Massachusetts News
By Edward G. Oliver

December 1--Although children in the custody of the DSS are bruised so badly with straitjackets and other restraints that they are taken to hospitals by paramedics, DSS brought a charge of "child abuse" against a minister-father because he spanked his child. 

However, the Supreme Judicial Court rebuked the DSS last month and dismissed the charge against the father.

The charge against the father had caused some pundits to comment that the DSS should issue straitjackets to all parents so that when their children need discipline, they could use a strait-jacket, as the DSS does.

The Court said, "We do not judge this present case to be a close one….We are not persuaded that the factual record leads…to the department’s conclusion that a substantial risk of harm was present….Finally, the department urges us to defer to the clinical experience and trained judgment of its social worker and not disturb its findings on questions of fact. However…while an agency is free to evaluate the evidence in the record in light of its expertise, it cannot rely on this expertise as a substitute for substantial evidence to support its decision."

Although the Court said that such a spanking could be so severe as to constitute child abuse, there was no evidence in this case to that effect.

The case was another victory for Attorney Chester Darling of Citizens for the Preservation of Constitutional Liberties in Boston.
 

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