We don’t need an excessive amount of government in this country. Most of the issues we face as citizens, we can resolve without interference from the government. Government has its role. It should build roads, defend us from foreign aggressors, educate children, provide courts for the peaceful resolution of disputes, and catch and punish criminals.

So, what is the government’s role in parental discipline of children?

In my opinion, government should leave such matters to the parents until a law is broken. Once that takes place, the government can, and must, do everything within its power to protect the child.

A person commits the offense of cruelty to children in the first degree if he or she maliciously causes cruel and excessive physical or mental pain to a child. Normal spankings delivered by a loving parent don’t violate that law. Stripping a six year old girl of her clothing and beating her so badly about her back, legs and arms with a thick belt that she remains in pain the next day violates the law. Especially when not one of the blows ever touched the child’s bottom.

At that point, the issue is not whether the law has been violated. It has. The issue is the proper punishment to administer.

My concerns would be to protect the child that was beaten. This week we did that. I want to ensure that no other child is similarly harmed by this defendant. We accomplished that, too. And, where the defendant is a high-ranking official in a Department of Family and Children Services office, I want to be sure that the defendant’s poor judgment doesn’t affect children that she should be protecting. We accomplished that, too.

This week we encountered one of those rare instances when we must protect a child from the criminal acts of her parent. That child, and many others, will be better off because we did.