Louisiana Mom Belts Her Kids For Stealing, Gets Thrown in Jail

These days it’s becoming increasingly difficult for parents to punish their children without getting into trouble. They’re often left with the choice of punishing their kids for bad deeds, and risk losing them to the state, or not punishing their kids, and letting them grow up to be unprincipled criminals (which of course means they’ll be wards of the state as adults). If there’s one thing that our nanny state wants to make clear to the parents in America, it’s that their kids will belong to the government, one way or another.

Louisiana mom Schaquana Evita Spears learned that lesson after straightening out her children the old-fashioned way. She found out that three of her boys, who are ages 10, 12, and 13, broke into a neighbor’s house and stole $1,700 worth of belongings. In response she belted the children with an RCA cable, fearing that they would follow down the same path as their father who is currently in jail.

And for that she was thrown in jail and her children were removed from her care. According to the state’s child welfare agency she crossed the line. Not because she used physical force to punish her kids, but because she used too much force. Her belting was hard enough to break the skin of all three boys, which the state of Louisiana views as child abuse.

Spears later explained her actions to the local news, saying “everything I do is for my kids, and because I didn’t want them to commit another crime.” East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar C. Moore III, who may end up handling Spears if she is charged, stated that he thought her punishment was appropriate. “Surely you would expect a parent to discipline a child who is burglarizing other people’s homes as this could be a deadly encounter for the child.”

What do you think? Did Spears cross the line into child abuse, or is the nanny state overreacting as usual?