| From the HSLDA E-lert Service: |
< BACK TO ARCHIVE |
| Date: From: Subject: | 4/12/2007 2:21:44 PM Home School Legal Defense Association California: AB 755 Joint Legislative Alert - April 12, 2007 |
|
====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== ***** ***** ***** ***** JOINT LEGISLATIVE ACTION ALERT - April 12, 2007 From: Roy Hanson's Child and Family Protection Association and HSLDA ***** ***** ***** ***** Bill: AB 755 (as introduced 2/22/07) - Prohibition of Spanking Author: State Assembly Member Sally Lieber Position: Strongly OPPOSE - amendments cannot help Status: Scheduled to be heard in California State Assembly Public Safety Committee Tuesday, April 17, 2007. ***** ***** ***** ***** Information Included In This E-mail: A. Summary of Concerns B. Action Items C. Opposition Points to Share with Legislators ***** ***** ***** ***** A. Summary of Concerns: Assembly Member Sally Lieber's first proposal to address all spanking of children ages three and under was never introduced as a bill, apparently due to much opposition. However, contrary to claims originating from her office, (1) she has not "fixed" her no-spank proposal; she has only adopted a different strategy; (2) AB 755 is an anti-spanking bill "in disguise" and would have the effect of abolishing most spanking without using language directly outlawing spanking; (3) Lieber believes that all "good parents" never spank their children; that only "bad parents" do, and therefore "good parents" do not need to be worried about her bill; and (4) when Lieber claims that her bill only deals with child abuse, remember that she believes that all spanking, by definition, is child abuse. Her strategy in AB 755 is to treat all spanking with an object as criminal child abuse. She has deliberately failed to make any distinction between spanking as a method of discipline and true child abuse. AB 755 would amend Penal Code 273a, which currently makes it a crime to cause unjustifiable pain, harm, or injury to any minor child. AB 755 would create a new "rebuttable presumption" that physical pain or mental suffering inflicted upon a child is unjustifiable if it is caused by any of the seven kinds of actions, which are listed in AB 755. The first of the seven actions listed is: "the use of an implementation, including, but not limited to, a stick, a rod, a switch, an electrical cord, an extension cord, a belt, a broom, or a shoe." This first action includes the act of spanking with an implement (i.e. an object other than using one's hand). The significance of the new "rebuttable presumption" in AB 755 is that regardless of any circumstances, the police and District Attorney would have to consider all spanking with an implement to be unjustifiable. Parents would have the difficult task of proving (rebutting the charges) that the spanking was justifiable to the satisfaction of the court in a criminal trial in order to avoid being sent to jail for up to one year or receiving other penalties. The case also could be referred to Child Protective Services (CPS) and Juvenile Court, which could result in the possible temporary or permanent loss of custody of their children. * Please see our "AB 755 Alert Supplement" for a more detailed explanation of AB 755. This Alert and our Supplement can be downloaded from http://www.childandfamilyprotection.org. ***** ***** ***** ***** B. Action Items: 1) CALL IMMEDIATELY (Preferably before 3:00 pm Monday, April 16th) the member of the Assembly Public Safety Committee according to the first letter of your Last Name as indicated in the alphabetized list below. 2) CALL your Assembly Member. (You can find your Assembly Member's Capitol phone and fax numbers, and address by entering your 9-digit ZIP code in HSLDA's Legislative Tool Box at http://capwiz.com/hslda, or by calling the office in your county that handles voter registration.) 3) CALL the Speaker of the Assembly, Fabian Nunez (916-319-2046; Fax 916-319-2146). Ask them to - "Please vote No on AB 755 (by Lieber). AB 755 has not been fixed. It would cause parents who use a small paddle or similar object, when lovingly spanking their child, to be arrested and prosecuted in a criminal trial because of the rebuttable presumption that this bill would add to the Penal Code. AB 755 is unnecessary. Children are already protected from all forms of true child abuse in current law." (If time permits when you call, you may want to be ready to use one of the "Opposition Points to Share with Legislators" presented below in addition to the suggested "script" above.) 