Contact: Campaign for Children and Families, 530-405-4095 x 2, media@aabizhelp.com
SACRAMENTO, Feb.1 /Christian Newswire/ -- Angry parents, grandparents and concerned citizens have apparently repelled the proposal to ban spanking of young children in California.
Assemblywoman Sally Lieber of San Jose, a Democrat and the second-in-command of the California State Assembly, declined to introduce her spanking ban today, which was the last day to introduce bills this week. This morning, Lieber, the Speaker pro Tempore, used her gavel to adjourn the session without submitting her no-spanking language to the clerk's desk. This delay follows a similar delay last week when the news of Lieber's proposal generated nationwide media coverage. Californians and people throughout the country responded by flooding the State Capitol with opposition phone calls and emails.
"This home-invasion bill has been stopped cold by parents and grandparents who know that to love children is to discipline them and show them the way to live," said Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families (CCF), a leading nonprofit, nonpartisan California-based pro-family organization, which has been strongly opposing the spanking ban. "Because so many people have spoken out, the Democrats in Sacramento realize that their liberal agenda is offending a whole lot of people."
For two weeks, Lieber has publicly pushed to make spanking your own child under age 4 a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail, a $1,000 fine, or both. Now she's retreating, as evidenced by newspaper reports that she intended to introduce her no-spanking bill no later than today.
In the face of a constant stream of phone calls and emails to her and other state legislators, Lieber declined to introduce her bill during the Jan. 29 and Feb. 1 floor sessions. Today, Lieber also announced that there would be no Assembly floor session until Feb. 9. Her office is telling reporters they're "still working on the language" of the bill. The legislative deadline to introduce bills is Feb. 23.
"Sally Lieber mistakenly believes that parents who infrequently spank their children should be arrested, and she wrongly guesses that children who were spanked will respond by committing crimes," said Thomasson. "But the obvious truth is that most children who were appropriately spanked become law-abiding citizens, not criminals. Any elected official who supports a ban on spanking is attacking dads and moms and usurping their God-given responsibility to raise their own children."
Click here for the rest of this news release
CAMPAIGN FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES (CCF) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization representing children and families in California and America. CCF stands for marriage and family, parental rights, the sanctity of human life, religious freedom, financial freedom, and back-to-basics education.
