Mom gets suspended sentence, counselling for strapping daughter
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/03/2016 (3578 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A Brandon mom who thought she was steering her young daughter away from crime wound up in court herself for strapping the girl.
Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta said it’s all right to impose consequences on children when they misbehave, but not by picking up a weapon and assaulting them.
“Hitting your child with a belt is not OK. Leaving bruises on your child is not OK,” Hewitt-Michta said. “There are better ways to teach our kids than by hitting them.”
The mother, who pleaded guilty to assault with a weapon on Monday, can’t be named as a publication ban is in place to protect the identity of the victim.
The September 2015 assault was reported to Child and Family Services by a school counsellor, and the agency contacted Brandon police.
Police learned that the mother had hit her 11-year-old daughter three times with a belt. The mom was upset because the girl had used her parents’ credit card without their permission. The blows left a cut and bruise on the girl’s leg.
The parents are immigrants, and Crown attorney Brett Rach said cultural differences surrounding acceptable discipline may have played a part in the offence.
The repentant mother had completed anger management counselling prior to her sentencing on Monday.
She told court that she was wrong for hitting her daughter with the belt in a misguided effort to deter the girl from crime.
“I love my daughter so much that I didn’t want her to be here in this position, to be in front of the court, because what she did was a theft,” she said.
Hewitt-Michta rejected the woman’s request for a conditional discharge that would have allowed her to maintain a clean record.
Instead, Hewitt-Michta imposed probation in the form of a one-year suspended sentence with an order that the mother take anger management and parenting counselling as required.
» ihitchen@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @IanHitchen