In recent news, a Florida school principal has escaped all charges from being put under fire after a video had gone viral to the public.
It contains footage of the principal spanking a six-year-old girl in front of her mother, giving her punishment for damaging a school computer.
The state attorney on the case tells sources that Melissa Carter, principal of Central Elementary School located in Clewiston, will not be facing any charges over the incident because there was no crime being committed. Prosecutors add on to say that there was no harm or amount to the child that would be defined as abuse.
It has been said that the student’s mother gave Carter permission to spank her child after discovering what the child had done. Her identity is undisclosed to the public.
She was called into her daughter’s school when they had called them to report a damaged computer, inciting a $50 fine to cover the damages. She had been confused because she was not able to speak fluent English, and then was taken to the principal’s office where her daughter awaited.
Carter had taken out the wooden paddle and started to smack the daughter’s behind in the process. Although the mother did not say anything, she had gotten footage of the incident and accused Carter of committing child abuse and aggravated battery.
Even after filing a police report, prosecutors found that there was no real crime that had been committed. The principal found another staff member in order to interpret what had happened with her daughter, emphasizing that there was a fine that had to be paid.
The mother is also revealed to have been an undocumented immigrant, scared of the consequences that her daughter has brought upon them. In the moment of the incident, investigators had asked the mother if the school could spank her child for her
“According to both Ms. Carter and Ms. Self, Ms. Rivera then arrived at the school and made that request.”
The girl was spanked three times and was told to apologize to her mother, and if she did not comply then she would have the same kind of punishment. There was no point in the incident where the mother objected, claiming to have thanked the staff after bringing her daughter home.
State Attorney Abraham Thornburg came up with the conclusion that “the evidence in this case appears clear that the child’s mother sanctioned and consented to the spanking of her daughter as discipline for misbehavior. A parent has a right to use corporal punishment to discipline their children and similarly has the right to consent that others do so on their behalf.”