When Parents Hit Their Teenagers
By Laura Sessions Stepp
Washington Post, April 27, 1999

EXCERPT

...The proportion of parents who hit teens used to be even higher, according to [researcher Murray] Straus, but public approval of spanking at any age has declined over the last 20 years. Even several well-known spanking proponents, such as conservative Christian psychologist and author James Dobson, say corporal punishment should "rarely, if ever," be used on a child 11 years of age or older.

But in a country decidedly more pro-spanking than other Western nations, there are many who don't agree with Dobson on this issue. A tenants association in Cleveland, for example, recently advocated the use of belts, cords and switches on teens who use drugs.

Further, about a year and a half ago, David Zublick, a Michigan father who says he is a minister, started a Web site called SpankingParents, specifically to support parents who spank their children, no matter what age.

Several months later Zublick put another site on the Web, illustrated with animated photos of children being spanked over the knee, and the sound of wailing kids available to users of computers with audio capacity. He called it ParentNow. ParentNow's discussion group is peppered with examples of 11-, 12- and even 16-year-olds being spanked, sometimes in the presence of their friends. More than once Zublick, going by the name Goodfathr, recommends that a parent preparing to spank an older child remove any clothing covering the child's buttocks in order that the youth might feel "acute embarrassment."

For the complete article, see nospank.net/stepp.htm

HAVE YOU BEEN TO THE NEWSROOM? CLICK HERE!