A Kansas legislator introduced a bill that would allow parents, teachers and caretakers to spank children and leave traces of redness or bruising with no legal implications.
Wichita Democrat Rep. Gail Finney posed the bill as a way to bring back parents' rights to discipline their children, the Associated Press reported. The lawmaker also said he hoped the legislation would help parents raise tougher kids.
The proposed law would let caregivers deliver up to 10 strikes with an open hand, and also would give parents the option of allowing others to hit their kids.
Kansas parents are currently allowed to spank their children under state law, as long as no marks are left behind.
McPherson Deputy County Attorney Britt Colle, who hatched the plan for the bill initially, stressed to the Associated Press that the law doesn't allow hitting a young one with a belt, in the head, or body, nor with a closed fist.
"This bill basically defines a spanking along with necessary reasonable physical restraint that goes with discipline, all of which has always been legal," Colle stated. "This bill clarifies what parents can and cannot do. By defining what is legal, it also defines what is not."
But chairman of the House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee John Rubin told KCTV he doesn't think members of the board will even look twice at the proposed legislation.
Finney said he will bring back the bill in the next session if the committee doesn't consider the bill.
Spanking children is currently legal in all states in America. In other countries like Germany, Norway, Spain, Latvia and Romania, however, this kind of corporal punishment in the home is outlawed.
Some say spanking is an outdated way to discipline a child, and that using force is often less effective than such punishments as time-outs.
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