4) Consider following up your calls with a brief letter or fax. (Please refer below to the "Opposition Points to Share with Legislators" for additional ideas in writing your letter or fax.) Notes: * Call as a concerned citizen. This bill affects all families. * Do not disclose the source of this Alert. All bills are available on the internet. * Because e-mails are usually ignored, letters and calls are significantly more effective. * Reprint or forward this to your friends, church, school, and group. * Pray for a proper outcome. For Action Item #1 above, please call the member of the Assembly Public Safety Committee according to the first letter of your last name as indicated in the following list: A - C Assembly Member Jose Solorio (Chair) Phone: 916-319-2069 Fax: 916-319-2169 D-F Assembly Member Greg Aghazarian (Vice Chair) Phone: 916-319-2026 Fax: 916 -319-2126 G-H Assembly Member Joel Anderson Phone: 916-319-2077 Fax: 916-319-2177 I-M Assembly Member Hector De La Torre Phone: 916-319-2050 Fax: 916-319-2150 N-Q Assembly Member Mark Leno Phone: 916-319-2013 Fax: 916-319-2113 R-S Assembly Member Fiona Ma Phone: 916-319-2012 Fax: 916-319-2112 T-Z Assembly Member Anthony Portantino Phone: 916-319-2044 Fax: 916-319-2144 ***** ***** ***** ***** C. Opposition Points to Share with Legislators: When writing a letter or fax, first use the language from our suggested script in the above Action Item section and then pick and choose any wording from the 5 points below to also include. If time permits, consider using some of your own wording. 1. AB 755 would hurt the very children that this bill is supposed to help, especially if their parents have lower incomes or they have only one parent. When you hurt the child's primary caregiver, you hurt the child. There will be a great amount of stress, grief, and hardship resulting from an arrest, trial, expenses for a good defense, time lost at work, threat of job loss, difficulty of getting a new job because of having a criminal record, separating the child from parents, fines, jail time, class time. The trauma and stigma of a child's parent(s) going through a criminal trial will just add to their troubles. This whole experience could be an unbearable stress. 2. There is no objective research that links bad outcomes for children who have been spanked by their parents.(1) The best credible research has shown that nonabusive spanking when used to back up other disciplinary methods has been effective in curbing antisocial behavior in children as they grow up.(2) Diana Baumrind, Ph.D., of the University of California found that children who are occasionally spanked score higher on measures of adjustment than children who have never been spanked.(3) According to Robert E. Larzelere, Ph.D., of Oklahoma State University, ten years after Sweden's ban on spanking was instituted, child abuse had increased instead of decreasing.(4) 3. AB 755 defies all common sense and history. There is no state that forbids the use of an object for spanking by parents. This form of discipline, when reasonably administered, has been accepted by every generation of Californians and Americans. Criminalizing a significant portion of the populace by imposing the author's personal beliefs about discipline and spanking on the parents of California is a terrible and grave injustice. According to a national ABC News Opinion Poll, over one half of the persons interviewed believe that a reasonable spanking to the buttocks is appropriate as a method of child discipline and close to one half of parents with minor children at home spank their children.(5) A poll taken for CBS News on Jan. 18, 2007, found that 57% of California Bay Area adults would oppose legislation banning spanking. 4. AB 755 inappropriately takes the burden off the state to prove that the spanking administered was unjustifiable and puts the burden on the parents to prove that the spanking was justifiable and therefore did not constitute a crime. Tragically this runs counter to California's history of jealously guarding their citizens' civil rights, which include the Constitutional guarantees of presumption of innocence and that proof beyond a reasonable doubt must be borne by the state. Under AB 755, you would be presumed guilty until you proved yourself innocent in a criminal court trial. 