pain rather than with the actual consequences of such behavior.
To the point made above about anger, if you choose to be a parent, you need to put time and effort into raising this child. Of course its hard but you owe it to the child to not take actual anger out on it. If you are angry go calm down like a civilized person – go for a walk, go relate to a friend this frustrating story…whatever it is you do everyday to not get arrested for assault. Having a child is no reason to drop that level of social responsibility and or fear of being charged with assault that you normally have every day as a law abiding adult. The generation has passed where people turn a blind eye to what goes on behind closed doors between parents and children and between spouses and rightfully so. Closing that door to your home or your degree of relatedness to the victim does not make assault okay.