The Texas judge who whipped his daughter: When is spanking child abuse?

A woman reignites a debate over parental discipline by posting a years-old video of her dad, a Texas judge, ferociously whipping her with his belt

A screen shot from the 2004 video, which shows a Texas judge beating his then-16-year-old daughter with a belt, and has ignited debate over corporal punishment.
(Image credit: YouTube)

The debate over spanking flared up this week, after a 23-year-old Texas woman posted a 7:35 minute video (that has since gone viral on YouTube) showing her father hitting her repeatedly with powerful belt lashes. The video was recorded seven years ago, when Hillary Adams was 16. (Watch the clip here. But be warned: It's quite disturbing.) Adams says her father — William Adams, a Texas judge — was punishing her for illegally downloading music. Adams says she posted the video, captured with a hidden camera, because her father is still abusive, and she wants him to get help. The judge says he was just disciplining his child and did nothing wrong. Plenty of parents still spank their kids — but does this kind of whipping cross the line?

A vicious whipping like that isn't discipline. It's abuse: Experts say if you're going to spank your kids, never do it out of anger "in the heat of the moment," says Theresa Walsh Giarrusso at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That's why so many people were horrified by this video — this father clearly lost his temper and "went beyond what most parents would consider normal spanking." That's not discipline, it's a beating. "All that hitting teaches children is to handle conflict by hitting."

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