Bill aims to curb parents’ right to punish children

AUGUSTA – According to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, parents in Maine can now beat their children with impunity as often and as hard as they wish with any implement they wish, “as long as those beatings leave no permanent physical scars and are not grossly deviant” from what a reasonable person would do in the same situation, Rep. David G. Lemoine told the Legislature’s Criminal Justice Committee on Monday.

“I think the court has gone too far,’ said Lemoine, a Democrat from Old Orchard Beach.

Lemoine sponsored a bill, LD 700, which would limit a parent’s right to punish a child. The bill would prohibit the use of a stick or any implement hard enough to leave a bruise.

Under current law, a person cannot beat a spouse or an animal with a belt or stick, but is free to beat his or her children with either, he said.

Last year, in a landmark case of State vs. Wilder, the court ruled for a father who punished and bruised a child over the course of several days. The court ruled that the state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that “the degree of physical force caused injury greater than transient pain and temporary bruising” and failed to prove that the parent’s use of force “was grossly deviant from what a reasonable and prudent parent would believe necessary in the same situation.”

In the Cumberland County case, a father was sentenced to 364 days in jail with all but 90 days suspended for three counts of assault for grabbing his son’s shoulder twice and squeezing his mouth hard enough to leave bruises. The conviction and the jail sentences were vacated by the supreme court, a move which left state prosecutors on uncertain ground in cases of child abuse.

The Lemoine bill would establish a crime when a parent uses a “stick, belt or any other hard or solid object” hard enough to leave a mark on a child. Society used to allow a man to beat his spouse with impunity and allow a parent to punish a child without fear of the law, said Lemoine. “That is unacceptable now,” he told the committee.

In questioning by the committee, Lemoine said if his bill is adopted a parent could still use a hand to strike a child hard enough to leave marks without fear of prosecution. While acknowledging that such a law would not have had any effect on the Cumberland County case, “It was the best I could come up with,” he said.

Committee member Rep. James H. Tobin, R-Dexter, said he was raised in the 1950s when corporal punishment was the rule both in school and at home, and questioned the need for any law to control parental discipline. “Is this a serious problem? Are you a lawyer? Will this encourage more litigation?” Tobin asked.

Lemoine said he was an attorney and he defended the bill as a protection for children.

Knox County area District Attorney Geoffrey Rushlau said the decision by the Law Court leaves the limits of parental discipline unclear and the courts need further guidance.

A work session on the bill will be held at 1 p.m. on April 3.