{"id":158282,"date":"2015-02-24T11:00:24","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T16:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/?p=158282"},"modified":"2015-02-24T10:55:43","modified_gmt":"2015-02-24T15:55:43","slug":"mom-abuses-child-for-bad-grades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/mom-abuses-child-for-bad-grades\/","title":{"rendered":"FL Mom Tries To Humiliate Child For Bad Grades, Humiliates Herself Instead"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s always disturbing when parents try to publicly humiliate their children, but one recent case<\/a> out of Florida takes the abusive nature of public shame to a whole new level.\u00a0According to NBC News<\/a>, Florida resident\u00a0Melany Joyce Alexander<\/strong> faces child abuse charges after police say she beat a middle school student with a belt and then sent her to school in a humiliating handwritten shirt to shame her for getting bad grades.<\/p>\n

\"child-abuse-shirt-front\"

\"child-abuse-shirt-back\"

The shirt was covered from front to back in an angry screed. In case it’s difficult to see, it reads:<\/p>\n

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“My name is [redacted]. I currently have all F’s in all of my classes. I am not aloud to have a boyfriend no time soon.[sic] So back off before I get another good woopin like I got last night. Also I can no longer have any friends until all of my F’s are all brought up to C’s and up!!!\u00a0So unless you are helping me with this goal… back off!!! My eating French fries & being a social butterfly is over because I know why my parents send me to school. I now know the importance of my education. I will learn. I will listen to my teachers and be respectful, at all times. I will do these things because I am failing [redacted] due to my social life. Want to be my friend help me by not!!! [redacted]”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Authorities say the student arrived at school wearing the shirt and was offered something else to wear by school officials<\/a>. According to the reports, that is when they first noticed the extent of her injuries.<\/p>\n

When the child was given another shirt to change into, school leaders noticed welts and bruising on the child’s body.\u00a0Deputies say there were “numerous bruises and belt marks” on the student’s arms that extended from the shoulders to the wrists. The marks were consistent with being struck with a belt according to an arrest affidavit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Investigators also noted the belt had metal divots that left impressions all over the victim’s body from neck to legs. Upon interview, Alexander admitted to authorities that she struck the child with a white leather belt and that her use of force was excessive. She has been charged with one count of cruelty toward a child.<\/p>\n

We live in a world where the definition of ‘discipline’ is hotly contested, but there’s little question that what happened in this case was abuse. I can’t imagine the pain and humiliation this child was made to endure<\/a>. I hate that it needs to be said, but children are people. Physical abuse and public humiliation scar them permanently, just like they would an adult, and are in no way acceptable forms of punishment.<\/p>\n

Striking a child with a belt is abhorrent enough on its own, but the damage of shaming your child publicly — especially in middle school amongst their peers — cannot be understated. What happened to this child says nothing about her performance at school and everything about the cruel and unsupportive environment she’d likely been living in. If you’re worried about a child doing well in the world, I can assure you this is not the way to make it happen.<\/p>\n

(Photos: Hernando County Sheriff’s Office)<\/p>\n

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It’s always disturbing when parents try to publicly humiliate their children, but one recent case out of Florida takes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1000071,"featured_media":158293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6809],"tags":[1033,220,7353,4938],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":6809,"label":"News"}],"post_tag":[{"value":1033,"label":"child abuse"},{"value":220,"label":"florida"},{"value":7353,"label":"gallery"},{"value":4938,"label":"humiliation"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/child-abuse-shirt-front.jpg",640,427,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"Ashley Austrew","author_link":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/author\/ashley-austrew\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":6809,"name":"News","slug":"news-2","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":6895,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":2405,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":6809,"category_count":2405,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news-2","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":1033,"name":"child abuse","slug":"child-abuse","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1086,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":162,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":220,"name":"florida","slug":"florida","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":220,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":31,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":7353,"name":"gallery","slug":"gallery-2","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":7444,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2500,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":4938,"name":"humiliation","slug":"humiliation","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5013,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":5,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158282"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1000071"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}