Kansas Spanking Bill Gets Spanked

It would've permitted up to 10 strikes on a child's behind

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Proposed legislation in Kansas that would have allowed teachers and parents to spank children hard enough to leave marks has died in a state House committee.

The bill would have given parents permission to spank their child’s clothed buttocks up to 10 times so that it left a mark like redness or bruising. It would have also allowed parents to bestow that right to teachers. The office of state Rep. John Rubin, who chairs the state House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee, said Wednesday that the bill won’t get a hearing, the Kansas City Star reports.

State Rep. Gail Finney, who had sponsored the legislation, complained on her website that the bill was incorrectly viewed as an attempt to legalize child abuse.

On her , Finney said that her bill was incorrectly reported as an attempt to legalize child abuse: “This legislation is intended to (i) provide guidance to state officials in the administrative and judicial branches; (ii) serve as a guideline to parents; and (iii) protect Kansas children from abuse. This legislation is not, as has been incorrectly reported, intended to legalize child abuse in Kansas.”

[Kansas City Star]