5. If AB 755 becomes law, there will be a huge increase in the number of reports of child abuse and endangerment to law enforcement, child protective services, and then an increase in cases to be handled by D.A. offices, Criminal Courts, and Juvenile Courts. The flood of new cases resulting from AB 755 will be overwhelming for these agencies of the state, most of which are already overloaded with a backlog of serious crime and child abuse cases. * Please see our "AB 755 Alert Supplement" for a more detailed explanation and additional opposition points. This Alert and our Supplement can be downloaded from http://www.childandfamilyprotection.org. Footnotes: 1. Larzelere, Robert E. and Kuhn, Brett R.; Comparing Child Outcomes of Physical Punishment and Alternative Disciplinary Tactics: A Meta-Analysis; Clinical Child and Family Review, Vol. 8, No. 1, March 2005; p. 2. 2. Larzelere, Robert E. and Kuhn, Brett R.; Comparing Child Outcomes of Physical Punishment and Alternative Disciplinary Tactics: A Meta-Analysis; Clinical Child and Family Review, Vol. 8, No. 1, March 2005; p. 26. 3. Baumrind, Diana; Respondent's Affidavit Brief; Canadian Foundation For Children, Youth and the Law vs. The Attorney General In Right of Canada; Superior Court of Justice, Ontario Court; May 3, 1999, para. 85, 87. 4. Larzelere, Robert E.; Sweden's smacking ban: more harm than good; Family First and The Christian Institute; England; 2004; p. 4. 5. ABCNEWS.com: Poll: Most Approve of Spanking Kids; March 26, 2007. ***** ***** ***** ***** Roy Hanson's HELP Tree Child and Family Protection Association P.O. Box 730 Lincoln, CA 95648-0730 Fax: (916) 415-9470 HELP Tree Director P.O. Box 100 Somerset, CA 95684-0100 Fax: (530) 622-4717 ***** ***** ***** ***** The purpose of this communication is to present information and express our position on the issue(s) addressed. We encourage you to research this for yourself and come to your own conclusions. Regardless of your position, we strongly urge you to exercise your constitutional right to express your position to your elected representatives. We have included an example of how we have expressed our position. ***** ***** ***** ***** DISCLAIMER: This is considered a private and confidential message to HELP Tree Members only. We are not responsible for the accuracy of copies printed, forwarded, or sent by any party other than directly from Child and Family Protection Association. ***** ***** ***** ***** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -> Will your friends stand by you in trouble? They will if you're an HSLDA member and your homeschool is threatened. HSLDA is ready to stand by your side along with 80,000 other homeschool families. More reasons to join HSLDA... http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=1105 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ====================================================================== The HSLDA E-lert Service is a service of: Home School Legal Defense Association P.O. Box 3000 Purcellville, Virginia 20134 Phone: (540) 338-5600 Fax: (540) 338-2733 Email: info@hslda.org Web: http://www.hslda.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- How To Subscribe: - Subscribe to the HSLDA E-lert Service at our website: https://secure.hslda.org/hslda/elert/account.asp?Process=Subscribe - Or send an email with name and complete mailing address to: subscribe@hslda.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscription Information: - You subscribed to the HSLDA E-lert Service as: ##ToAddress## - To unsubscribe from the HSLDA E-lert Service send an email from the email address you want to unsubscribe to: unsubscribe@hslda.org - To change your email address or make other changes to your subscription, visit the HSLDA E-lert Service account web page at: https://secure.hslda.org/hslda/elert/account.asp ---------------------------------------------------------------------- POSTMASTERS: This message is being sent to the most recent address we have for our subscribers. If this is an invalid email address or you have other problems, please reply to webmaster@hslda.org. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER: This is considered a private and confidential message from HSLDA to its bonafide HSLDA E-lert Service subscribers. HSLDA cannot attest to the authenticity of copies posted, forwarded, or sent by any party other than HSLDA. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: Please do not reply or otherwise use this email address; hslda@hslda.org is for broadcast purposes only and is not intended to receive incoming messages. We cannot reply to any email sent to this address. If you have comments or questions, please send email to info@hslda.org or call HSLDA at 540-338-5600. HSLDA members can also email staff directly through the Members website at http://members.hslda.org/contact.asp. Thank you for your cooperation. ====================================================================== | |
