Ordinary Force and Abuse Are Two Different Things
Video Transcribed: Can you spank your kids in Oklahoma? I’m James Wirth, an Oklahoma attorney, and now the question that we have is corporal punishment in Oklahoma.
Are you allowed to spank your kids? Is it against the law to use corporal punishment in the state of Oklahoma? Well, the law is pretty clear. Sometimes in practice, we see a little bit differently, so you do have to be cautious. But essentially we’ve got an Oklahoma statute that defines what abuse is, and there’s an exception carved out. And we also have DHS, CPS, and child protective services that do investigations, and they’ve got also the same sort of language that carves out reasonable and appropriate discipline in the form of corporal punishment. However, who defines what is reasonable? We’ve got the statute that has language that indicates that reasonable can be pretty broad. And then we’ve got DHS’s interpretation, which is a little more narrow.
So we have had a lot of clients that have had issues with DHS where there’s disagreement on that, so you do have to be careful. But let me tell you what the law says. So Title 10A section 1-1-105, and then that is subsection two, which has the definition for abuse. And it says “abuse is harm or threatened harm to the health, safety, or welfare of a child by a person responsible for the child’s health.” And goes kind of on and on, and has very broad language defining what abuse is. But then it has this exception. “However, nothing contained in the Oklahoma Children’s Code shall prohibit any parent from using ordinary force as a means of discipline, including but not limited to spanking, switching, or paddling.” So we have similar language as an exception to any criminal charge for child abuse. We also have it in the children’s Code here.
So it specifically says you can use corporal punishment as long as you’re using ordinary force spanking, switching, or paddling. All right, and then we’ve got similar language dealing with DHS investigations, which notes parental discipline involving the use of ordinary force, including but not limited to spanking, switching, or paddling. In that case, the investigation assessment will proceed no further, and all records regarding the incident shall be expunged. So if it’s an ordinary force in spanking, switching, or paddling, the investigation shall stop and the records shall be expunged.
Okay, so what we’ve seen in practice is DHS uses a rule that if the discipline leaves a mark, they consider it not to be reasonable. However, that seems to defy the statute because if you’re going to be using switching, that means taking a small limb off of a tree and spanking with that, my belief is that’s understood that that’s going to leave a mark, meaning that the legislators who put this into law understood that disciplining appropriately using ordinary force in switching would leave a mark, and that is contrary to what we see DHS and how they operate, where any mark they consider to be abuse. But I think the statute is clear. I think sometimes you have to fight against DHS on those types of allegations.
But if the question is, can you spank your kids in the state of Oklahoma? The answer is Oklahoma law clearly protects the parent’s and guardian’s right to do that through ordinary force, including spanking, switching, and paddling.
If you’ve got a question more specific than that to your circumstances, you’re going to want to talk to an attorney privately and confidentially. To get that scheduled with a Tulsa child neglect lawyer at my office you can go online to makelaweasy.com.
