Michigan Mom Faces Prison for Paddling

A Michigan woman could spend up to two years behind bars for using a wooden paddle to discipline one of her six children.

Pregnant with another child on the way, Elizabeth Singler of Mio is charged with third-degree child abuse, WWTV in Cadillac is reporting. Police told the television station that “corporeal punishment in this case could be considered what is acceptable.”

Police began investigating Singler last August after a report of bruises on her children’s bottoms.

Crawford County Prosecuting Attorney Everette Ayers said the question at trial going to be whether Singler’s disciplinary action went from “acceptable corporeal punishment (to) child abuse.”

Ayers said he doesn’t see many cases like this, but that may be because children may have “nobody to turn to.”

Aimee Sandula, who works with abused families and children at the River House Shelter in Grayling, told the television station that physical discipline that occurs when a parent is angry or in a heightened emotional state can cross a line.

“It’s easy to not realize how hard you are spanking or how much physical force you are using when you are in a heightened emotional state like that. Everything from the displacement of trust in a caregiver. That’s the person that’s supposed to protect them and care for them and now has hurt them. That can be really confusing and traumatic for a child.”

Singler is due back in court on Jan. 5.